In early 2015, Russel Peters did a show in the city I lived in. I immediately booked tickets and because I knew what to expect, I got the tickets for the last row. I was not sure if I could laugh at myself if a stranger made fun off me and if I couldn’t, I did not want the camera to put my wry smile or an upset face on permanent record of the video recording. I guess that would be the same for a lot of people. We are often comfortable when our friends make fun of us but not when others do. But this is a little different for public personalities. Their lives are an open for everyone. Not just the media or comedians, people form every walk of life have the liberty to make fun of them. Well that’s more or less accurate. More in a few countries with a real freedom of speech and less in countries with restrictions on what you can say in public.

For example, India has a something called a Right to freedom which includes freedom of speech but it comes with a big asterisk. The State can impose reasonable restrictions in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offense. Which more or less means shut your trap. This indirectly kills the art of Satire and Parody. Unlike America where it is routine for comedians, talk show hosts to mock public figures, India can be a dangerous place to exercise such freedoms, especially against politicians in power. Even the Russel Peters was a heavily toned down version of his usual self when he toured India.

Yesterday, the office of a movie director was attacked because of his political parody on a actor turned politician. These are the same bunch of people who were giggling at the the two movies that the same director made but were about other politicians. So, laughing at others is good but you cannot laugh at yourself? Not just this instance, this taking an offense thing has gone so far that the judicial courts have asked the film makers to add disclaimers to their movies to protect their artistic freedom.

The very first instance of such an incident (that I can recollect) was when the release of Da Vinci Code was postponed in 2003 due to a protest by some Christian missions in India. It was a weird thing that a movie made in a predominantly Christian country and I don’t remember any protests or law suits in US about this movie. There has been a gradual increase in the frequency of such incidents and that indicates that people have grown more sensitive. Right? But here lies the paradox that the same people have grown highly insensitive to the other things such as anything that might offend others. So, what do we call someone who thinks everything is about them? Egocentric? Conceited?, Self-centered? Self-absorbed? Self-obsessed? Self-serving? Self-interested?

You can call them any of these or all of these. India is a country of 1.3 billion people. Whatever you say or do, there is a very high probability of more than a few people getting offended. Is the only way to keep everyone happy is for everyone to remain silent? Like in the movie A quiet place. Or may be silence will also offend some people.

I don’t mean that everyone has to be think skinned or that every opinion is valid. There is a time for everything and now a days, everyone seems to get outraged for every petty little thing. May be forgot that it is okay Laugh at your self once in a while. The idiosyncrasies are a big part of what we are and it is okay to be made fun of and if someone makes fun of someone you adore or idiolize, that’s OK too. Nobody is perfect.

More often than not, the anger comes from a fact that the satirist is at least partially correct and you don’t like the fact that it is being pointed out or in some cases being exaggerated. It is the embarrassment you feel that triggers these reactions.

A picture is worth a 1000 words. So, let me put it to you this way. If you laugh at any one of these pictures, you should be able to laugh at all of these.