IgNobles

The 2006 Ig Noble are announced. These are among my favorites, Good clean fun year after year. Most of the academic life is so drab, always done with a stiff collar, that almost anything that can chuckle at academic research needs to be applauded.
There is no political angle to it, no slap stick, its fun poking at its best. Ig Nobles along with Stella awards are keenly awaited every year. In this super racing, serious world, these epitomizes the spirit of pausing and laughing it all off. There is also this predictable absurd guy who is good unclean fun ;)
Come to think of it there don't seem to be too many humorists around anymore. PG Wodehouse gone long time back, Douglas Adams is gone too, so is Harishankar Parsai, one of my favorite modern Hindi humorist. In such gloom, there are very few true works of humor emerging. I can think of the TV show- Whose line is it anyway, that was perhaps the best comedy show without being slapstick. Yes I know there is Friends and a few others which are also laugh riots but then their humor is more of very typical kind- political satire or Innuendo.
Maybe its all because of the social flux. Suddenly technology has transformed the world and maybe we are all too busy coming to terms with it all to really think of funny things. So the only creative fun around is what happens to others in courtrooms or science labs. Mercifully some nice souls have captured it all and by instituting an yearly prize, brought a smile on our lips.
Thankie dear fellas