By Prabhakar Mundkur
Humour is a powerful communication device if used in the right way. Film, advertising and the other arts are often a mirror of society’s interests, attitudes and behaviour. As Ogden Nash once said: Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.
Oscar Wilde affirms that what is found in life and nature is not what is really there, but is that which artists have taught people to find there.
If a cool-headed Martian were to descend on to us to examine the state of humour in our art he could possibly find that we are probably losing our sense of humour. In fact no one is laughing these days, barring the laughter clubs that I encounter on my morning walks. And even those are forced laughs because there is actually nothing to laugh about.
In Indian cinema, comedy was a central part of the Bollywood industry of earlier years. Look at Bollywood’s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro. Never before was there such a great team of talent together. Kundan Shah, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapur, Bhakti Barve, Ravi Baswani, Naseeruddin Shah and Satish Shah to name a few.
If Bollywood is no longer producing comedies, humour which always been a key way to communicate for advertising has nearly all but disappeared. The advertising figures of speech are very much like grammar isn’t it? There are just a few figures of speech that advertising plays around with.
First there is the Torture Test. Where a product is put through strenuous and extreme conditions to prove it’s a good product. Take any tyre advertising and this is easy to see while the ad will put the tyre through extreme conditions like potholes and rough terrain.
Then there is Hyperbole. Where you take a product attribute and exaggerate it just to make a point. You don’t expect consumers to literally believe it, but it helps to accentuate a particular point about a product.
Another ploy that advertising uses is the Parody. The Parody uses humour to make a point about a product. It entertains them. It helps to sell a unique attribute of the brand.
This is what I am missing now in Indian advertising. Commercials are becoming too serious and striving for a deep emotional response rather than entertaining people. And often portraying too much reality is getting advertisers into trouble as we have recently seen, with advertising getting trolled and ultimately having to withdraw their commercials.
Look at some of the parodies that were created in yesteryears. What stands out amongst them and is relatively more recent is Mentos. I am just wondering why the ad industry is not attempting any more advertising in this genre. Another common ploy is Juxtaposition. Where you take opposites to make a point. Big, Small – Black, White, etc.
Then there is Personification. This is very common in Indian advertising which is constantly using celebrities in the hope that some of the qualities of the celebrity might have a positive rub off on the product being advertised.
The last category of advertising uses A Moment of Captured Reality. Attempts that fail are called Slice of Life.
All of Air India’s advertising was really based on humour. It was the Maharajah having a laugh at current events both in India and overseas. Which is why an Air India hoarding would always bring a smile to your face. Even advertising without the Maharajah employed humour as a ploy to make a particular point about the airline.
Stand-up comedy is relatively new to our country. Maybe just a little over 10 years old. Although audiences are relatively small, we have proven that we are very close to the global standard of stand-up comedy. Unfortunately, our comedians seem to be getting into trouble with the law all the time. This is unlike other countries where comedians have a free rein to entertain people. Which leads me to the conclusion that perhaps we can no longer appreciate parody, and we have lost our ability to laugh both at ourselves and at others.
So, coming back to the question that I started with. Are we losing our sense of humour? I certainly hope not. If we are, then it’s time we did something about it.