Sense of Humor

I recently read a blog in the washingtonpost.com about Sarah Palin and how she is viewed in Russia and other European countries. Man, it's damn funny. All liberal news channels make fun of her everyday. Now the phenomenon has crossed the ocean. For some reason, Indian news media lacks the sarcasm and the pun that is seen in the western newspapers, besides few weekly's like Thuglag in tamil and may be outlook in english. Most of the Indians in my view cannot laugh at themselves and news papers fear legal suits and vandalism from the politicians. When i was young my brother somehow gets all these foreign magazines and tells me all the fundoo trivia's all the time. He once told me that press freedom is India is far less compared to the western countries. I was astonished and i simply couldn't digest the aforesaid fact. I was a sincere "The Hindu" reader (which now i know is a fucking conservative paper as comparable to WSJ) and thought press freedom is great. I always asked my brother if its true and pressed for examples. My brother would give me simple examples to make me understand still i would never get convinced. But brother I think, now i understand what you meant. I totally accept that the Indian press freedom is fucked up and Indian liberal ideas have a long way to go.

Have you noticed that most of the Indians cannot take a joke on their community or language or caste or anything for that matter?
Someone told me Sardars can laugh at themselves. If someone tells me this anymore, i have no choice other than to laugh out my ass. I have seen some sardars who are more fanatic and conservative than the so-called south-indian-conservative.

I have come to a conclusion that if there needs to be progress in our country and if we can learn something from the west. It's their sense of humor.

[P.S - US is so big and i am considering only the liberal america. Some people in the heartland have more phobias than the dictionary could list. I call them Indians of America.]