Last week, the State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, which is in charge of regulating media in China, issued an order banning puns that said “puns could mislead young readers and make it more difficult to promote traditional Chinese culture.”
The order said that, much like every form of media and any mildly Western idea, it corrupts the traditionalism China is trying to maintain.
That said, let’s just take a minute to appreciate the sheer hilarity that happens when some governments, in an effort to limit personal freedoms, become unintentional ?comedians.
This could be an article straight from the Onion. One has to wonder what exactly the State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television plans to achieve by this because we have to assume the order was issued in complete seriousness.
Perhaps I could understand banning comedy because, let’s face it, Communist leaders don’t have the best senses of humor, but I want to know how puns are particularly subversive.
They should have considered how a-Mao-sing puns can be.
I’ll stop.
But if China were a person, it would be the most insecure and paranoid person I would ever come across. An order such as this is like something straight out of George Orwell’s “1984.” While in the United States one of the most contentious topics is gun control, in China it seems they are more concerned with pun control.
Of course, the primary culprit the organization targeted was the Internet, where forums have empowered the most unlikely people, which are apparently “migrant worker(s), or even a(n) elementary student who knows how to use a computer,” to formulate their own puns and join the wordplay movement.
If you are satisfied with nothing else about the United States, then at least be happy you still have the freedom to make terrible puns that ultimately alienate you from all your more sophisticated friends.
Because we all need a little laugh with finals week coming up, let’s consider some other instances of despots acting in thoroughly irrational ways.
Earlier this week, North Korea outlawed the name “Kim Jong-Un” for everyone but the dictator himself, which meant anybody who formerly had the name (which, apparently, is a common name in both Koreas) had to change it.
And in September, Vladimir Putin took a break from stirring up world powers to make a “suggestion” for a cartoon character on a popular Russian puppet show.
So remember, friends.
Just because you want to become a dictator who acts completely without regard to human dignity doesn’t mean you can’t take the time to have fun once in a while.
Find a hobby. Take a walk. Invade a country.
It’s all in a good day’s work.
allenjo@indiana.edu
