In our Psychology class we were taught – conversation is receiver-centric. What you mean to convey becomes irrelevant, what others interpret is all that matters. And there’s whole lot of fun in this. Especially if you are someone with your own way of looking at everything, better, if you are cynical, then the fun is always around the corner for you.
I feel I am one of those kinds of “receivers” who can’t help but interpret everything their own way. Good, bad, indifferent, stupid, negative, weird, forced, and of course ‘cynical’, I have been accused of being everything when it comes to how and what I interpret. One thing I add myself is, I may be any or all of this, on top of all this, I am proud too.
Popular is what popular…
Let’s make a start. Have you seen the new Airtel commercial where wife is also the office boss, or the office boss is also the wife? Anyhow, what message did you get? I think what they are trying to say is that wives should not out rightly blame the husbands for being late in coming home from the office. They may have the worst bosses who put their foot down and say that you have to finish the work before you think of going home. This is one interpretation, for me, Airtel seems to have intended something else. Funny in a weird way.
And when little knowledge plays its part
This may be a case of little knowledge or just mere pressure or something else but interpreting an important person’s name wrongly can be career threatening too. The poor newsreader from Doordarshan learned this the hard way. Don’t know how he screwed this up but he got Chinese President Xi Jinping’s name wrong and that too at a time when the whole world had their eyes on Xi-Modi carnival. He interpreted his first name as the Roman numeral XI and made him "Eleven Jinping". And that interpretation proved costly enough to lose the job. Not funny at all for so many.
But Politicians thrive on that
I may be cynical when it comes to “interpretations”, luckily it’s these different interpretations which come handy and have become a powerful tool for the politicians the world over. They take the liberty to say the first thing that comes to their mind and then wait for others to interpret it the way they want. This gives them the power of “plausible deniability” making it a win-win situation for your friends and foes in the political world. If you are a sucker for political debates or any debate which is coloured political on news channels every night, you would know how enjoyable it all can be. Funny if you have a sense of 'anything'.
And horror movies and comedy shows carry a reflection
And I also think even horror movies and comedy shows use it to their advantage. You interpret a horror movie as more horrifying if it’s interspersed with some funny elements. And you interpret Kapil’s jokes and comedy as even more hilarious when you hear Sidhu’s ‘somethings’ or ‘horrors’, though in the case of Comedy Nights with Kapil, that is something we all can do without. But there would be some who would interpret comedy in horror and horror in comedy as a mistake, a lapse of judgement maybe. Could have been more Funny.
What you make out is only what you “make out”
It doesn’t end here. It never ends ever. We all do that, sometimes leading to confusion, sometimes for our convenience, sometimes just because we didn’t know otherwise. My Psychology teacher was right after all and wise too. Everyone makes something out of every conversation their own way, independent view or an influenced one, I for one is proud. Funny, if at all.
I feel I am one of those kinds of “receivers” who can’t help but interpret everything their own way. Good, bad, indifferent, stupid, negative, weird, forced, and of course ‘cynical’, I have been accused of being everything when it comes to how and what I interpret. One thing I add myself is, I may be any or all of this, on top of all this, I am proud too.
Popular is what popular…
Let’s make a start. Have you seen the new Airtel commercial where wife is also the office boss, or the office boss is also the wife? Anyhow, what message did you get? I think what they are trying to say is that wives should not out rightly blame the husbands for being late in coming home from the office. They may have the worst bosses who put their foot down and say that you have to finish the work before you think of going home. This is one interpretation, for me, Airtel seems to have intended something else. Funny in a weird way.
And when little knowledge plays its part
This may be a case of little knowledge or just mere pressure or something else but interpreting an important person’s name wrongly can be career threatening too. The poor newsreader from Doordarshan learned this the hard way. Don’t know how he screwed this up but he got Chinese President Xi Jinping’s name wrong and that too at a time when the whole world had their eyes on Xi-Modi carnival. He interpreted his first name as the Roman numeral XI and made him "Eleven Jinping". And that interpretation proved costly enough to lose the job. Not funny at all for so many.
But Politicians thrive on that
I may be cynical when it comes to “interpretations”, luckily it’s these different interpretations which come handy and have become a powerful tool for the politicians the world over. They take the liberty to say the first thing that comes to their mind and then wait for others to interpret it the way they want. This gives them the power of “plausible deniability” making it a win-win situation for your friends and foes in the political world. If you are a sucker for political debates or any debate which is coloured political on news channels every night, you would know how enjoyable it all can be. Funny if you have a sense of 'anything'.
And horror movies and comedy shows carry a reflection
And I also think even horror movies and comedy shows use it to their advantage. You interpret a horror movie as more horrifying if it’s interspersed with some funny elements. And you interpret Kapil’s jokes and comedy as even more hilarious when you hear Sidhu’s ‘somethings’ or ‘horrors’, though in the case of Comedy Nights with Kapil, that is something we all can do without. But there would be some who would interpret comedy in horror and horror in comedy as a mistake, a lapse of judgement maybe. Could have been more Funny.
What you make out is only what you “make out”
It doesn’t end here. It never ends ever. We all do that, sometimes leading to confusion, sometimes for our convenience, sometimes just because we didn’t know otherwise. My Psychology teacher was right after all and wise too. Everyone makes something out of every conversation their own way, independent view or an influenced one, I for one is proud. Funny, if at all.
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