Humour At Home

Trevor Noah, host The Daily Show

There is no humour in the woods, that is, Hollywood, Bollywood, Nollywood and Joziwood.  Love however, is abundant and colorful as fish in the sea (before oil drilling).

There are few movies about couples that married for humour like Folakemi Packaging, a Yoruba movie.  The woman says she was attracted to him because ‘you make me laugh’.  He embraces her and says they will laugh for the rest of their lives.

I suppose script writers avoid it because humour is very tricky.  It can fall dead on the pavement or people can laugh until tears flow down the cheeks.  Humour can offend people.  It can be received as racist.  Humour can offend religion. There’s also the language issue.  People who speak Xhosa can understand the joke but not those that speak Hindi.  Translation puts raindrops on humour.

There is no humour in movies because people go there to escape, to forget their miserable lives for two hours.  That is why movies concentrate on love, the great Band Aid that promises to fix all problems.

But humour can be a glue to relationships.  Couples can laugh at their debt situation, car problems, neighbours from hell, the boss, grandmothers with tattoos on both arms or politicians who cannot deliver campaign promises. 

Joziwood?  South African movie producers are based mainly in Johannesburg.  Locals call the city e-Jozi.

By:  Nonqaba waka Msimang.