comic license, is there a limit?

The other day I saw a comic clip of Gandhiji lookalike on Youtube doing a pole dance and all, lot of people got offended, someone went overboard said you should die etc

I know there were some religious things for which humor is untolerable to some, A few weeks ago on comedy central they had a skit on Jesus, which if done on other religions figures would draw a lot of fire but did not.

Same case with racial humor, Micheal Richards caught a lot of flak for something very similar.

Dont all of us get that freedom to speak freely upon all topics?

why do people go to the extent of banning, calling for death, causing a huge outcry against that person?

Isnt this one of the things that we get with Democracy?

If Gandhiji were alive today, and if there is someone doing a skit on him, wouldnt he stand up and defend that person's right to voice their opinion?

Does someone doing a comic skit on Gandhiji or our religious ideals reduce their value?

In my opinion it is quite normal for someone to get offended, however anything beyond that is an overreaction

what do you guys think?

I agree. In fact, if one's faith is strong, one should not even feel so offended. According to me, even gandhiji will ask his followers to move on and ignore something that is hurtful.
I am against programs / websites that target a particular religion / person / region. But many comedy shows, talk shows, clips target everyone and everything in the world! I am fine with it. In fact, many a times, I find it very funny. Gandhi / XYZ was a great person, and he/she died and will live to be great forever. If a comic strip can affect his greatness, one should examine one's own faith in the person. Same is with religion.

 Hi All!

I don't like the comedy made out of

"Great National Leaders" Religion Art and culture(In Some stupid Indian movies they use claasical  dance and classical music in their rubbish songs) Physical Beauty
• Physical and mental disabilities

I don't go out and make dharnas or burn the effigies or posters but I discourage people who try to promote such type of jokes.This is my freedom.Afterall its democracy!!

Cheers,

Mythili

Edited by mythili_Kiran - 17 years ago

Comedy is projection of reality in a funny and democratic forum. As long as it does not try to send messeges across and but purely for laughs it is ok.

Having said that I don't find anything funny about Gandhiji doing a pole dance. It shouldn't be offending because it is not funny and should be ignored IMO.

a closed watertight mentality converts the signals of humour into sarcasm which consequently manifests negative signals on the otherwise perceptive mind to comical acts involving religion,politicians etc.

Fanatism is a typical example of 'Watertight Mentality'..its just that the degree of fanatism varies from indivudual to individual and from society to society

The other day I saw a comic clip of Gandhiji lookalike on Youtube doing a pole dance and all, lot of people got offended, someone went overboard said you should die etc

You call that comic???🤢..

Dont all of us get that freedom to speak freely upon all topics?

Yes we do..Yet, freedom doesnt mean one can step on other people's toes....

why do people go to the extent of banning, calling for death, causing a huge outcry against that person?

That's natural...You cant expect one to throw stones on others and not get punished for it, can you???

Isnt this one of the things that we get with Democracy?

Lets say the subject in the video is not Gandhiji or anyother public figure, but one of our own loved ones, can we just keep quite without reacting to it in any manner, chanting the manthras of Democracy???

Gandhiji is a revered figure and a very personal hero to a lot of us Indians and people world wide... If making such videos is not bad enough, we even have so much of importance given to that 🤬...

If Gandhiji were alive today, and if there is someone doing a skit on him, wouldnt he stand up and defend that person's right to voice their opinion?

I dont know if he would stand up for that 🤬, but he would have definetly asked us to ignore...
Again, you call this a skit???🤢

 

In my opinion it is quite normal for someone to get offended, however anything beyond that is an overreaction

Yes it is your opinion..However, beyond "what " is overreaction???

what do you guys think?

I think we are giving too much importance to a guy who doesnt deserve anything but some good councilling for mental sickness...

And I am with Mythilli here...Making fun of other people is in a very bad taste, let alone the revered national leaders, Godly figures etc...

I really want to find out how this guy would have liked to see his own father(My apologies for dragging in his father, ) being mocked in a similar fashion..🤢

Comic thing should presented in good manner ........Charli chaplin imitate Hitler that period....So A open hearted person should enjoy the comdy......So if you check the Cartoon and like that things..its not offending...leaders also can enjoy the comdy n cartoons.....

See gandhi have walking stick always with him..but he walk very fastly....i feel its funny, is that offending..

