Take a look at the Joker; Laughing or not laughing is the issue

Fars News Agency – Cinema Group: The Joker’s contest, which began with a repetitive idea around the world and has so far featured six seasons on Filimo, has been able to attract an audience; As the first two episodes broke the viewing record by viewers. In each episode, there are 8 comedians from the country who should not laugh during the 6 hours that the contest is held. Each person is eliminated after laughing twice and the last person is given 100 million prizes. Part of the prize will be donated to charity according to the winner. However, many experts believe that “The Joker” is a vulgar TV show.

The use of artists in reality shows and competitions is always fascinating because the audience becomes acquainted with other aspects of the celebrities’ personalities and closely observes their behavior, speech, and in fact their other inner selves and faces. Perhaps the first program to be made in Iran with this approach was Saeed Aboutaleb’s Persian Dinner, which later produced the Mafia (both copies of foreign versions). The Joker is another aspect of this style of programming. The question is, to what extent do such programs fit into our cultural context? For example, the interpersonal respect that exists in our culture is not observed in any of these programs. In this program, even individual dignity is not preserved. In order to win the contest and earn money, participants are willing to joke with and challenge their appearance or family members. This model of behavior, to which everyone owes the idea of ​​”justifying the purpose of the means,” has a very destructive effect on society in the long run, replacing its value and anti-value.

The first thing that catches your eye about the Joker is the acknowledgment of copying the idea of ​​the program, which is explained in detail at the beginning of each episode. Programmers seem to be moving away from believing in the audience’s ignorance, and unlike in the past, who saw the viewer as an ignorant human being and allowed themselves to be copied from idea to scene design, with such confessions, the audience’s dignity was well preserved. they do. However, this confession was never made in Alikhani’s other program, The New Age, which is a direct copy, from idea to implementation, of Western talent programs.

In the meantime, Ehsan Alikhani’s role in making the Joker program is questionable. In the caption of the first part, he was mentioned as a project consultant, but at the end of the second part, the title of artistic director was included for him. On the other hand, there is talk everywhere that the Joker production team is in the service of Ehsan Alikhani and the Joker is his program. Apart from all the contradictions between the Joker and other works in which Alikhani has appeared, such as Honeymoon, what is the opacity of his position is a big question for which there is no answer. Whatever Alikhani’s position in the Joker is, it is unfortunate that why should a successful TV programmer who has made effective and valuable programs in his repertoire make such a ridiculous program?

The first five seasons were sponsored by a home appliance brand, but in the sixth season, Digitala sponsors the program. Regardless of the prize awarded to the winner, the appearance of the program is very expensive. The furniture and accessories available, the food and the catering equipment are all indicative of the large budget available to the developer. Promoting the culture of luxury in the current economic situation of the people is another blow that the Joker inflicts on society.

Perhaps the only good thing about this program is that it invites veterans of the country’s comedy arena. People like Majid Shapoori, Manouchehr Azari, Asghar Samsarzadeh, etc., who, in addition to being pioneers, are fascinated by the nostalgia of their presence, although these same people sometimes turn to things that are not worthy of them to win, and their good memories go to the joke. They distort the audience in their minds.

In the first part, with the explanations of Siamak Ansari, the moderator of the contest, it was emphasized that due to the wide age range of the audience, the level of politeness should be kept in this program, but after a few episodes, the audience not only faces repeated rudeness but also erotic allusions and allusions. Intentionally, the words do not show a good atmosphere with the participants’ repeated insults and dances. Unfortunately, for many participants, due to their lack of talent for humor, they play the most ridiculous game, and the first and easiest thing for them to do is to perform rhythmic movements (read asynchronous) and songs on the tail and in the market alley.

The atmosphere, speech and behavior of the participants are so varied and variable that it can not be safely watched with all family members and teenagers can be allowed to watch the program.

The wave of laughter under any pretext started with the laughter program, a program that, despite crossing many red lines of the national media, still adheres to a series of ethical and customary frameworks. No one is opposed to laughter or happiness, but turning laughter into an essential value is something that is not only unhelpful but also highly condemned in religion. All this unreasonable laughter and booty is only temporary for a moment and has nothing to do with it. This program is not expected to solve the economic and livelihood problems of the society, but using this issue as an excuse to prove that the society is unhappy and we should make it happy is not a good reason for this superficiality. To spend this amount of money and energy and the ceiling of the creator’s desire to be a moment of thoughtless and fleeting laughter, is more a blow to culture and art than anything else. It is the duty of the people of art to raise the level of culture of the society, but we have been witnessing the lowering of this level for many years, especially in the field of humor. The audience’s laughter can be a silly and erotic joke, it can be a verbal and literary humor. Which one the audience laughs at is the choice of the programmer to give the audience access to which face.

Programs like Joker have a large audience, so they can be tasteful. But the taste that is produced in this program is a low taste and even in some scenes it is vulgar. Looking at the various Joker chapters, it is clear that this program is based on a nihilistic (hedonistic) and hedonistic approach to life and regresses the level of taste of the audience as much as possible.

Of course, with the explanations of the participants of the sixth chapter about the fact that this is also “us” and everyone works for a living and we are also comedians and our job is to make the audience laugh, it seems that there is a reason beyond laughing at people. . Perhaps, as Mehran Ghafourian said in the fifth chapter: “If money is in the middle, I will do everything.” The turning point of everything is money, and that’s it.

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