It's Just Not Funny!

Sometimes It's Just Not Funny!

by Swami Beyondananda

I've often maintained that life is a comedy of situations, and we're on a fool's journey -- and the way of the "enlightened fool" is to lovingly laugh at our human foolishness. But there are those times that our foolishness -- the nonsense we humans have been tricked into believing -- is no longer laughable, and causes a world of pain. In other words, sometimes the human comedy just ain't funny.

We as a society are just pulling ourselves out from under the rubble, having experienced waves of shock and sadness, as the magnitude of the recent tragedy sinks in. Personally, I haven't felt very funny. In fact, there have been times when I've actually questioned my career choice, wondering if anything will ever be funny again. And then there have been those rare moments where rays of laughter poked through the clouds to illuminate the gloom.

One such moment came very early on when I heard a Senator and a military spokesman blame the terrorist attack on "insufficient human intelligence." It took me a moment to realize they were talking about not having enough spies, but the truth they inadvertently revealed is unmistakable. Perhaps a few more intelligent choices here and there, and the whole tragedy might have been averted. Another moment came for me a few days later in the form of a plaintive parody of the old Harry Belafonte song, "Day-O." My version was "Pray-O" -- "Pray light comes, or we gonna go home." And it also included the line, "Come Mr. Taliban, carry me Bin Laden."

But these moments were few and far between. Although my alter ego the Swami insists that "the Farce is always with us," I could find little to laugh about. I watched Jay Leno his first night back to see how he would deal with it. Instead of his usual monologue, he came out from behind the comedian persona to express his own sadness. He said that the horrific tragedy had put his own role as an entertainer into perspective: "I'm the guy who brings cookies to the firemen."

The next night, he was a bit more "back in the saddle," even offering up a Bill Clinton joke. But everyone could see that comedy must now fill a different role. There have been several newspaper and magazine articles on "the end of irony," although what they really were talking about was an end to cynicism. Still I wondered, where does comedy go after such a sobering event? Does it become escapist fluff to numb us from the pain? Or is there still a way it can shine a light on the shadow, but with compassion rather than meanness?

I had a bit of a revelation last weekend, when I was scheduled to do a comedy performance at a conference banquet on Saturday night, and a talk for an Attitudinal Healing center on Sunday morning. For most of the week, I was dreading getting up in front of an audience and having to be funny. It felt so phony and forced. But as Saturday evening approached, people at the conference started coming up to me and saying things like, "Boy, are we looking forward to your performance!" and "We really need this healing."

And so I surrendered to my role as bringer of comedy and laughter. The audience drank in the comedy like parched prospectors who find a desert oasis. And the waves of laughter washed away sadness, anger, and fear -- and released the suffering that had already served its purpose. I didn't do topical material, nor did I make any reference to recent events. There was no need to. Instead I performed the Swami's cosmic comedy about all aspects of the human condition and human nature. The closest I came to the current world situation was in leading the audience in chanting the "Peace Mantra" ("Ah ... peace on it!") and I could see layers of pain, frustration, and judgment being released.

The next morning, I was back in my Steve persona (or was Swami channeling ME?) as I did my talk on the Five Healing Qualities of Laughter:

1. Laughter reminds us we are bigger than any problem we face.

2. Defenseless comedy evokes defenseless laughter.

3. Laughter illuminates the shadow.

4. Humor is a mind-altering substance.

5. Laughter invites celebration, and reminds us of the joy in life.

Once again, I saw that there was no need to refer to current events, and yet each of laughter's qualities could be used to gain healing perspective. And I began to see that the power of comedy in the light of tragedy is NOT to help us forget, but to help us remember our highest human qualities, and to bring not just the release of laughter, but also wisdom and compassion.

And while I see comedy becoming kinder, there is still a place for irony. As the Swami says, "Pumping ironies helps build a strong body politic twelve ways!" The word "healing" comes from the same root as "whole" and "holy." In fact, healing means to restore wholeness. And one of the higher functions of comedy, through irony, is to give us the whole picture by revealing what has been hidden. In this recent situation, one of the sad ironies is that we trained Bin Laden -- and as in many other cases, we helped create the toxic terrain which enables "free radicals" to infect the body politic. When we fail to recognize these ironies, we are doomed to recreate them in the future.

So I would be wary of any edicts suggesting comedians soft-pedal glaring contradictions and incongruities in our politics and culture. One of the first things that Hitler did when he came to power was get rid of the cabaret comedians because of the power comedy has to break through the trance of "impropaganda."

