'API' comedy a serious business<\/p>\n
Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
If a comedian tells you po-faced that to make people laugh is a
\nserious endeavor and is painstakingly difficult, it's best not to
\nsmile -- even if at the back of your mind you wonder if he is
\nsetting you up for a joke.<\/p>\n
An unsmiling Basuki gave this very advice to a comedy group
\nthat also happened to be gravely unfunny, which had just
\nperformed on the API talent show -- Indonesia's homegrown comedy
\nversion of American Idol. Judging from the would-be comics'
\nexpressions, they knew what he meant.<\/p>\n
Another funny man, Indrodjojo Kusumonegoro, popularly known as
\nIndro, speaking to The Jakarta Post gave this equally sober
\nadvice to prospective API comedians: \"Humor is something serious.
\nSo making humor is a serious job.\"<\/p>\n
No, he's not kidding.<\/p>\n
History here shows that it is only rare talents that can hold
\nonto stardom and manage to remain \"funny\" for any great period of
\ntime.<\/p>\n
While what some call the 1960-1970s golden era of local
\ncomedy; of Benyamin S, Bing Slamet, Ratmi B29. S. Bagio and Darto
\nHelm; is long gone, these natural talents were later replaced in
\nthe late '70s early '80s by a younger generation; the Warkop DKI
\ngroup of Dono, Kasino and Indro; Jojon and the emergence of one
\ngiant many-legged laugh-factory; Srimulat.<\/p>\n
In early 1980s, the Bagito group formed by Mi'ing, Unang and
\nDidin, ascended to stardom attracting a modern middle-class
\naudience with their more highbrow political and social satire.<\/p>\n
Their dry cynicism and witty jokes gained them a devoted
\nfollowing.<\/p>\n
Srimulat however, remained what they were, offering slapstick
\nsometimes off-color jokes heavily loaded with traditional
\nJavanese drama styles, Ketoprak (in Yogyakarta and Surakarta) or
\nLudruk of East Java.<\/p>\n
The group's founder Teguh was a fan of great Western comedians
\nlike Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Jerry Lewis, Abbot and
\nCostello and the Marx Brothers and it is no wonder that slapstick
\nand physical jokes dominate Srimulat plays.<\/p>\n
With the increasing impact of television, which introduced new
\nnames and fresher comedians, Sirimulat's stages in Surakarta and
\nSurabaya became deserted.<\/p>\n
Bagito ended up having a show playing on RCTI, Patrio's Eko,
\nParto and Akri ran a show on TPI and, later in 2000, Srimulat
\ndebuted on Indosiar but the show later ended after creative
\ndifferences.<\/p>\n
Successful comedians sometimes just come out of nowhere, their
\nrise to prominence a mixture of luck, timing and of course, the
\nability to make people laugh. Others, it seems, are now being
\nmanufactured; this \"transparent\" and often not-very-funny process
\npart of the TV talent-search industry.<\/p>\n
Riding the wave of popularity of Idol-style shows, TPI
\nlaunched a competition especially for comics late last year.
\nAuditions were held in major cities like Yogyakarta, Bandung,
\nSurabaya, Makassar and Palembang. At least 800 individuals and
\ngroups tried out for the Jakarta spot where they would be coached
\nby the pros on how to be successful comedians.<\/p>\n
\"There is already a need for the presence of new young
\ncomedians on television screens because we tend to have the same
\nfaces appearing on different stations,\" TPI media relations
\nmanager Theresia Elasari said.<\/p>\n
\"What we hope from this program is that we can present new
\nfaces with fresher entertainment.\"<\/p>\n
A panel of judges, comprising of Mi'ing, Gogon, Tukul, Kirun
\nand Marwoto selected 16 groups for coaching and competition to be
\naired live on TPI.<\/p>\n
But despite the high powered panel, the fate of the groups
\ndepended on the TV audience who voted via SMS polling.<\/p>\n
It seems that slapstick and the more suggestive, smutty humor
\nwon out over the more creative jokes, which were surprisingly
\neliminated from the first rounds.<\/p>\n
\"Funny is relatively subjective, therefore it is difficult to
\ncompare one group to another,\" Indro said.<\/p>\n
He said one of the shortcomings of the program was that it was
\nalways designed to appear with a different subject-theme every
\ntime it went on air.<\/p>\n
\"The art of humor art is actually about honesty and we can't
\nfabricate this kind of honesty by using themes. (The competition)
\nwill of course create more colorful comedians but not improve the
\nsubstance of their jokes.\"<\/p>\n
But perhaps, the jokes aren't that important. Shows like TPI
\nare big business for cellular phone operators and for the
\ntelevision stations. API has drawn so much attention that TPI's
\nratings have given it a No 1 position in it's timeslot from March
\n27 until April 2, an extraordinary achievement in the station's
\nhistory. API gave the station a 10.2 rating with 29.8 percent
\nshare primarily from viewers in Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan,
\nSemarang, Bandung, Makassar, Palembang, Yogyakarta, and Denpasar.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, for any young, budding comedian the Rp 125 million
\nmain prize and the promise of future showbiz fame is a big enough
\nlure that we should expect these shows -- if not the laughs -- to
\ncontinue for sometime.<\/p>",
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