People don't laugh in Bangladesh. It's considered blasphemous to do so. Sukumar Roy, wrote a famous poem on this topic but very few have been heard to laugh even when they read or recite this poem. In fact many people think that the poem, "children of Ramgorur" is in very bad taste and insulting to the history and culture of the people he wrote for. Many think it was due to the influence of his second wife, an English lady who found Bengalis very funny but unable ansd couldn't get any jokes.

Laughing is sacrilege: the theological roots of not laughing

Basically, if the world can be reduced to one with total seriousness, one may say that spiritual excellence has been achieved. Such is us and we believe that just as nothing says that God laughs loudly or even smiles and we as the representative of God shouldn't either.

Now, there is no need to take the above seriously is there? But bangus generally do, totally aware that they are closest to god on earth and therefore can't smile let alone laugh.

Diarrhea and laughter

While the matter could be one of the many discussions we attempt to have on various issues and fail to have any, a recent project has been set up by the joint efforts of WHO, BSSMU and the ICDDRB to see if any pathological reasons or source could be detected as to why Bangus can't laugh.

When asked why ICDDRB has been made part of the team, concerned officials said that, "there is a direct co-relationship between diarrhea and laughter. Both are about letting go. In both cases, defecation means getting rid of the poison inside. But overdoing it is bad as a person laughing constantly has no time for work and as constant shitter gets dehydrated. Those preventing laughter of course can cause induced attacks of constipation."

Thus, there is a public health connection between laughter and shitting. And in Bangladesh this is growing as more and more people are uneasy with laughing including DSA. A government spokesperson said on the condition of anonymity that, "We are deeply concerned with laughter, Calling us "fascists is one thing which we can handle. But naming us something like" Gopal" will not be tolerated. It's too funny and may cause large scale laughter which is unacceptable."

Meanwhile the Opposition has said that it's not fair to accuse them of name calling when everything has been called out at them. However, they said that "we didn't call anyone farm chicken when we know it tastes bad. But they have and our ammus are unhappy. We were fed free ranging chicken so it was not fair.

Cricket humour is haram

So why do people never crack jokes about cricket? After all, it's their life and death etc. However its very crude and right now the interest is not the game or even the team but some major deities. Four names are mostly mentioned- Papon, Tamim, Sakib, and Riyad. Others are there but not really the main ones.

We contacted various academics we versed on the issue who gave us the opinion that much belongs to Draupudi and her exile.

"You see Draupadi's problem was not just embarrassing her but the entire clan. So they got together and later did what they did. The other is the shortage of playing fields so the lack of free space is halting plans of hitting back. So though the sari is gone, the match can't begin. The result is the failure in batting.

When asked about the demi-gods BCB informed that plans are on to send them to Nepal for a trek across the mountains to Heaven. "Best way possible."

The Ministry of laughter and forgetting

However, authorities do see the need to take some initiatives and that is why a separate ministry has been suggested from both Religion and Animal Husbandry. With the government in control of laughter we can initiate development projects and also taxation and bonds related to laughter. The result will be a huge surplus which will go a long way in reducing the dollar shortage.

As can be seen, many have begun to take laughter seriously. IMF Has also said that its one of the pre-conditions of any loans which has finally made the GOB realize that unless they laugh at Bangladesh, chances are BD might be too serious a matter that can be handled seriously.