South Africa # 15: Cutting The Cheese.

I have an unusual talent that got me into a lot of trouble when I was a kid: I can squeeze my palms together to create a realistic fart noise-everything from a little popcorn poof to the sound of a boot stuck in the mud. Once, as a punishment for performing this feat in church, I was made to sit outside and pass gas for two hours. Unfortunately, this version of Time-Out did not have the desired effect. It only allowed me time to refine my technique to produce deeper and richer tones. Now that I am a little older and have gone from disrupting class to teaching it, I try to use my powers for good and not for evil. Nothing gets the attention of a group of unruly students (from grade 1 to undergraduates) like a well-timed gust of wind. I cut another slice of the old cheese this week, when I drew the portrait of my infant nephew. He instantly responded with a big smile and I was able to quickly sketch his picture. His reaction made me wonder if there are some things that are universally funny. Big multinational entertainment companies seem to think so-they can't risk a flop with big bucks at stake, so they almost always go for the sure thing. This is why there are so few movies featuring urbane people spouting witty repartee and so many movies featuring these same people being pelted with wedding cake before flying head first into a horse's anus. As a teacher and HIV educator in rural South Africa, I had to find the funny side of difficult topics in order to get and keep people's attention. Over time, I figured out what people thought was funny and what was over the edge. What people find funny can tell you a lot about a culture. Here is a list I compiled of things that make people in the Northwest Province of South Africa laugh or turn up their noses: VERY FUNNY-donkeys and how dirty donkeys are, privies, condoms, farts, mistresses and girlfriends, chickens, white people and how white people talk, drunk people, monkeys/FUNNY-constipation, poor tribal leadership, naughty goats, naughty children, vomiting, traditional healers (shamanism, sangomas), preachers and hot preaching, taxi men and their sexual exploits/NOT FUNNY-masturbation, cows, witchcraft and animals associated with witchcraft (baboons, cats, bats, snakes), anal and oral sex, joblessness, the devil and demons, homosexuality, poverty, HIV/AIDS, funerals, sickness, people who are not clean, the Bible, spiritually powerful animals (lions, elephants, leopards), apartheid.