THE DEF LADY IS KILLING IT!
Reproduced as it appeared (minus a few dozen exclamation marks), that comment stood out among the thousands of inanities flying up the comments bar on YouTube while President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation on Monday night.
A sign-language interpreter, her hands and fingers performing a graceful ballet, was pictured next to Ramaphosa, translating his speech for the hearing-impaired.
Things are never as funny after you’ve analysed why they’re funny, but it seems there were quite a few viewers who collapsed in mirth as this comment flashed up, preceded and followed by reams of abuse, much idiocy and many rows of squirrel emojis.
The hilarity was caused by three things, I think. First, its utter absurdity and incongruity jerked our anxious thoughts out of their one-way tunnel and made us forget, for a second, the Covid-19 crisis and the prospect of confinement.
Second, the not-quite-rude reference to someone who might or might not be hearing-impaired provoked the slightly guilty snort of laughter that almost everyone involuntarily gives when faced with inappropriate humour.
It doesn’t mean we find people with disabilities funny per se; it’s just that one isn’t really supposed to talk about such things or, if they are permitted, such conversations should tactfully steer away from any bald statement that might cause offence. That “def” made us squirm a bit. And whenever humans squirm in embarrassment, their natural reaction is to laugh.
Third, the fact that “deaf” was misspelt made it even funnier. Again, that doesn’t mean anyone was laughing at the writer for not being an English professor. On the contrary, it gave the absurd, incongruous, inappropriate comment an added level of charm and innocence.
Besides, she really was killing it. Unlike that other famous so-called interpreter, Thamsanqa Jantjie — whose energetic but meaningless hand-flapping ruined Nelson Mandela’s memorial service for deaf people — this interpreter actually seemed to know what she was saying and said it most eloquently.
Whoever posted that comment on Monday night should be thanked for providing a moment of much-needed light relief in the darkness.
The value of humour is often underrated but it is as important, in these strange days, as health-care services, civil obedience and stringent hygiene.
We will not survive this pandemic, our mass quarantine and the disastrous consequences of both unless we can occasionally laugh.
Sometimes what we laugh at is offensive (and we apologise if any of the examples illustrated in this article cause offence to anyone) but maybe in times like these we can be allowed more latitude.
The debate about offensive humour is an ongoing one.
The debate about offensive humour is an ongoing one. The second draft of SA’s Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill differs markedly from the first draft in that it excludes professional comedians — provided they do not actually incite violence — from the proposed legal provisions against hate speech.
If a person makes a living from being funny, in other words, they may say things that undermine another person’s dignity, because they probably have a good reason for doing so.
There are many arguments that can be made against this, and one might ask why the average person may not also be permitted to tell off-colour jokes, but that is a conversation for another day.
Right now, as we grapple with this surreal state of shutdown and worry about what will happen next, we need humour more than ever. South Africans have risen to the challenge. We may not all laugh at the same things but we are united in our appreciation of an infectious giggle.
Let us keep spreading whatever lightens the load, however absurd or inappropriate such jokes might be. Covid-19 is no laughing matter, but let us be good to ourselves, and each other, and laugh anyway.
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