Writer, director, actor, and comedian Albert Brooks is working on a new film set to be released next year (tip from Srinath). IMDB has only the most basic details about it (including cast), but Ain’t it Cool News has more (with spoiler warnings):
Okay, so I went to a screening in Pasadena of the new Albert Brooks film. I love this guy’s movies, but I wasn’t crazy about The Muse (I’m with Moriarty on that one). However here’s the truly excellent news: The Albert Brooks I know and love is in fact back!The title is indeed: Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World and the premise is essentially the title. Albert Brooks, playing himself again – brilliant! (For any of you who haven’t seen Real Life, first, you’re lame. Second, run, don’t walk). So he gets called up by the powers that be, i.e. real life ex-Senator, and current day Law & Order cast member, Fred Dalton Thompson – who too is playing himself, to go to India and Pakistan and find out what makes the Muslims laugh. This is a late in the game attempt by the government to try something other than the “usual methods of spying and fighting” to figure out what the hell is going on on that side of the world.
Mr. Brooks appears somewhat incredulous. He even stops the meeting to point out that India is largely Hindu, not Muslim. To which the one of the suits responds that there are 150 million Muslims in India, and Fred Thomson says, “Is that enough for ya?” Hilarious.
DANGER DANGER SPOILER AHEAD!!!
So much happens once he’s in India, but so much doesn’t too, I mean this is really the brilliance of the movie, but let me save that for a minute. Albert spends the whole movie asking people what they think is funny and never gets any real answers. It turns out that Muslims (and Hindus) are pretty much like Americans; their sense of humor is completely idiosyncratic and doesn’t tell you jack shit about what the country as a whole might consider funny.
I can understand this last point. Only a few people find funny the things I do. I’d love to hear some stories of jokes that didn’t go over so well due to cultural differences from our readers. There is more to the review above in case you aren’t too worried about spoilers. Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World is set for wide release in January 2006. Let’s hope that for Brooks sake it doesn’t inspire any Van Gogh type critical reviews.
Kind of related, but I thought it’s funny: Omar Marzouk, a Danish Muslim comedian:
“Muslims should be more active in the fight against terrorism. Why doesn’t anybody use us? For example, to prevent suicide bombings on London buses, just have a Muslim with a fake explosive belt on every bus, so when a real bomber gets on, he’ll go – “Oh, this one’s already taken”.
Sheetal Sheth (of American Chai, ABCD) is in the film.
Two infidels walk into a bar…scratch that….
Or a Johnny Hart type incident. Seems like they spend a lot of time dissecting anything comedic for possible hidden insults… Link to the cartoon in question. Albert Brooks had better get a good lawyer and a bodyguard.
Actually, Johnny Hart is famous for embedding evangelical messages in B.C.
I don’t have a story but I think humour related to nakedness might be an indication of cultural differences. AFAIK in america, mooning somebody is supposed to be humourous to the mooner and offensive to the mooned. But in india, I suspect it would be the other way round: embarassing to the mooner and humorous to the mooned.
Also I’m not sure if this is necessarily because of cultural differences, but, speaking as a FOB, I don’t find scatalogical humour as funny as writers of american TV-shows apparently expect me to.
Possibly true, but given the venomous tone of Arab anti-semitic cartoons pubished, it seems more than a little hyprocritical to zero in on Hart’s lame cartoon, while ingnoring their own insulting “humor” directed at other religions.
I bet it’s similar to swearing, which divides according to cultural differences: Catholics and desis will insult your family, Americans use bodily functions.
Really? Catholics? This Catholic desi didn’t know that.
Johnny Hart’s cartoon was lame, overt and just because some or all Islamic cultures do nothing about anti-Semitic cartoons, the complaint from CAIR still stands true and on-target.
Farting, shitting, pissing, balls, boobs and butts are funny in the States, but in India, where you sometimes see or smell such things hanging on the street, not so funny, just a part of life.
(Manish… I’m missing the beat on your Catholic/desi-thing, what do you mean?)
Profanity in a specific culture tends to insult what the culture holds most sacred, or conversely to include what the culture thinks is most disgusting.
