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Feed me, Seymour!I am already chastising myself for writing about dear ol’ Julius yet again. It makes me feel like Seymour in our own South African version of Little Shop of Horrors, and I know that I am ‘feeding the beast’ each time my colleagues and I put pen to paper about him. I simply cannot help myself – much like the poor character in that macabre cult musical could not help feeding blood and body pieces to the creepy plant, which made it grow bigger.
The reason I have to discuss Juju again is that I cannot believe it was a mere three years ago that the final school results of the ANC Youth League leader were leaked to the media. How we all laughed and giggled in solidarity. E-mail jokes, caricatures and even radio songs have followed, with our own Little Shop of Horrors giving us more material with “Out, Bloody Agent!” and “Shooting Boers”. I now battle to open my e-mail without discovering that hordes of Malema digs, larks or jokes are doing the rounds once more.
Now, Oxford University scientists have discovered that having a good giggle does not simply make you feel better – it combats pain.
Professor Robin Dunbar, one of Britain’s leading evolutionary biologists, recorded the amount of laughter produced when his subjects watched comedy on television, and during comedy routines at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Their laughter levels were compared with those who watched factual clips or drama.
Prof. Dunbar then assessed their pain tolerance: Tests included measuring how long they could stand a frozen wine cooler sleeve on their arm, and how long they could stand with their backs against a wall and their legs at right angles. Those who had watched comedy had a heightened pain tolerance.
“Laughing is physically exhausting, and anything that taxes the body physically triggers endorphins as a natural response as part of the pain control mechanism,” the researchers said.
So laughter can combat pain? Well, right now I am reading that Malema has officially been named one of the most powerful young men in Africa by international business magazine, Forbes.
He has become what a growing number of his supporters are referring to as an “unstoppable tsunami”, and many say he has become too popular and powerful to rein in.
The next few weeks will be incredibly telling on whether Malema is suspended or expelled from the ANC, but the signs do not look good that he will get much more than a mere slap on the wrist, which will be a slap in the face of those of us who were doing much of the laughing over the last few years. I am worried that the Oxford finding – that laughter combats pain – will not help us if this is the outcome.
This is no longer a laughing matter. It may turn out that at the end of the day, the joke actually will be on us.
ROBBIE STAMMERS
Editor
