You’d think that being Pakistani, we’re easily amused. That living in the middle of our very own Orwellian meets Freudian nightmare, we will take any crumb of humour and yuk it up. Not so, we’ve got standards. And like everything else, we like humour that is relevant. Jokes that will make sense in a local context. Films that hold a mirror up to society and its many flaws. Music that is revolutionary. Videos that make you think. Frankly, sometimes all the relevance gets a bit tiring. Luckily the new breed of Pakistan’s most popular entertainers is juggling local humour with a suitable tinge of pertinence, or not. And they’re just a click away. The funniest humour in Pakistan is humour that is making its way from YouTube to Facebook to Twitter and back, and not necessarily in that order. Their pages may not have followers in six figures, but everyone knows who you’re talking about when you mention them.

It was last summer that the whole ‘Tips’ phenomenon exploded across Facebook. There were tips for everything; bros and the inexplicable female equivalent, hos, IVS students and SMCHS students, burgers and mailas. A day didn’t go by without someone sharing a tip or 20 and tagging their friends on tips they might find relevant. Pretty soon we realized that similar, but more visual pages existed too, and I am sure the cooler amongst us were already aware of these, but I was delighted when someone shared a bunch of Gholam Mujtaba comics with me via The Secret Achaar Society.

Jay’s Toons had been around even longer than the Tips and Secret Achaar, and is definitely more highbrow as far as the humour is concerned; the fact that creator Jehanzeb Haque is web editor for a local newspaper is pretty clear with the kind of concerns that show up in his work. On the other end of the spectrum is The Secret Achaar Society, started by cousins Hammad Haroon and Muzammil Zaidi, A-level and first year college student respectively, who have a really offbeat sense of humour and their comics are sharply observed, but refuse to be controversial in any way.

“We address really everything in the world,” say the Secret Achaar brains, “except for religion, and politics, as addressing the former would offend many, and addressing the latter is just a cheap way to garner success with the opposition of whomever one is mocking. Anyone can make a comic on Zardari and get a billion likes. Similarly, using memes is a huge no-no. They are the enemies of originality.”

The Secret Achaar Society comics, along with some really unexpected punchlines and humour, also house some of the weirdest heroes and anti-heroes ever. The most prominent one being Mailaman, of course (there’s a Topiman also, whose big gift is self-evident). The Mailaman is maila (unhip in a very desi way, to simplify it, though there’s no easy simplification of the term), and has all kinds of adventures supported by the sheer force of his mailaness. The Secret Achaar duo is also behind Mailatips, a reaction to the rest of the tips, only about something that is not exactly celebrated. “The side of society people look down, sort of a sarcastic, humourous take on being what people don’t like being, apparently.”

Mailatips went well with the KarachiTips we were all loving, which pointed out the many quirks and perks of living in the city. Started by M. Abdullah, a Mass Communications student at the University of Karachi, Bilal Zubair Khan, who plans to apply to art school, and Baakh Nusrat, MBBS student at Ziauddin University, KarachiTips proved to be a celebration of Karachi when we needed it most - smack in the middle of a crazy hot summer, with a crazier loadshedding schedule. Or non-schedule, if I may. “We are people from different walks of life but we’re friends and we still have tons of things in common - love of Karachi and the arts and creativity, for starters,” explains Abdullah.

What’s common between Secret Achaar, KarachiTips and Mailatips is the sense of inclusion and a definite attitude of whatever is the opposite of jaded, which is usually what we see in most Pakistani entertainment. Comics by Arslan, by Arslan Naseer, who is a Marketing major working in the Social Development sector, are actually pretty straightforward in their humour; not always clean-cut, but what you see is what you get, in a manner which recalls Dan Piraro’s tongue-in-cheek style. What is most incredible about Comics by Arslan is the fact that Arslan is not a trained artist, and all his stuff is hand-drawn, really, really well.

Arslan’s reason for bringing his sometimes odd humour to the Internet? “I realized that people around us are constantly discussing all the misery that is shown in the mainstream media and have begun ignoring all the little things that surround us that make our life fun.”

While the visually crazy fun of the comics, and the grabby Tips one-liners are probably more appealing than reading through the solid text of Big Pen Pakistan, ‘Pakistan’s First Weekly Humour Site’, Pakistan’s very own Cracked is worth a read if you’re looking for writers with something a little off the wall to say about something regular.