Similarly, during the darkest days of the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras, ironic jokes were among the few beacons of hope in the Soviet Union, because humor allowed people to acknowledge what couldn't be spoken directly. These jokes were a kind of "code" that people used to affirm that they could see past the propaganda to the truth. A classic joke that originated during that era:

Q. What is the difference between capitalism and communism?

A. In capitalism, man exploits man. In communism, it's the other way around.

At the moment, America is united in both sorrow and resolve, and this is a good thing. The sorrow has drawn us closer to the people and things we love, and has put the materialism of the past two decades in proper perspective. The resolve has awakened the proverbial "sleeping giant," and not just in our willingness to fight to defend our freedoms. We have also been awakened to how small the world really is, and the ways in which our high standard of living can no longer protect us or isolate us from the dis-eases of the world body politic.

As we begin to deal with this reality, healing laughter and conscious comedy will both be in demand. Right now, in the midst of tragedy we need the healing balm of laughter to remind us of the joy sometimes hidden behind the pain and suffering in life. I remember when my dad passed away, there were plenty of tears. But there was also laughter as we remembered and celebrated the funny things he said and did. So it is now, that humor is there to remind us of what we love about life. No need to force laughter before we are ready; just let it bubble to the surface naturally.

In facing the extremes of knee-jerk patriotism on one end, and knee-jerk pacifism on the other, we will need all the wisdom and discernment we can muster to make sure we don't end up kneeing the wrong jerks. We will need plenty of "irony supplements" to bring to consciousness some of the foolish things we do to squander our freedom and waste our resources. For example, how come the "home of the free" spends more money building prisons than building schools? And if war is a necessary evil, why don't we spend as much on peace as a "necessary good?"

Then of course, we have already come face to face with the most glaring irony of all -- the classic oxymoron "Holy War." Getting the irony here once and for all will prevent us from plunging into our own holy war against holy wars.

Perhaps the highest gift of comedy -- aside from healing our sadness and pointing out the incongruities we wouldn't normally recognize -- is the power of playful imagination. At last week's musical benefit telethon, a notable moment was when Neil Young sang "Imagine"-- a song that had been temporarily banned from the Clear Channel radio play list right after the terrorist attack. (Imagine no "Imagine"... )

But as the world came to its good senses, that powerful song was right back in our face, daring us to step outside the box of "heaven and hell," "my religion vs. your religion," and fear-based greed. Imagine us applying some of that real human intelligence for a change, the kind that imagines a way we can all heal together instead of finding better ways to kill each other. Imagine a world where "Imagine" is our "Natural Anthem" and we sing it at ballgames.

Comedy sparks imagination because it necessarily relates ideas in a new or unusual way. So I will end this piece with three wild ideas that began in comedy, but just might be applicable in the so-called real world, if we dare enough to imagine. Here goes:

1) Disarmaggedon.

With all of the "end times" conversation, why don't we redesign this war between good and evil? Let's set a date for Nonjudgment Day -- maybe April Fool's Day of next year -- and actually have a Disarmaggedon ceremony between former enemies, where each lays down his fire arms, and raises up his human arms. I see long lines of volunteers from all different conflicting groups walking onstage from opposite directions, embracing...

2) Put the Pope to Use!

We are actually blessed to have Pope John Paul II on the earth right now. Why? Because who better to hear the confession of each and every nation? Every country in the world has perpetrated something on someone, and we've all been carrying this huge burden all these centuries. Imagine the leaders of every country in a great processional walk into that small confessional ... and secretly confess all of their nation's sins and ask forgiveness. Will it help? I dunno, but like chicken soup, it sure couldn't hurt!

3) The Manhelpin' Project.

We did it before, and we can do it again. During World War II, our government launched a secret project to develop atomic weapons before the Axis Powers did. We put all of our resources and inventiveness into doing something no one had ever done before, and on an impossible deadline to boot. Now, nearly 60 years later we have a chance to prove we've actually learned something. We can take that same resourcefulness and resolve -- and launch the Manhelpin' Project to develop renewable New Clear energy for all. How much would it cost? $100 million? $500 million? All it would take would be someone with the wealth of Osama Bin Laden, only willing to use it for constructive purposes.

Well, those are my visions. I invite you to turn off the TV and tell-a-vision too.

May we all wake up laughing and leave laughter in our wake.

May the FARCE be with you...

**********

Read also: "Who Is Swami Beyondananda?"
and
more articles from the Swami

Sometimes It's Just Not Funny!

by Swami Beyondananda

1) Disarmaggedon.

2) Put the Pope to Use!

3) The Manhelpin' Project.

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