I went to step outside the Rubber Chicken after seeing a show and was met with a large crowd of Tibetan protesters with placards chanting ‘Lewis Spears not funny, Lewis Spears not funny” and “what do we want” “an apology” “When do we want it” “Now” The Dali Lama had just attracted a lot of negative press following asking a boy to suck his tongue which predicably attracted comedians to make fun of him which seemed a reasonable reaction to a spiritual leader making such a suggestion. One of the placards simply stated “Your jokes make me sad” which made me laugh for some reason. Perhaps because of the simplicity of the statement. Jokes can make you sad depending on your position on the subject. Obviously that’s not the aim of a joke but I guess they land where they land. I’m sure the intention of the placard was not to make anyone laugh but here I was finding more hilarity from that sign than any of the jokes I had just seen. I didn’t find the fact that the holder of the sign was saddened by a joke funny, I just found the fact that he was holding it outside a comedy venue during a comedy festival in protest funny. The protest was described as a silent protest in an article in the Herald Sun the following day. It wasn’t silent at all and I wondered if the journalist had even been there.
Categories