The Tube of Humour

For anybody who has ever been interested, I watch the following TV shows:

• Cooking/Management (Reality) shows such as Masterchef, Junior Masterchef, Hotel Hell, Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares etc.
• Shows on Information Channels like Animal Planet, National Geographic and History (I really like The Pickers on hist).
• Criminal or ghost like Criminal Minds, The Mentalist and Ghost Hunters.

I wouldn't vouch that these are the best programmes on Earth, but they are basically everything that I like to watch. I know some people may feel uncomfortable when watching programmes like Hell's Kitchen (or basically most shows by Gordon Ramsay), with a whole lot of bleeps, anger and arrogance, but they still fill my life with much needed joy, wonder and terror to see Mr. Ramsay keeping people in check. I wouldn't begin to convince you on how badass Gordon Ramsay is, because this post is not about him, but rather, TV shows that have had me seeing red for a very long time.

America's Funniest Home Videos (AFV)

I think right up to about P4, I had had the most joy in watching these funniest home videos. If you haven't already realised (which is just about incredible that you did not realise), about 80% of the videos are of people hurting themselves. You know what else could grant you that $100 for being featured on AFV? If you fall in the most unexpected ways, preferably at a wedding or during a performance. When I enjoyed the show, I laughed at the pranks, or of babies falling asleep into bowls of spaghetti, maybe even a couple of clips of people bumping their heads. I laughed at some falls, but cringed at others. I wasn't completely displeased with these videos, but I'd like to attribute my current dislike of these on an incident that happened to me in P4.

I was engaged in conversation with my friend and didn't realise that my chair had been pulled away from behind me by a prankster. I stupidly lowered myself down on air and landed on my bum. Having been warned of the effects of falling on your behind and hurting your spine and being paralysed forever (no more walking, no more running, no more dancing for the rest of your life), I burst into sobs from the sheer shock of my situation. Terror, from those tales; embarrassment, from my stupidity; relief that I could still wriggle my toes and fingers. The worst part was, for the next few weeks, I was constantly taunted by the prankster and having my fall re-enacted.

Not funny.

Personal feelings aside, this AFV business is wrong on so many levels. Sure, everyone needs to have a little laugh at things that go wrong from time to time, but I think I have seen AFV clips that resemble the plight that somebody from I Shouldn't Be Alive could be in and then I wonder if our sense of humour has been reduced to blindly laughing at the cost of others' misfortunes (or various methods of near self-destruction).

The Noose

Confession: When it first appeared, I loved it. I thought it was witty and a fresh idea. The characters were all engaging and the issues discussed were not unimportant, but neither were they dead serious.

The problem with it was, you can only use the same joke so many times. I can't remember when, but I started to get very critical of the series.

My first problem: stereotypes. The stereotypes were funny in the beginning, because they were exaggerated reflections of Singapore: the Singlish speaking taxi-drivers, umbrella wielding kiasu parent, chuckle worthy mimics of the PRCs, accented Brit and the airhead. They are (or were) funny because viewers are confronted with their nature, as embarrassing as it might be.

Then the stereotypes of Lulu, Adrianna, Barbarella and all started to get old and repetitive (wait, what were we expecting from stereotypes?) for me and became crude. My guess is that in a bid to spice things up, the sexual innuendos, disgusting behaviours, critiques on the government and xenophobic representations grew. So did my cringe tally. I often felt that the series was becoming way too bold, and yet was simple and shallow; it came off as desperate.

My argument against a spoof, with "parodic mannerisms and names", is not a strong one. For one, I know that I am taking it all the wrong way. A spoof is not meant to be taken seriously. The Noose tries very hard. I'll give it that A for effort, yet I can't bring myself to watch it anymore.

I'm not saying that these shows should stop airing, because, hey! if it floats your boat, right? I'm merely stating that I find these programmes offensive to me as a viewer. It is up to me to maintain a certain standard of television shows I watch, and laughing along to these make me feel like an idiot. A butthurt idiot who can't take a joke, you might say, but an idiot nonetheless.

This post has been an excellent example of "To Each His Own".