Warrapen to our self-pride?
COPROPHAGIA is the word for an animal eating its own poop as well as that of others. Rabbits, chimps, and domestic dogs are among animals that eat faeces, as if to punish themselves. But actually, they do that because it contains some undigested food – and thus vital nutrients – that would otherwise go to waste.
It’s a gross thought, I know, but I could not wonder whether local Indians too are not punishing themselves by wolfing down their own mess.
I have noticed an increase in the incidence of members of this once proud community belittling themselves. With greater frequency they are resorting to self-deprecation – criticising themselves – or running the community down.
They seem to think nothing of trading self-pride for the whole world to laugh at their anti-social behaviour by flaunting their dark side in the mass media.
Good news moves fast – but bad news moves faster. Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp broadcast anything sensational like wildfire.
Take the “Warappen Keegan?” episode. A video shows a fight between two guys from Tongaat at a braai. Bystanders are watching and someone films the fight. Another guy who seems concerned, asks: “What happened, Keegan?” And before long, the “Warappen Keegan” clip has gone viral after hitting the social media platforms with tens of thousands of views and shares.
In another viral video, the ugly face of the community is publicised when a young woman confronts her estranged partner in a Chatsworth supermarket and lashes out him verbally – swearing like a sailor, and physically kicking him and breaking a ceramic vase on his head – because he has apparently dumped her and has failed to pay child support.
A fortnight ago, a video went viral on Facebook and WhatsApp showing a young, snobbish female customer in a verbal spat with a Reservoir Hills sari shop attendant over some missing beads on a garment. The young woman claims she is a lawyer from uMhlanga and picks on the fact that the older woman is “poor” and lives in Reservoir Hills. The shop attendant becomes so angry that she utters the f-word. The owner of the business placed the shop attendant on special leave and apologised to the public for the unpleasant incident.
There is so much good stuff that can be put out on the social information highway. With the barriers between us brought down by the various modes of mass communication, anyone is free to choose from the vast body of knowledge and information available to us, what they believe in, what they live by, what helps their spirits soar and what makes their lives more efficient and meaningful.
Unfortunately, some post negative interactions. Don’t they realise the entire community gets tarred with the same brush because of a handful of miscreants?
YouTube bears testimony to the scores of street fights recorded in Chatsworth and Phoenix featuring an abundance of profanities and where even innocent mothers and sisters – and their body parts – constitute the swearing equation.
Not too long ago serious umbrage would be taken against non-Indians who made fun by playing around with Indian accents. Today it’s not offensive when Indians mock themselves by posting videos that cast them in a poor light, especially those depicting gutter-level antics. How hypocritical.
Another area where Indians seem to be enjoying their own smut is stand-up comedy.
I have nothing against clean, creative humour. It’s when the comedian has to lean on the f-word as if it’s a crutch that raises my hackles.
Take the case of Aunty Sheila, the newest comedy sensation. She/he is a proud Tamil woman who has become a hit among a section of the community on social media sites.
Using satire, Aunty Sheila examines a whole range of social issues such as fighting over the will, stealing someone’s husband, problematic mothers-in-law and the law of karma.
Durban make-up artist Theshen Naicker must be hailed for using his alter ego Aunty Sheila to deftly expose cultural quirks within the Indian community.
But it’s when Aunty Sheila uses foul, filthy language with particular preference for the rear end of the human anatomy that she undermines the solid, traditional values she sets out to espouse.
Not too late for her/him to do some introspection and discard the dirty diction.
Time was when comedy pioneers such as Swamivel Pillay, HA “Roy the Black Boy” Naidoo, “Willy the Weasel” Swamy, Beekram “Mr Biggs” Budhoo, Harry “Chico the Black Boy”, “Rent Office” Ganess Muniappen and Jugga Pillay tickled the funny bone of audiences without as much as using even one swear word. Public respect was paramount.
Today the community has a whole gaggle of homegrown comedians such as Jailoshini Naidoo, Muthu Murugan, Sagie Murugan, Kaseran Pillay, Neville Pillay, uncles Bala and Peru, Karou Charou, Leeanda Reddy, Henry Ramkissoon, Mervyn Pillay, the Thambiran Twins, Krijay Govender, Riaad Moosa, Koobeshen Naidoo, Karmen Naidoo, Eubulus Tracy, Anasia Govender, Sans Moonsamy and a host of others who do not easily come to mind.
Most of these humorists can keep their audiences rolling in the aisles without f-ing this and f-ing that.
One or two sometimes use choice words or expletives on stage – and they know who they are.
“Funny” is the only f-word that can be associated with Jailoshini’s stage personality, the vivacious Aunty Rumba. Uncles Bala and Peru were always well aware they would be consigned to the dog box by their wives Pathma and Savithree if they dared use vulgar language, even in an inebriated state.
Why then do some funny men – and women – use the f-word when they can capture a much bigger audience by desisting? Is it a lack of confidence in their own ability? Do they think it makes them seem more in tune with the younger generation? Do they think it makes them wittier?
Before he became host of the satirical US television programme The Daily Show, I enjoyed Trevor Noah’s comedy. I found him to be the cleanest and most polite comic on stage. He didn’t use obscenities and never used racist or sexist material in his act.
Great comic writing plants images in the mind, and it does it with subtlety and suggestion. Explicit sexual or foul language does the opposite: it’s crude and brutal and requires little skill. For the sake of cheap and easy publicity, it insults our intelligence and robs the English language of some of its power.
When I hit my finger with a hammer or jam my thumb in the door, I often curse – we all do. But why this need to swear when telling stories or jokes?
Even more baffling for me is that some people will actually pay upwards of R150 to hear someone swearing on stage.
For the price of a cold beer, you can get far more swearing in the notorious “High Chaparral” area in Greenbury, Phoenix, on a Friday evening.
And free fried sardine bites if you are lucky.