Sense of humour and sarcasm are not easy to acquire . A certain degree of equinamity is required to inculcate these characteristics in one's personality. Some people have a great sense of humour but follow a one way street I.e. they love to show their humour on others but don't appreciate when the joke is on them . You must have come across that boss in office who loves to make jokes or cut down others in meetings with his smart alec comments . Or that Fufaji or Mamaji in the family gatherings who take advantage of their protected status as honoured guests and cut jokes with everyone.
But once someone gives them a fitting reply in a lighter vein, they take offence. And hide behind the excuse of injured innocence or social decorum and propriety. This is very much true with Indians as social barriers are more pronounced here . In addition , the variety of cultures and mother tongues that people come from also affect the comprehension of humour or sarcasm .
With social media proliferating, our interactions are now more varied and impersonal . We post and comment on many things without actually relating to the other person . So it becomes more fascinating , intriguing and sometimes irritating to observe the reactions of people on social media . Earlier , people used to say things in social gatherings, generally before people with whom they were acquainted. Now they type what they want on the virtual space before people with whom they have never met , either in life or maybe for years together.
The finger has replaced the tongue and as a result 'poking finger's has replaced 'sticking the tongue out '. But few realise that if you poke the finger in the wrong place or the wrong way, you should be ready for a reaction , which may or may not be palatable.
Like say, you post the pic of a zebra. Some smart alec comes up with a comment saying - "Beautiful body paint done on the horse !!" One to one this is humour. But when you know the hidden agenda of the person is to spite you in front of others or to trash your post or comment by reducing its impact , then it needs to be countered. And say you counter with a lightly sarcastic statement doubting the eyesight or brain functions of the person . Whoa, Bang !! His mask of humour goes off and he feels offended . And he assumes the air of injured innocence and blames you as intolerant to humour.
Few days back , I was participating in a group chat. There was this person of I-AM-NOT-A-BHAKT-BUT category, friend for years , who had posted some asinine comments which were being countered by me. Naturally and as it mostly happens most group members were silent and a couple were providing moral suport to him.
To a very rude and bombastic statement of religious and nationalist supremacy, I politely reminded him giving the example of Mahabharat saying how misplaced pride on power is the cause of destruction. To this he replied that some stories also end like Ramayana .
After a few comments, he attacked me personally calling people like me as Vibhishana implying traitor to the nation. To this I replied that without Vibhishana, Ramayana wouldn't be written with the victory of Ram as the ending and asked him to decide what he really wanted to prove . Logically it follows that you can't praise Ram and blame Vibhishana . But who cares for all this ? Caught in this logical trap, he naturally got peeved and accused me of twisting the context. But it didn't matter to him that to score brownie points he had dubbed me a traitor before others a few minute back .
He perhaps believed that his sarcasm deserved more appreciation than others . This is the way most people behave on social media . They don't think twice before trashing others at a personal level, even people considered friends to score points before others. But give them a fitting reply, they get unbalanced and start inanities without giving a thought how they are showing up through their slipped masks of neutrality and goody goody image. They don't show their true faces but try to bring down others by taking a high moral ground
