As the old adage goes laughter is the best medicine. Even modern science is backing the cliché up, telling us about the endorphins you  a release, the cortisol and epinephrine you reduce, and if you are laughing in HD with surround sound, it can even serve as a natural anaesthetic. For me, laughter has been my best friend since as far back as I can remember. Through all the pain, a good laugh got me through. Like when I lost my mother in 2011, I hit the comedy clubs harder than I hit the bottle. I found it has a longer effect on easing the pain. When tensions run high, I find breathing space in a little giggle, it assures me that I am not consumed by the darkness. In fact, in the darkest of time, laughter has pierced through the bleakness in bright shards of golden light.

If music is the elixir to the soul, then comedy is the soul’s healing massage. This be why I don’t understand people who do not to laugh. I wonder if people less willing to laugh at themselves are insecure in their truth. Perhaps they are even addicted to all that cortisol and epinephrine in their system? They are on standby for a fight, because jokes work their nerves like guitar strings. You will ask them why the chicken crossed the road and their first response would be why you have to ask THEM about the chicken and in any case there are many other animals out there crossing the road all the time, why don’t you ask about those. In fact, what are you trying to say about them and chickens. Why must everything be about chickens. Trust me, it leaves me as confused as you are reading this. Like, dude, its just a joke, nobody is rewriting your history or pointing a finger at you. The person, in fact, who is pointing the finger is you. Comedy in my world takes two shapes. It can be like those carnival fun house mirrors that distort your body and you pack up laughing at how ridiculous you look. The catch is that in between those mirrors are proper mirrors that reflect your true image back at you. And when your modus operandi in the world and your thinking are reflected back at you and you don’t like what you see, you act out. When comedy did that to people I get l sick satisfaction out of it, because I know it’s hit a nerve. Well, it also exposes those intellectual inferiority of people who are unable to engage in sober debate because they are so drunk in their self-righteousness.

There is also the anaesthetic function of comedy. It takes the sting out of bitter truths. It assures you, you are in a safe space to face that demon and laugh at it without being hurt by it. It gets you through life’s root canals. In fact, I reckon if ever there was a time for South Africa to have a sense of humor, it is now. It feels like everybody is angry about something, collectively. Those elephants in societies rooms that we keep ducking and diving and diving around. Comedy is important, and I dread the day this country loses that sense of humour because these elephants are threatening to trample us. From issues around gender to race and religion, it feels as though everyone has a gun cocked, ready to blast at anyone who approaches. Comedy comes in for a hug, and these people punch it in the throat. Comedy is art people! Art has always been lauded for its reflection of the times and society it finds itself in, I hope our ailing South Africa embraces comedy as being more than just pure entertainment, but an opportunity to heal and reflect in a safe place. Not to say we must dissect ALL jokes my goodness, because jokes, like frogs, when you dissect them, die.J