In Catholic regions it’s often oaths related to the church (and/or family), in South Asia it’s often family, in the U.S. it’s often bodily functions, in Japan it’s often impolite conjugations of normal words. There’s a good discussion here.
An illustrative example…
Catholic/desi joke:
Your mamma is such a whore that they had to hire an extra priest to listen to the confessions of all her tricks.
American joke:
Your man-boobs smell of fart dude.
I think this was pretty amusing. Reuters video have a report(in the oddly enough category), unfortunately it has no direct link.
Laaaaaaaaaaame!
Here are some anecdotes taken from Bernard Lewis’s translations of Arabic works. These are several hundred years old.
Someone said to Ash’ab: If you were to relate hadith and stop telling jokes, you would be doing a nobler thing.
“By God”, answered Ash’ab. “I have heard traditions and related them.”
“Then tell us, ” said the man.
“I have heard from Nafi
" said Ash'ab," on the authority of IbnUmar, that the Prophet of God, may God bless and save him, said, `There are two qualities, such that whoever has them is among God’s elect.'”“That is a fine tradition,” said the man. “What are these two qualities ?”
“Nafi` forgot one and I have forgotten the other,” said Ash’ab.
Some people came to al-Rustumi’s house on some business, and the time came for the midday prayer. Â They asked him, “Which is the direction of Mecca in this house of yours ?” He replied,” I only moved in a month ago.”
A man of the Qadari School was traveling in the company of a Magian. The Qadari asked him, “Why don’t you become a Muslim, you Magian?” Â “When God wills it,” replied the Magian. “God has already willed it,” said the Qadari, “but the devil won’t let you. ” “I am with the stronger,” said the Magian.
A Bedouin went to market and heard them speaking bad Arabic.
“Praise be to God,” he said. “They commit solecisms, and make profits. We commit no solecisms and make no profits !”
Sultan Mahmud [of Ghazni] was attending a sermon in the Mosque. Talhak went there after him. When he arrived, the preacher stood up and said that if anyone had committed pederasty, then on the Day of Judgement the youth whom he had abused would be placed on his neck, and he would have to carry him over the Bridge of Doom.
Sultan Mahmud wept.
Talhak said “O Sultan, do not weep but be of good cheer. On that day you won’t have to go on foot either.”
A man announced that he was God. He was brought before the Caliph who said to him “Last year there was someone here who claimed to be a prophet. He was executed.” Â “That was well done,” said the man, “for I had not sent him.”
A Razi, Gilani and a Qazvini went together on pilgrimmage. The Qazvini was bankrupt, the Razi and the Gilani were rich. When the Razi put his hand on the curtain ring of the Ka’ba, he said, “O God, in thanksgiving to Thee for bringing me here safely I set free my slaves Balban and Banafsha.” When the Gilani grasped the curtain ring, he said, “In thanksgiving for this I set free my slaves Mubarak and Sunqur.” When the Qazvini grasped the curtain ring he said, “O God, Thou knowest I have neither Balban nor Sunqur,neither Banafsha nor Mubarak. In thanksgiving for this, therefore, I set free my old Fatima with a triple divorce.”
In the time of the Caliph Wathiq, a woman laid claim to prophethood.
The Caliph asked her, “Was Muhammad a Prophet ?”
“Certainly,” she replied.
“Then,” said the Caliph, “since Muhammad said, “There will be no Prophet after me”, your claim is false.”
The woman replied, “He said
There will be no Prophet after me.' He did not say,There will be no Prophetess after me.'”A tumbler scolded his son and said, “You do no work and you waste your time in idleness. How often must I tell you to practice somersaults and to learn how to dance on a rope and to make a dog jump through a hoop so that you can achieve something with your life. If you don’t listen to me, I swear by God I shall abandon you to the madrasa to learn their dead and useless science and to become a scholar so as to live in contempt and misery and adversity and never be able to earn a penny wherever you go. “
Mawlana Sharaf al-Din Damghani was passing by the door of a mosque just as the mosque servant got hold of a dog and beat him inside the mosque. The dog howled. Mawlana opened the mosque door and the dog fled. The mosque servant abused the Mawlana. “My friend,” said Mawlana, “excuse the dog. He has no understanding: that is why he went into the mosque. We others, who have understanding, you will never see us in the mosque.”
