Stories from the Sunflower: Lucy (8)

"A man once came into a doctor. He had a cucumber up his nose, a carrot in his left ear, and a banana in his right ear. 'What’s the matter with me doc, do I have a chronic pain?' he asked the pretty doctor sadly.

'Naaa, you're gonna be okay,' the doctor replied, 'you just don't eat properly.'"

"Why does almost everyone like comedy, and so do comics and comedians?" said Sunflower while looking at 'Laskar Rakyat Mengatur Siasat' [People's Army Organized Strategies], a work created by the finger strokes of an expressionist artist, Affandi. "First, more or less, comedy invites us to think lightly by laughing, laughing at the words and behavior of comedians, or laughing at ourselves through the humor expressed by comics, while they alone, just smiling or even look serious.

People cry at movies sometimes, but not nearly as frequently as the producers and directors would want. And if the movie goes overboard, then suddenly it becomes cheesy and saccharine. Jokes in movies often fall flat, and even horror movies tend to rely on jump scares (a sudden noise or flash) rather than actual terror. But comedians get on stage and make people laugh and guffaw for an hour straight, which is arguably one of the strongest emotions of all.

Second, comedy art can live in countries, whether they were an ancient monarchic era, autocracy, or democracy, but in the first two, only in limited circles, while the latter, comedy, along with any other arts such as theater, music, paintings, poetry, culinary, or even pop culture, can be a stimulant, for they have their own 'kingdom', so they can be independent agents for uplifting every citizen as part of a democratic society.

We all need to laugh, laughter is universal, and many different events can bring it about. Beyond laughter and jesting, for both performers and audiences in the theatre, comedy exists as a narrative form or structure. Basically, there were patterns, steps, and even rules that even the most famous of comedians tended to follow—they had simply mastered them and could play with every type of variation instinctively. Comic poets were too powerful not to attract the attentions of political leaders: the consequential laughter induced by on-stage caricature satire was surely hard to ignore in a society where personal honour was central. And comic poets were too engaged in the literary and intellectual currents which surrounded and informed the circles of politicians not to be engaged in politics. Aristophanes and Shakespeare managed to do it. The only fully intact textual evidence from fifth century and (very) early fourth-century comedy are the eleven completely preserved comedies by Aristophanes, who was born, in all likelihood, shortly after 450 bce and died after 388 bce. Shakespeare’s major comedies were written at a peculiarly fertile time in English cultural history: the 1590s. The professional public theatre was flourishing; London was a rich melting-pot of people of all classes; printed books were becoming cheap and popular; artistic and philosophical discussions were fashionable, but so were gossip, travellers’ tales, and stories of the teeming underlife of the city.

Comedy is truth and pain, says John Vorhaus. When a clown catches a pie in the face, it’s truth and pain; and that’s what makes a joke jump. You feel for the poor clown all covered with custard, and you also realize that it could have been you.

Comedy can offer us reassurance about where we stand. A shared joke is a shared world. Yet comic instincts also invite us to think up new worlds and have often spoken most eloquently to those who are keen to try things out. Comic imaginations have often circled around the idea of origins, but the beginning of comedy itself is tricky to pin down to a specific location. The etymological roots of the word hint at the obscure origins of the form. Some have argued for comedy’s home in kome (‘country village’), but the more likely derivation is from komos, a complex word best translated by Kenneth Dover: ‘a noisy, happy, drunken procession’. Then add the suffix ody (‘song’), and a picture emerges of a boozed-up bunch making a song and dance about things. A neat Aristotelian definition of comedy—the imitation of an action which is funny. But Comedy is not always a laughing matter. The world is a comedy to those that think, and tragedy to those that feel, says Horace Walpole. Comedy is life viewed from a distance; tragedy, life in close-up, says Charlie Chaplin; Tragedy is when I cut my little finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die, says Mel Brooks. All revel in the sense of comedy as a detached perspective, yet from way back it was felt that comedy and tragedy were not quite true opposites. Plato’s Symposium closes with Socrates asking two exemplars of the rival modes (Aristophanes and Agathon) to concede that ‘the genius of comedy was the same as that of tragedy, and that the true artist in tragedy was an artist in comedy also. To this they were constrained to assent, being drowsy, and not quite following the argument.’

Apart from comedy, one of the musical arts that presents tragedy, humor or a combination of both is Indonesian Dangdut. Named onomatopoeically for its characteristic drum sounds 'dang' and 'dut,' the music is heard in streets and homes, public parks and narrow alleyways, stores and restaurants, and all forms of public transportation. At parties, wedding receptions, bars, and karaoke clubs, Indonesians sing. They dance. Here, there and everywhere.

