BHC's First Movie Night

On Saturday night BHC members and friends gathered at Antoinette and Michael's for our first movie night. We ordered in four types of pizza, snacked on chips and salsa, and chatted until we started the movie at 9.


We watched "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World." It wasn't necessarily the best movie I have ever seen but it had some very funny moments. While the Muslims (and the Hindus) encountered in the film appeared to be either clueless about comedy or else on a completely different wavelength, the movie also made it clear that the Americans were totally clueless about how to do cultural research.

The main character arrives in India with just about no preparation. He hasn't read up on or studied either the Hindu or Muslim religion, let alone the history of the peoples in that area. He goes around on the streets asking people what makes them laugh. Most of the time they are suspicious and give him a wide berth. Guess what? If someone came up to me out of the blue and asked what makes me laugh, I might run the other way also! And I think I've got a pretty well developed sense of humor.

Since he's a comedian, he decides to experiment on the public by putting on a comedy show and having his assistant record the audience's responses. But the audience is totally unresponsive. His comedy falls flat. It's ethnocentric and some of it is actually an insult to the audience. When he does an "improvisation," the audience eagerly provides suggestions. But he changes them to suit his own idea of a funny improvisation. Not only isn't it funny to them, but it is insulting that he simply ignored their suggestions. I'm surprised they didn't throw ripe tomatoes!

The only people he's able to evoke a laugh out of are a group of hookah-smoking Pakistanis who are supposedly budding comedians. They give him a hit of hashish and he becomes just as high as they are, loosens up and manages to be funny, or at least, to amuse his audience, which seems ready to laugh at just about anything.

In the meantime, his activities, going around and questioning people about humor, are read by both governments as suspicious. When he illegally crosses the border into Pakistan, the Pakistani government beefs up security at the border. In response, the Indian government beefs up security at their border. All this futile searching for comedy nearly results in a war, and our comedian is pulled out of the country for his own safety (when in fact, he's the cause of it all).

Back in Los Angeles he is feted by his wife and his friends, and hailed by them as a returning hero even though he has accomplished nothing and in fact almost set off a war. So the Americans, in the end, are the ones who are really clueless about other cultures and even how to learn about them.

The movie had some great moments, such as the comedian's remark that, "It's okay to bomb, it's no big deal," which is overheard and reported by a Pakistani spy. I got a lot of laughs out of it, and we had a good discussion afterwards over coffee and crumb cake. We stayed out till midnight, something we almost never do anymore, just enjoying a freewheeling conversation with good friends.

Kudos to Michael and Antoinette for pulling this event together on such short notice (we didn't decide to do this until Wednesday). It looks like a movie night is something we definitely have to include in our programming plans.