Cock and bull stories this week

Every living thing has an inbuilt defense mechanism and as a nation, ours is sarcasm and humour. We can make light of any situation, solemn or frivolous, and run with it. Here’s what tickled our funny bone, as perverse as it may sound…

The recently held Magnum Party has given people one or several hundred reasons to smile (or rather LOLZ or ROFL) and while I do feel for Ali Xeeshan and the kind of ridicule that has been directed at him I have to say he asked for it when he stepped out with a life size rooster on his head and an egg on his shoulder. Being the showman that he is, Xeeshan may have even anticipated it willingly, as they say, “bad publicity is better than no publicity” and that collection, at least, would have gotten him no attention at all. There’s nothing better to build a brand on than shock value – this young designer knows that – and needless to say, cocks on the catwalk always make for hilarious rhetoric.

The Government of Punjab’s Twitter feed yesterday was another ROFL moment; CM Shahbaz Sharif seemed to be having a very Kardashian moment when he was posting one video link after another of birthday wishes sent to him by the country’s ‘celebrities’ including Hassan Jahangir of ‘Hawa Hawa’ fame as well as the lovely Humaima Malik. I was like, dude, we’re almost at war with India and here you are, busy updating your personal scrapbook! Now if that isn’t humour (albeit one of a dark and disturbing variety) then what is?

Speaking of war with India, Arnab Goswami is another reason to smile, especially if you can tolerate slapstick of a very loud and boisterous variety. I tuned into his aggressive talk show on Times Now last night, where a debate on whether cultural exchange between India and Pakistan helps or not was underway, and boy, if we though Nasim Zehra and Hamid Mir were pushy then this guy takes it to another level altogether. He made our media and noisy talk show hosts appear like the Telly Tubbies in comparison.

Looking at the global stage, the Brangelina break up made for one meme too many, of course most of them hinged upon Jennifer Aniston and her reactions to it. Hundreds of Aniston reactions surfaced on what would be her first response to the news. The Friends star isn’t on any social media platform so her only actual, alleged response to the news of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s divorce was, “Yeah, that’s Karma for you!”