Dangdut was born in Indonesia, as a genre of traditional popular music resulting from a combination of music in Indian films with Malay and rock'n roll music from the West. This combination of musical styles was first used in Jakarta around the end of the 1960s. As a form of popular culture in the early 1970s, dangdut was commercialized in the 1980s, political campaign rally, sometimes eroticized dance spectacle, and everyday communal party—these are sites where dangdut frames meanings about class relations and national belonging. With roots in popular music of urban post-colonial Indonesia, dangdut is a privileged site for narrating stories about the modern nation-state of Indonesia. Indeed, dangdut has always been synonymous with dance. Unlike other kinds of popular music, dangdut 'invites' people to dance. Dangdut’s appeal lies in the fact that one does not need any special training to participate. 'Goyang Mang!' ('Shake it, Bro!') was a common response when Indonesians talk about dangdut. Goyang simply means 'to move,' but in dangdut it refers to the swaying movement of the hips, waist, and buttocks. Goyang is not only the movement of the body, but it is a 'natural' and 'unconscious' reaction to dangdut’s distinctive drum rhythms.

Just like comedy and other types of art, Dangdut has its own 'kingdom'. In the mid- to late 1970s, the genre’s popularity grew, as did the number of singers and spin-off styles.

Many of the lyrics in dangdut hit songs of the 1980s expressed sentiments of tragedy (derita; sengsara; merana). In these songs, tragedy came in many forms: failed relationships, economic hardship, social injustice, and cruel social conditions of everyday modern life. In dangdut, lyrics are not important, but but songs could be interpreted, is matter. Sometimes it combines tragedy and humor, for example 'Pak Hakim dan Pak Jaksa, kapan saya akan di sidang' [Mr Judge and Mr Prosecutor, when will I be in court]; 'Ku jarang dibelai' [I am rarely stroked], shortened by Jablai, Lebih baik sakit hati daripada sakit gigi [It is better to have a heartache than a toothache], and many more which have become iconic expressions to all levels of Indonesian society. Dangdut songs articulated people’s acknowledgment of powerlessness, they represent real-life situations, but the responses are idealized and open to interpretation.

Life in 1980s modern Indonesia was full of contradictions. The state ideology of pancasila, which emphasized democracy and social justice, was being redefined as loyalty to the president, above all others. It's like the surface of a lake is calm, in its depths, there is a strong current. Life was full of fear, to the point that if you wanted to say the name of a civil official or high-ranking army, required using initials, which is still carried over to this day. The familiar greeting of Indonesia's founding parents, 'Bung' or 'Bang' was only used by the opposition, political campaign or patriotic songs, while the rest, 'according to Bapak President's instructions'.

Under these circumstances, it is understandable that people would want to 'gak mau ambil pusing' [avoid hassles] or 'look the other way'. Rather than 'mikirin utang numpuk segudang, lebih baik kita senang-senang' [thinking about debts piling up, it’s better to just have a good time]. At least a night of pleasure would allow people to 'buang masalah jauh-jauh' [throw problems far away]. And yet, the mechanism of pleasure tempering people’s pain does not adequately explain the types of meanings that emerged in the songs of this era. Dangdut opened up interpretive possibilities rather than neatly closing them off. Dangdut did not provide answers to problems. Rather, it pushed the limits of what was allowable in order to expose an excess of possibilities.

Conditions give rise to movement, and dangdut displays 'goyangan'. Dangdut Nation brings the 'happiness' of dangdut. Dangdut had quietly risen in social status due to its current popularity with 'bureaucrats, from government ministers up to the vice governor—and quite likely many others. As a national election approached in 1992, top government and military officials pronounced dangdut as Indonesia’s national music.

The notion that dangdut represented all Indonesians, together with its massive popularity, was a common story told something like this: sung in lyrics that nearly all Indonesians could understand, expressing feelings that everyone could relate to, and with a beat that everyone could dance to, it was natural that dangdut had become iconic with the nation. As a result, dangdut’s representation and meaning changed from the music of ordinary people who occupy the bottom of the social and political system, to a genre celebrated as national music in the 1990s. Dangdut, which appealed to the majority of Indonesians, was a privileged field for creating identifications with the ideals and values of a national culture.

