While watching Omid Djalili's 2005 HBO One Night Stand special, I noted that he did not mention that he was a Bahá’í -- I'm supposing the fact that he is Iranian AND British was confusing enough for his audiences, so he played it as though he was Muslim, just as he had done on Whoopi Goldberg’s sitcom. Anyone who has seen his YouTube videos knows it is not out of shyness. In fact, in an introduction to a compilation on humour in the Bahá’í Writings (co-written with Annabel Knight), he did not hesitate to poke at his own religious community in making this astonishingly bold critical assertion: “Amongst religious communities, including in Bahá'í society, the place for humour is invariably segregated from spiritual life. It is confined to a carefully placed joke in a talk by a keynote speaker, or in the form of an evening programme where ‘the youth,’ as they are affectionately called, can run amok with a mish-mash of ‘challenging’ sketches. There is a time for spirituality, and there is a time for humour. The two do not mix.”
However, he did sing "We are drops of one ocean," a song of Pacific Ocean origin (most likely Hawaiian), which is sung by Baháí children the world over, which he bizzarely associated with the “insanity” of Donald Rumsfeld. This again walks perilously close to the edge of the limit of this Bahá’í principle: “Speak thou no word of politics; thy task concerneth the life of the soul, for this verily leadeth to man's joy in the world of God. Except to speak well of them, make thou no mention of the earth's kings, and the worldly governments thereof.” (Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu'l-Bahá, pg. 92)
The first verse of this call-and-response ditty runs thus:
We are drops of one ocean
We are waves of one sea
Come and join us
In our quest for unity
It’s a way of life for you and me.
My view of comedians is that they are almost alone in present-day society in being allowed to tell the truth, a role abnegated somewhere along the line by poets and musicians. Furthermore, that is one of the chief reasons we tune in to them and pay to see them debunk nonsense ranging from our human relationships to political issues to our private behaviour, religious malparactices and human condition. This being a precious commodity in our time, I am inclined to grant them as wide a latitude as possible in making us squirm in our seats while laughing involuntarily.
However, he did sing "We are drops of one ocean," a song of Pacific Ocean origin (most likely Hawaiian), which is sung by Baháí children the world over, which he bizzarely associated with the “insanity” of Donald Rumsfeld. This again walks perilously close to the edge of the limit of this Bahá’í principle: “Speak thou no word of politics; thy task concerneth the life of the soul, for this verily leadeth to man's joy in the world of God. Except to speak well of them, make thou no mention of the earth's kings, and the worldly governments thereof.” (Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu'l-Bahá, pg. 92)
The first verse of this call-and-response ditty runs thus:
We are drops of one ocean
We are waves of one sea
Come and join us
In our quest for unity
It’s a way of life for you and me.
My view of comedians is that they are almost alone in present-day society in being allowed to tell the truth, a role abnegated somewhere along the line by poets and musicians. Furthermore, that is one of the chief reasons we tune in to them and pay to see them debunk nonsense ranging from our human relationships to political issues to our private behaviour, religious malparactices and human condition. This being a precious commodity in our time, I am inclined to grant them as wide a latitude as possible in making us squirm in our seats while laughing involuntarily.
3 comments:
Dear Joe
I love your openness and humour. It is refreshing to see Bahá'ís uninhibited and free in their speach.
Keep up the good work
Moro Baruk
(pioneer to Haiti)
too funny! love it and so true. i would fall off the couch if some comedian made a crack about ... so many things that happen at Baha'i camp. I'd love to see some of William Sears stuff used. We'd use "God Loves Laughter" for book reports, year after year after year, and have the whole class room laughing at 'ol Bill swinging his extension cord "slingshot" and hitting his "Goliath" father right between the eyes, causing his sister to dance around screaming, "William shot father, DEAD!"
Loved your quiz, too!
Isn't The Humourous, one of God's attributes? Bahá'u'lláh will gather His fellow prisonners in the Most Great Prison every evening and all would laugh at their own misfortune. Now that is The Most Sense of Humour
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