February 9, 2010

Comedy is the Opposite of Poetry

poetry is a destructive force

A lot of people write poetry in their blogs. I don’t read any of them. I don’t read poems at all. It is because I find most of the poems to be incomprehensible, kind of inexplicable, sort of unclear, very unintelligible, sometimes dark and pretty obscure, often puzzling, lost or may be missed.
The problem with poetry lies not in the art but with the artist. It is the poet who wants to be perceived as enigmatic, unfathomable, complicated or lost (often in deep melancholy :p). Poetry is such a self-centered and narcissistic exercise.

The luxury poets have is that you (as the reader) do not understand the poem. You think you do, but you don’t for it is not meant to mean anything. The bigger luxury the poets have is that you are afraid to admit that you do not understand anything. And they exploit it and use it almost like a power that forces you into finding a meaning in something that was intentionally made to be meaningless. In a lot of ways it is no different than the symmetric inkblots psychologists use to experiment on you.

In this respect, comedy is in many ways the opposite of poetry. Comedy has to be approachable, comedy has to be clear and simple, comedy has to be succinct and more importantly, it has to be funny. Comedy has to be all of these in 30 seconds. Thirty seconds is all you have to make a joke.

The primary difference between comedy and poetry is that in poetry, the responsibility of entertainment is transferred back to the reader. Entertainment is a big responsibility, and the comedian has to carry it on his shoulders every thirty seconds.

And so poetry sucks.

P.S: Fans of poetry and amateur poets, you might want to defend your views.

the cartoon

 

25 comments:

  1. Argument thoroughly baseless,
    for which I couldn't care less
    But for courtesy's sake,
    a comment, thus, I make,
    Go read the poem of Odysseus.

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  2. Every comedian maintains so, every poet thinks that comedians are too commonplace. I agree to the fact that comedians need to be smart and clever to appeal to the masses, crude, crass jokes and innuendos do exist too, but the beauty of poetry lies in its many interpretations and a plethora of associated emotions which narrows down to just one, just amusement, plain joy, when it comes to comedy. A painter wouldn't be exactly smart if he openly refutes the claim that the Bard wasn't exactly brilliant. To each, his own, fields of expertise.

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  3. @pramod: nice :)

    @ashok: let me just clarify that it is not the art but the artist that I have a problem with... everything is made very vague and ambiguous and that is when the communication between the artist and the reader breaks... from that point on, it is no different from interpreting inkblots...

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  4. And yet again, you do not know anything about inkblots either. :D

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  5. I seriously doubt if you really meant something when you said that :p

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  6. I did mean something, you know what it is. :D

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  7. A lot of things in poetry are Scooby Doo-ish "are you thinking what I am thinking?"

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  8. A little mystery never hurt anyone. Intrigue is what makes us live this complex life and still have fun. Anything that leaves you ruminating is good in a way, don't you subscribe to that philosophy?

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  10. mystery is fine.. ambiguity-- not always...

    more often than not, poetry is not about the art but about the artist... and the reader is completely left out...

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  11. plus its not always intentional .. there's a whole theory of unintentional philosophy in poetry, which the poor poet isnt even aware of ...

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  12. that is bound to happen anywhere.. if you study this very article for like 40 mins, you can come up with interpretations that I never even considered before I wrote it.

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  14. Even i feel that a poet is always on a safe boat floating on the interpretations of others where as a comedian has to sail in the direction of humour or else he will fail.But at the end of the day, if someone does not understand a poem, the poet still remains a poet not the comedian.

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  15. There is poetry even when there is no ambiguity.
    It is unfortunate that amateur poetry often uses ambiguity / detachment / plain old nonsense to appeal. Just as it is unfortunate that amateur comedy often uses farts, sex and violence to appeal.

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  16. for once i disagree mon ami :)

    in the ambiguity lies the beauty....its the other way - the artists are not really insconspicuous (atleast many of thema are not) but their art is meant to be... why should the entertainers always peel the banana themselves... there are ppl who would want the banana so that they can discover their own method of devouring it

    once again.... poetry is not an opium of the masses
    there are clear poems too.....
    read ogden nash for a change!

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  17. Simple question - did you and Sashi have a dialogue over his Epiphany? I doubt this thought just came about you - after all these twenty and odd years of your existence. You're good in your own ways, and he his (I mean if at all that is the bone of contention here :))

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  19. may i say ... it's a good post ...

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  21. I agree with the title.

    Although, I doubt if much of poetry is written after an elaborate effort on "sensitivity analysis of IQ levels and imaginative powers of prospective audience". On the other hand, it's the comedian who's decided that he is in charge of entertainment and I'll let in a quiet trade secret - IF HE'S UP THERE, HE BETTER ENTERTAIN WITHIN 30 SECONDS. WHAT ELSE IS HE GOING TO DO??? READ POETRY? :p

    Speaking of comedy, it is entertaining to write poems with deliberate ambiguity and ask people what they think of it. I do admit amateur poets are gifted with equal super powers as amateur comedians.

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  22. @ SRAVAN: Sashi's Epiphany is definitely the inspiration for this blog post but it is not a contest or anything... It would be great if he can answer my post with a kick-ass poem that even I can enjoy :)

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  23. I dont thnk we need to defend anything, Prithvi's 'gg' summarizes it all. 

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don't be lazy