Yet, for the large base of dangdut fans, the value and meaning of dangdut had not changed. Fans already knew very well that dangdut was their music. Its lyrics were open to multiple interpretations, its costumes were garish and flashy, its performance style was campy and eroticized, and its music was stylistically diverse.

But, as time went by, images and stories related to dangdut became even further removed from most people's everyday lives. Dangdut had to dispel its image as backward (kampungan): 'It cannot be considered ‘kampungan’ anymore because it has already gone international'. No longer content to stay where it was, dangdut was on the move. Pictures and stories about the glamorous lives of dangdut celebrities flooded the tabloid market. Stars were shown performing in sparkling television studios or on spectacular concert stages; dressed in jeans and sportswear at home enjoying their vast leisure time with family; or driving expensive cars, dressed in brand-name clothes, and sitting in cafes with fellow celebrities. Sponsorship flowed in from cigarette and drug companies (for example, aspirin).

What kinds of images, values, and meanings about the nation were made available to people in dangdut during this period? The Department of Information, through its national television station TVRI, exerted strict controls over what could be shown on television. Songs were banned for allegedly creating a bad image of Indonesia, including 'Gadis atau Janda?' (Are You a Virgin or Not?), and 'Jagung Bakar', which were both banned from being shown on TVRI in early 1992. Censorship of dangdut songs was based on lyrics and visual images that were considered immoral or critical of the Suharto regime. However, the guidelines for controlling content were not clearly stated. In those days, banning, in the present, hostage taking.

Nonetheles, not all dangdut images are really that bad, recent dangdut singers have brought themes of humor and wit.

In the New Order era, Culture was used for political purposes to promote the idea of 'Bhinneka Tunggal Ika,' or Unity expressed in Diversity.' Symbolic representations of atomized cultures were constructed and displayed on national television, in national political discourse, and at national festivals. Yet, in this multicultural representation of difference, everyone ended up looking pretty much the same. Social inequalities based on ethnic, racial, class, and gender differences were edged aside for the sake of national homogeneity. History repeats itself, recently, imbeciles have emerged, proposing the idea of eliminating differences for the sake of uniformity.

After the fall of Pak Harto, trends in dangdut in 2006, 'ethnic dangdut' with an Indonesian ethnic nuance, arosed. Songs that used scales, melodies, rhythms, and instruments derived from music associated with one of the many ethnic groups in Indonesia. Ethnic dangdut saturated local music scenes in many parts of the country. Sung in regional languages and marketed to specific ethnic communities, dangdut spin-offs developed in, among others, West Sumatra (Minang saluang dangdut), West Java (Sundanese pong-dut), Cirebon (Cirebonese tarling), East Java (Javanese koplo), and Banjarmasin (Banjarese dangdut Banjar). In 2007, 'regional language dangdut' (dangdut berbahasa daerah) even obtained its own award category at the annual Indonesian Music Awards (Anugerah Musik Indonesia, AMI). Dangdut, originally associated with Melayu and India in the 1970s, and then resignifi ed as national in the 1980s and 1990s, had evolved into something 'ethnic' and 'regional' in the 2000s.

Dangdut gave rise to many new habits, starting from 'Mendadak Dangdut', 'Goyang Dombret,' 'Jatuh Bangun', 'Dangdut Heboh', 'Dangdut Sexy', to 'Jablai'. These examples are important for the history of dangdut. Perspective that dangdut was probably rooted in the elements from India and the West, it's perfectly okay, but more importantly, its forms, practices, and meanings were created by Indonesians.

Apparently, I've talked too much about dangdut that I began to forget about our comedy topic. Anyway, the key explanation of the jokes is always the center edge relationships of the comedians and the butts of their comedy."

As before, in the break to the next episode, the sunflower brought Barbra Streisand's song,

Memories may be beautiful

and yet what's too painful to remember

We simply choose to forget

So, it's the laughter we will remember

Whenever we remember

The way we were *)

Citations & References:

- Matthew Bevis, Comedy: A Very Short Introduction, 2013, Oxford University Press

- Keith Sidwell, Aristhopanes the Democrat: The Politics of Satirical Comedy during the Peloponnesian War, 2009, Cambridge University Press

- Christie Davies, Jokes and their Relation to Society, 1998, Mouton de Gruyter

- Andrew N. Weintraub, Dangdut Stories: A Social and Musical History of Indonesia’s Most Popular Music, 2010, Oxford University Press

- Penny Gay, The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare’s Comedies, 2008, Cambridge University Press

*) "The Way We Were" written by Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman, Marvin Hamlisch

[Session 9]

[Session 7]

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