The Pakistani Spectator

I know this is not a crisp topic to discuss at TPS, but it is still worth a mention. America is well known for its hollywood cinema. Hollywood’s influence spans a world wide audience. But American public is really more addicted to the sitcoms that are produced for cable TV. Some of these sitcoms have acquired worldwide fame. Friends, for example, was originally produced from 1994 to 2004 and was a huge success with audience all over the world. It has been broadcast in as many as 11 different languages. It was such a huge success that almost 51.1 million people tuned into their TV sets for the final episode of friends. But this number is just 2/3 of what Seinfeld registered.

With the advent of cable TV transmission in Pakistan our viewers have access to many more channels. Almost all the channels, other than those of South Asian origin, are in English and the content is heavily influenced by American way of TV. Our youth has fast assimilated the American sitcom culture and has become used to various American productions. Most of us dream the dream, everyone outside the US dreams _ to live the American dream. These sitcoms are a window to the way of life that almost everyone yearns for.

It is a stark and very unfortunate fact of Pakistani life that no matter how much we hate US and its policies but if given a chance we will prefer a blue passport over a green one. I am not doubting the patriotism of anyone out there but let us be honest to ourselves. We all gauge our success based on the American parameters. We all base our standards on the American precedent. Watching sitcoms is just a mental exercise towards the hope of realising our dream one day.

I have seen and loved my share of sitcoms from Friends and Scrubs to That 70’s Show and many many more in between. I can somehow relate to one character or the other in these sitcoms and relive my alter existence. How much is the rest of the youth influenced by these sitcoms in Pakistan? The answer in my mind is simple _ a lot. Our youth is directly and effectively driven by the trends and commotions set forth by these sitcoms. They talk the talk, they walk the walk and they think the thought.

Is this going to have a long lasting effect on the way we live here in Pakistan? I think the safe answer is yes, it will. We can not dissociate ourselves from what we see. Our brain spends as much as 70% of its energies on interpreting and assimilating date from the visual input. This data has long lasting influence on the way we think. I am not trying to hatch a conspiracy theory here but arguing about a simple truth. When we see 4 kids sitting around a table and smoking weed (pivotal scene in That 70’s show) we tend to assimilate the idea and resurrect it under our own circumstances.

I do not, in any way, imply that the effects of these sitcoms are any different in their original target audience but maybe these sitcoms are not best suited for the kind of audience that gets exposed to them in Pakistan. But then again why should we want to deny ourselves a good half an hour of light humor and laughter.