Did you know the swastika is an ancient symbol that existed as early as 3000-1500 BC and meant well-being and/or good luck?
You can check-up/source the history of it yourself, but the thing I wanted to bring your attention to was that there existed an Edmonton woman’s hockey team from 1916 called the ‘Swastikas’. I came across this while browsing some photos in Flickr, and it made me chuckle. Why? Obviously because I associated the swastika with Germany’s Nazi Party, and when seeing it portrayed on the shirts of a local hockey team from 1916 – it was funny.
Was it right to laugh? I think so. I had known the swastika to have been an old eastern symbol, but seeing it on a hockey team (which is a western creation) and portrayed so close in history to the integration of the symbol by the Nazi party …well, it was funny. Perhaps sadly funny in a way, but still funny. Maybe unfortunately funny might be a better statement.
But that’s one nature of comedy I suppose – exemplifying the misfortunes of others so that you can laugh at your own. There’s a recipe for comedy that I was reminded of a few times, that being ‘tragedy + time = comedy’ (quoting either Carol Burnett, Lenny Bruce of Woody Allen?). In the case of the swastika, the amount of ‘time’ in this formula is generally still insufficient …for most Western people that is. I’m assuming of course too. I remember spreading some 9-11 jokes a week or so after the event, and it was then that I was introduced to the formula from my buddy Pat. It made sense …and I waited. And waited. And waited…
But I wonder how long you have to wait. I guess it would all depend on the crowd you’re with. Whether they’re closely tied to that tragic event or whether they’re distantly removed and might see some humor in it. Perhaps that variable should be incorporated into the formula somehow, along with a notion of the unexpected and the absurd. Maybe comedy has to incorporate some degree of ‘respect’ (thanks Pank). Maybe comedy isn’t as simple as tragedy plus time. Maybe it’s intensely complicated and factors in many types of emotions and perceptions. Maybe it’s almost beyond accurate description.
Who would of thought a man getting hit in the groin with a football could be so complicated …or a swastika for that matter.
Photo courtesy of 'Birthplace of Ice Hockey'
