I Want to See This Routine Myself
Hakimullah Mehsud, the new leader of the Pakistani Taliban, gave his inaugural press conference yesterday — The Associated Press’ Ishtiaq Mehsud reports in an understatement, “he did not appear to be a nervous fugitive in hiding from Pakistan soldiers and U.S. drones” — and apparently Hakimullah likes to keep things light hearted and flowing. From the AP:
“„Flanked by heavily armed fighters, the new leader of the Pakistani sat on a blue blanket, amiable and relaxed as he cracked jokes and mixed in threats of vengeance for deadly U.S. airstrikes. [snip]
“„At one point, he pulled out a laptop to show his guests an Afghan comedian’s jihadi — or holy war — groups. On the serious side, he also showed pre-attack video testimony made by a .
This is clearly a failure of journalism. What kind of “standup routine” could possibly be about holy war? Are we talking observational “d’jever notice” humor? You-know-you’re-a-takfiri-if punchline humor? Gallagher-esque prop humor? How can you not tell me what kind of video Hakimullah whips out on his laptop to pass the time? Is the guy able to laugh at himself?