Started by Mehr F. Husain, former Features Editor at a weekly magazine and Ali Raza, her husband, who works in Human Resources, Big Pen picked up some momentum over the summer, and wanted to throw in humour, like the others, that Pakistanis could relate to. The difference here is of course that currently Big Pen is made up mostly of articles written by regularly featured columnists and contributors, as well as links to both Jay’s Toons and The Secret Achaar Society, plus The Desis (also on Facebook). There is the inevitable social commentary on Big Pen too, with timely articles coinciding with Veena Malik’s FHM cover, and the recent furor caused by Maya Khan. Some of their most hilarious pieces are completely random though, such as Matrimonial Ads and What They Are Really Saying, a four-part series of articles, which examines Pakistani matrimonial ads and susses the bachelors out on chat.

Big Pen Pakistan did set out to make people laugh, with humour with a local flavour, “but while doing so,” says Mehr, “[we] attempt to provide a greater Pakistani presence on the Internet with regards to our media and pop culture.”

Skipping onto the humour scene in a completely different medium is Osman Khalid Butt of course, who has done everything from a dramatic reading of Meera’s tweets to his own reenactment of the now infamous episode of Maya Khan’s morning show.

“[In] YouTube I found a great medium because of the outreach,” says Osman, “it’s a global platform to showcase your work. The tone I got from lack of psychotherapy; I have an outlandish, a tad not-quite-there sense of humor which till now was reserved only for close friends and family… once I got positive feedback on the first video, it both inspired and gave me confidence to put myself out there and record every random thought/idea that came to my head.”

While it’s great to see so much funny emerge from a bunch of such diverse individuals, the question remains if these brilliant minds can sustain themselves and their acts, or if they will simply fizzle off into thin air because of a lack of time and resources; most of our perpetrators in question are students or working in completely unrelated fields, after all.

As it happens, they all have a plan in sight as far as their ventures are concerned. The guys over at KarachiTips have already launched a blog and plan on expanding further. “With our blog we’ve taken a huge turn,” they say, “and we’re planning to take it to print by June. The plan is to go big. Why? Because growth is necessary.” Team KarachiTips insists that this is essential in order to make sure everyone understands the importance of their city, which is what they have set out to do. The Secret Achaar/ Mailatips founders recognize their limitations as students, but hope to move on up to their own website, and hopefully, animations in the same vein as the comics.

Though mostly text-based at the moment, Big Pen too has plans to branch out in terms of content and medium. “We’ll be bringing original animations and videos in the near future,” Mehr reveals. “And we’re working out a schematic for introducing humourous short stories. All the while we’ll be on the look out for new contributors and columnists who’ll bring in their own particular styles and help us grow and provide our readers with a vast assortment of material to help brighten their day.”

Despite the fact that each of these projects is a private effort, so as such no rules of censorship applies to it, it’s good to see all the art and words being cutting and funny and sarcastic, and all those good things, but without being blatantly offensive, which is a difficult balance to maintain at the best of times. Comics by Arslan is a little free-wheelin’ in terms of language and content, but posts suitability warnings on respective albums if they need them. Big Pen as a rule stays away from political/ religious controversy and Osman Khalid Butt realizes his work is both rated R and NSFW at times, but thinks he would definitely like to take it to a bigger platform should the opportunity arise, “as long as there’s no censorship on content,” he says. “I realize the chances of that are next-to-nil, but a guy can dream, right?”

As far as detractors go, all of them have their share.

“Someone once told me that success is the best revenge. I disagree. It’s tuning haters out,” says Osman. “They’re here to stay, unfortunately, and itching for that Facebook/YouTube/Twitter-war, so the best you can do, really, is to laugh whatever they throw at you off. It’s what I do. It’s like… how does the phrase go? If someone has a problem with me, it’s really their problem, not mine. Over the years, I’ve tried reasoning, responding equally violently, but that’s exactly what they get off on. In my experience, at least.” Or as KarachiTips put it so eloquently: “haters are gonna hate but they are not bringing us down.”

The more politically correct Secret Achaar/ Mailatips and Big Pen have an equally open attitude towards people who don’t agree with them. “As a norm we don’t respond to feedback we receive in the form of comments on our posts, because we don’t want to start a flame war there,” says Mehr, but points out that Big Pen endorses the right everyone hasto their opinion.

Being Pakistani also means we’re naturally inclined to pay attention to anything that is newsy and current - we’ve evolved into newshounds by default, and yes, some of the things that catch our collective fancy fastest are all dripping with political and social allusions, such as the Beygairat Brigade’s breakout tune ‘Aalo Anday’, or any Shehzad Roy video, so it goes without saying the humour we appreciate the most, has a little, if not complete basis in our circumstance. That we have a wealth of talent that knows how to work all the requisite Pakistani mayhem and ridiculousness into solid humour, and the ability to laugh at that humour - well that’s just one of the things that makes all the bad stuff worth it.