There are an estimated 22 to 28 million people currently living in the cities of Lahore and Karachi in Pakistan. Current estimates list the largest Taliban group in Pakistan — the TTP, who claimed responsibility for the botched Times Square car bombing — at a number of 35,000. While the American army and CIA fight along the Af-Pak border; while the Pakistani army fights in Swat Valley, we need to remind ourselves that there are more stories to tell than just this.
Pakistan comedians hate the Taliban. They hate the Taliban. They are pillory target numero uno (along with the political process, sex, and the ban on sending jokes by text.) And — according to Kumail Nanjiani, at least — comedy there seems to be undergoing what happened in the United States in the 1980’s: blossoming, taking off, spinning off in all directions.
So what does that mean? Let’s go through some of what we’ve collected so far.
1.
Al Jazeera did a video report on Saad Haroon.
And there’s a write-up of one of his shows here —
The Karachiites got a break from ‘breaking news’ and socio political mishaps, for the time being at least, as stand up comedians Saad Haroon and Danish Ali, entertained them with their shows during the past two and a half weeks.
The shows were organised at the auditorium of the Pak American Cultural Center (PACC), and most of them were housefuls. In all of their performances, Haroon and Ali managed to pull off an hour and a half of English standup comedy without a break which was appreciated significantly by the audience.
The start of the series of shows was not so encouraging for them, as first few shows were cancelled after the February 5 bomb blasts and then the shows were rescheduled then.
The show that was attended by The News started with Danish Ali’s performances. Among his jokes the one about the desi version of the famous batman movie, The Dark Knight, succeeded to get an admiration from the audience. In the performance Ali told the audience that in the desi version of the batman movie, the famoud post of the District Attorney would be replaced by the DIG Police South, and Junaid Jamshed would be shown advertising that a bat is Halal.
Some of the other popular jokes included comparison of a BlackBerry phone with a Makrani and the similarities between both of them. Ali really lived up to the introduction he was given when he was called the “AKD (Aqeel Karim Ddhedi) of comedy”. His more-than-hilarious performance was loved by the people.
Meanwhile, the audience also enjoyed watching Saad Haroon perform, who is considered the pioneer of English standup comedy in Pakistan. Haroon began with some lighter jokes and then also interacted with the audience. His comedy was more socially relevant and said jokes about President Asif Ali Zardari, George Washington, Michael Jackson, the Talibans and Nawaz Sharif and marriages in Pakistan.
Although Haroon and Ali both used profane Urdu words more than once, it did not create any negative effect on the audience which is, perhaps, the beauty of the stand up comedy, that the audience does not take a joke, even a harsh one, as a negative or unethical speech.
2.
We have seen the emergence of Pakistan’s first urdu-speaking improv troupe:
The formation of the group took around nine months and Azfar believes that classic theatre is facing a debacle due to socio political unrest and this is the right time for an Urdu improvisational troupe to emerge. “If you try to teach literature, philosophy and metaphors to the people in the theatre hall, then it would never work because TV in today’s Pakistan is continuously feeding the masses with serious sensational content and the people need a break,” Azfar said.
He further said that theatre was a replacement to cinema which had now become nonexistent and the purpose of both the media was to provide escapism to the audience so that someone who came to the theatre could forget all the political mishaps for an hour and get pure entertainment.
3.
There is the Pakistani comedian from Karachi dressed as a Victorian automaton performing comedy in a virtual world for an international audience (“Is there a wifi connection in my cave?”):
4. There is the British-Pakistani woman who had to explain to a customs officer what a stand-up did:
In all the countries that I have travelled to to perform standup comedy – the United States being a regular destination – I have never been held up or interrogated at customs. Or I hadn’t, until I arrived in Pakistan last week. I spent six hours at Lahore customs, as I did not have a visa in my British passport to enter the country. The people who organised my gig had mistakenly assumed that because my parents were born in Pakistan and I too am brown, they would automatically let me in.
The customs officer asked: “Are you Pakistani?” Yes. “Where were you born?” England. “That makes you a foreigner.” I get called a foreigner in my parents’ country of birth, and I get called a foreigner in my own country of birth.
He looked through my passport, which is filled with US visas. He said: “Are you a spy?” No, I’m a standup comedian. “What’s that?” I tell jokes. “And will you be doing that in this country?” Yes. “Oh, is this the entertainment for the Taliban?” he asked, quite seriously. No, I replied.
He said: “What I should do is deport you, but if you give me $100, I’ll see what I can do.”
I paid it. I got in.
5. And then, Younis Butt got this idea —
If the Taliban produced a soap opera, what would it be like?
The love triangles would be impossible to understand, he thought, because all the women would be hidden behind burkas and no one would know which character was engaged in a heated tiff with another.
An Islamic variety show would be equally absurd, he decided. With singing and dancing frowned upon, women covered from head-to-toe could only sit in a spotlight with their backs turned to the camera.
For the creator of Pakistan’s most popular satirical television show, the prospect was too tempting and the spoof Taliban ‘T Channel’ episode was born, airing in June this year and becoming a major hit.