In the month of Ramadan someone said to a dealer, “In this month there is no business.” He answered “God give long life to the Jews and the Christians.”
One day Abu Nawas was seen with a glass of wine in his hand, a bunch of grapes on his right, and a dish of raisins on his left, and every time he drank from the glass he took a grape and a raisin. “What does this mean ?” they asked him, and he replied, “This is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”
A man who claimed to be a prophet was brought before the Caliph al-Mu`tasim.
Al-Mu`tasim said, “I bear witness that you are a stupid prophet.”
The man replied, “I have only come to people like you.”
The Caliph al-Mutawakkil asked a slave-girl whom he was inspecting,
“Are you a virgin or what ?” “I am what, O Commander of the Faithful,” she replied.
Ash’ab heard Hubba the woman of Medina say “O please God, do not let me die until you have forgiven me for my sins !”
Ash’ab said to her, “Wicked woman ! You are not asking God for forgiveness, you are asking Him for immortality. “
Here’s a joke that has only worked well when told to a muslim audience or those who understand what the terms mean..
3 young, bearded, maulvi type guys were walking were walking down the street when a beautiful girl walked in front of them.
The firt guy lowered his gaze in modesty and said Mashallah, mashallah,
The second guy lowered his gaze in modesty and said subhanallah, subhanallah.
The last guy looked up and said inshallah inshallah…
What do you call a lonely banana?
A kela!
What do you call a balding man
Iqbal!
Thank you very much, I’ll be playing here all week!
What do you call a balding man
Iqbal!
Thank you very much, I’ll be playing here all week!
Its obvious that you with your ridiculous desi urdu accent will find this joke funny 😉 In Arabic, Iqbal is pronounced nothing like ‘ek baal’. If only you would start saying ‘Iqbal’ like its said in Al Hejaz, you beoble will stop finding this joke funny.
On a sidenote, as I understand some Sikhs have the name ‘Iqbal’ as well.
Arun, Ahsia, Ikram… Nice ones folks. never heard of so many jokes on Muslims 🙂
“Musalmaan gira bhi tau tangdi upar” (Even if a Muslim falls, he’ll still say, “look, my legs are still up”)
This is used as an ‘insider’ line in the Muslim community, atleast in Bombay. It is used to address an adamant Muslim who refuses to give up, even when he has clearly lost everything.
Al Mujahid, yaar, aap tau literally ‘baal-ki-khaal’ kheench rahe ho 😀
And I’ve never heard of Iqbal Singh. anyone here?
Iqbal Singh Bindra
http://www.geocities.com/siafdu/vc25.html
Mr Van Gogh’s film was incredibly offensive and misleading. Mr Brooks is just trying to make a comedy. I dont think he has anything to fear.
Al Mujahid: “Its obvious that you with your ridiculous desi urdu accent will find this joke funny.”
Actually, THIS desi with his “ridiculous…Urdu accent” ALSO doesn’t find it funny, because Urdu speakers from North India or Hyderabad do NOT pronounce the “q” such as to make Iqbal rhyme with “ek baal” (one hair); I believe you have Punjabis speaking Urdu in mind…
But more broadly, I resist the implication that somehow the way they do it in the Hejaz is “correct” and the way desis do it is ridiculous. “Iqbal” might be an Arabic word, but it is pronounced a certain way in Indic languages like Punjabi and others. If it’s ok to say “paris” a certain way in English, why isn’t it ok to say “Muhammad” or “Iqbal” a certain way in Urdu or Punjabi?
Thanks Arun for the jokes– hilarious
Just read (via Turbanhead) that Brooks has had some problems with Sony refusing to release the movie with its original title. Eventually he found another company to release the movie.
That’s fucked up what he said, or she.
This week’s New York Magazine also had a review of this movie. (see here.) From the article: “The character of ‘Brooks’ is clearly meant to represent the solipsistic Ugly American, but the way the writer-director handles the Indians (and a few Pakistanis, in the course of a furtive border crossing) gives no indication that he explored the culture himself. “