Imlisanen Jamir
“Irreverence is a most necessary ingredient. Not to speak of its importance in philosophy. Irreverence is the only way left to us for testing our universe,” once wrote the celebrated science fiction author Frank Herbert.
Powered by the internet revolution, we now live in an age of absurdist, crass, dark, irreverent humour, driven by large doses of discontent and cynicism. As bleak a picture this may paint, there’s something to be said for the ‘disrespectful’ epoch we find ourselves in.
Take for instance how Twitter reacted on Friday to the news of Prince Philip’s death. Traditional media paid tributes and when they did attempt to analyse the more controversial aspects of the Prince’s life, they were subtle, ‘nuanced’ and ‘respectful’ as is the norm.
Not the internet though, or large parts of it. This was a man who had been made fun of for years for his age, of all things. The rankle he caused though to this new generation of people on the internet was not his wrinkles in themselves. Here was a man so privileged, enduring, year after year. This was someone who personified the institution he represented—one whose foundations most agree have no place in modern society, albeit perhaps as a historical curiosity. But there he was venerated by an old guard whose reverence for the individual is irritating to modern absurdism.
But does this justify the crass memes and jokes that this man was subjected even after his demise? What of his loved ones who are in mourning. How would they feel at this very public humiliation of someone they loved? Asking those questions prove a failure to grasp modern absurdism. The thing is, this weird humour zeitgeist, was never about humiliating the man.
One of the beginnings of human emancipation is the ability to laugh at authority; it is an indispensible thing.
The disorientating, dark and strange humour of the internet is a response to a world that has stopped making sense. There is a feeling that the universe is inherently irrational and life has started to feel unpleasantly rootless, something that is being reflected in a stranger, more chaotic form of comedy.
It is an honestly selfish endeavour to express things that make sense only to the self. As hard as it may be for some, the reality is that by turning up the volume of the chaos of modern life to ear-splitting levels, millennial comedy has found a way to cut through the noise.
But it is also susceptible to being hijacked by misogynistic and xenophobic individuals who hide their prejudice behind the mask of absurdism. The challenge therefore is to differentiate between the two without resorting to denunciation of something which many may not understand.
Comments can be sent to imlisanenjamir@gmail.com
