They used to say Laugh and the World laughs with you, weep and you weep alone, but now it seems to be more that misery loves company. We all know that disasters sell more newspapers than good news. With my penchant for apt quotations I like the one in Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina that says: All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. That is why we are interested in drama and crime – they may be the same old stories but with a different twist. Unfortunately, social media is a vehicle for every kind of crime, obsession, conspiracy and perversion. I consider myself, although many would disagree, a reasonably intelligent person, so why is it that I am capable of disappearing down the rabbit hole that is Tik Tok when I should be going to bed? Suddenly several hours have passed and I have discovered that there are some horrible people out there who murder other people, who cheat on their partners, abuse their children, and can apply make up in a thousand different ways whilst recounting their journey through some terrible illness. There are some entertaining things on social media but the great algorithm in the sky has decided that I’m more interested in the seamier side of life.
But what of humour today – where is the wit? Cheer up, people used to say, it might never happen, but I think it has happened. From wars to the weather, through moaning about the menopause to pandemics and politics – there is an awful lot of gloom about. If you listen to the radio, to cheer yourself up you are in for a big disappointment. Studio audiences laugh hysterically at any mention of bodily functions. Of course, farts are funny – every good home should have a whoopee cushion – but even 12 year old boys usually grow out of these at some point. The News Quiz used to be the funniest programme on the radio with witty, educated people. Alan Coren was a comedic genius. But now – it is a boring rant interspersed with rude remarks and very base humour. There are one or two funny programmes but they are few and far between. I suppose I’ll just have to keep trying to make myself laugh.
Maybe we lived in a more optimistic age. Although there was plenty of drama – we had Greenham Common with Women’s Lib and bra burning, the protests against the Vietnam War, the Cuban missile crisis, but we were also the age of Rock ‘n Roll, and the mini skirt and Swinging London. Perhaps girls were more resilient, we had to look out for ourselves. In the days before the pill birth control was only available to married women – possibly a bit like bolting the stable door too late – but we bought wedding rings from Woolworths and trotted off to Marie Stopes Clinics desperately trying to remember how long we were supposed to have been married. On the one hand we were very naïve but on the other we had a good instinct for self preservation. Having a child out of wedlock was unthinkable – parents could throw you out – you might be sent to a home for unmarried mothers – if you were lucky your mother might pass the infant off as hers and otherwise the baby would be adopted. It was a brave woman who brought up a child on her own. It also occurs to me that in those far off days most men had respect for women and possibly fear of a father who might horsewhip you. I imagine ‘shotgun weddings’ were called that for a reason. A man might grope us and pinch our bum but we wouldn’t have gone all the way with him unless we had a ring on our finger – well not that often! We expected men to make a lunge at us – in fact I remember being quite insulted when I realised that a notorious lech had made a pass at every woman he knew except me!!! He wasn’t at all attractive so I would never have countenanced the idea of sex with him but it wasn’t very flattering to be ignored. Men in those days used what I call the scatter gun approach – firing indiscriminately by way of propositioning everyone in the hopes that one in a hundred might accept – a bit like scammers today.
We may have been naïve when we were young, but naivety today has reached a ridiculous level. The church happily accepting Muslims as Christian converts without finding out anything about them. I read the other day that a kindly person had found an injured baby hedgehog and taken it to a wildlife rescue centre where they had informed her that she had in fact brought them a pom pom from a woolly hat! And that did make me laugh so I do hope that it was true and not an April Fool!
Has Anyone Seen My Glasses? 