Amusing and yet thought-tinkling, an inscription on a side wall read: 'All our waiters are married, they know how to take orders.' The wit is as much funny as clever, exposing chinks in the widely perceived notion of male domination. For women, it is a matter-of-fact-statement that doesn't need further validation while few men who glance at the inscription assure themselves that it is not them, but others of their species. No wonder, it is difficult to deprive a wit of its social or political manifestations.
Wit is understood as the plaything of the intellectual or the weapon of nimble minds, expressed in playfulness with words which convey feelings without being offensive. I am reminded of lawyer extraordinary Mohammad Ali Jinnah who, on being interrupted thrice during a hearing by the judge who kept saying 'rubbish' on each occasion, had turned to him and said, 'Nothing but rubbish has passed from your lordship's mouth throughout the day.' Wit had helped Jinnah win the argument, but the court was adjourned for the day!
Come to think of it, wit puts everything before us with a certain gentle, loving malice, winning us to laughter without for a moment alienating our sympathies for the targeted. A witty statement makes us enter into a more profound relationship with words, descending with them to a deeper realm for uncovering layers of embedded meanings. It is, however, another matter that not only is wit on the decline but its appreciation too has waned in the prevailing post-truth era.
One possible reason for men of real wit to be limited could be because discernment and lenity, mirth and conciliation, are qualities which do not blend easily with the natural asperity of our race. Since wit can be expressed only in language, not many have the intelligent ability to say or write things that are clever and usually funny. However, a witty remark can be an accidental reflection of a civilized life too. Else, the directions to one of the restrooms in a restaurant won't have read: 'men to the left, women are always right'.
There are many things in life so radically unwholesome that it is not safe to approach them save with witty humor as a disinfectant. And, when people cannot laugh, the moral atmosphere grows stagnant, and everything becomes too morbid, too preposterous, or too mischievous to meet with sympathy and solemn assurances of good will. This is why a sense of the ridiculous has been justly called the guardian of our minor morals, rendering us in some measure dependent upon the judgments of others.
A wit helps ease out of such compelling human conditions. It is for this reason that I can't help but agree with James Geary, author of Wit's End, that wit is more than just having a knack for snappy comebacks as it helps us navigate conveniently through the vicissitudes of life.
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