😃😊😛

Edited by sareg - 17 years ago

well-said sareg

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspon dent/6256131.stm

Laughter, freedom and religion in ..............

Two journalists in Morocco - Driss Ksikes and Sanaa al-Aji - stand accused of defaming Islam and outraging public morals. The case refers to an article about religious jokes which appeared in their magazine, Nichane, and judges are soon to deliver their verdict.


King Mohammed VI (R) succeeded his father Hassan II (L) in 1999

Courtroom number eight in the Casablanca High Court is an imposing place.

Two portraits hang on the wood panelled walls above the seats reserved for the presiding judges.

The pictures are of the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI and his now deceased father, Hassan II.

The one of Mohammed, a shy but fairly genial young man, shows him smiling.

The one of Hassan shows him frowning.

The pictures tell the story of Morocco over the last half century.

While the seven years of Mohammed VI's rule have seen modernisation, liberalisation and reform of the media, the days of King Hassan were ones of fear.

They are known in Morocco as the "years of lead" - lead because of the heaviness in people's hearts, the lead of the darkness they saw around them and the lead of the bullets that shot them.

Blasphemy trial

King Hassan was not a man who tolerated dissent.

Thousands of people disappeared in those days.

Even today, very little is known about what really happened to them. They were simply airbrushed out of history.


Mr Ksikes (L) and Ms al-Aji (R) with their publisher (C) in court

It is thought many of them died lonely deaths in secret prisons and interrogation centres.

In the "years of lead" no one spoke out of turn and everyone had respect for their monarch... but not many people laughed.

Humour and jokes were in short supply.

But on Monday the judge did something incredible. He read out a joke about King Hassan.

It went along the lines of: "Did you hear the one about the king, God and Heaven and Hell..."

The joke was written down by Sanaa al-Aji and edited by Driss Ksikes, but they did not invent the joke.

It has been heard in streets and cafes up and down the country.

This and other gags were the evidence presented against the two journalists in what is in effect a blasphemy trial.

"What made you want to write this joke?" asked the examining judge.

"Is nothing sacred? Do you not love your country?"

Defending laughter

In Morocco there are two things that are potentially risky to comment on: the king and religion.

By telling jokes about both, the journalists are pushing the boundaries of their newly-won press freedom.

If these jokes are already well known, is it not hypocritical to punish us for merely recording them?

Defendants

But once you let the genie of freedom of speech out of the bottle, it is impossible to put it back in.

Morocco has come a long way since the time of Hassan II and the fact that these jokes are made at all suggests that society has changed irrevocably, whether the courts like it or not.

The editor and his reporter faced the panel of judges and told the court that laughter was permissible again in Morocco.

To make jokes was not something to be ashamed of, they said.

"People laugh and they go to pray," they continued, "there is no contradiction in that. There is a time to be serious and a time to have fun.

"If these jokes are already well known, is it not hypocritical to punish us for merely recording them?" they asked.

"We are journalists, we simply look at what goes on and try to understand ourselves better through what makes Moroccans laugh, but the jokes do not reflect our personal beliefs."

Joking aside

Driss Ksikes said that laughter told us a lot about what made a society tick.

It revealed its neuroses, its fears and its aspirations.

Besides, he said, Morocco was a funny place.

It was at this point that something changed in the atmosphere of the court room: grim looking security guards leaned forward with a glint in their eyes, the previously bored clerks looked up from their files, and the judge himself could not suppress his own laughter.

The room suddenly seemed a lot lighter and less imposing.

The journalists had let the laughter back in.

But the prosecuting lawyer did not see the funny side.

He curbed the laughter with a voice that boomed off the wooden walls and concrete ceiling.

He reminded the court that there must be limits to freedom of speech, that some things are better left unsaid.

In short, what was sacred should not appear in magazines.

In the Koran it says there should be no image or personification of Allah.

The jokes were doing just that, he said.

National dilemma

He recommended prison sentences of five years, a 6,000 fine ($11,500) and for the journalists to be banned from their profession for life.

So now the judges in particular and Morocco in general have a choice. And it is not an easy one.

Do they side with liberal values and win the admiration of Western democracies, or do they uphold their Islamic traditions and receive the backing of most of the Arab world?

But laughter, like freedom, the journalists said, could not be suppressed.

If it was, that might take Morocco back to the "years of lead", to the days of the king who would not smile and his subjects who dared not laugh.