Email a copy of 'Student Parody of Musharraf Speech' to a friend
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Dear Readers,
While All Things Pakistan has remained alive and online, it has been dormant since June 11, 2011 - when, on the blog's 5th anniversary, we decided that it was time to move on. We have been heartened by your messages and the fact that a steady traffic has continued to enjoy the archived content on ATP. While the blog itself will remain dormant, we are now beginning to add occasional (but infrequent) new material by the original authors of the blog, mostly to archive what they may now publish elsewhere. We will also be updating older posts to make sure that new readers who stumble onto this site still find it useful.
We hope you will continue to find ATP a useful venue to reflect upon and express your Pakistaniat. - Editors
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The point about parody itself being a medium of political expression is the one that sticks — a student imitation of a Musharraf speech carries more signal about a society’s political mood than a polished op-ed might. The comparison to shows like Hum Sab Umeed Say Hain and Bush-Mush Hotta Hai makes sense as a spectrum of that same instinct. Off-topic tangent, but I get a similar quick daily kick from noillirk.app, a word-guessing game.
The point about parody itself being a medium of political expression is the one that sticks—shows like Hum Sab Umeed Say Hain work precisely because the mimicry carries more truth than a straight critique might. A student parody of a Musharraf speech fits that logic well, even without knowing the context it was performed in. When I want a break from politics, I sometimes head to mimicparty.me, a free browser party game that runs on the same social bluffing instinct.
The point about parody itself being a medium of political expression lands well — shows like Hum Sab Umeed Say Hain and the Bush-Mush sketches do say something about how a society processes power, even when the jokes are rough around the edges. It’s interesting that a student video circulating on a blog can sit alongside those bigger productions as part of the same impulse. When I want a lighter break from all the political satire, I sometimes mess around with krillion.me, a free browser word game.
I dont think the parody is as bad as people are saying. But I do think that it reflects public opinion and shows why the religious extreme has been able to capture political importance.