The Philosophy of PJ's

I am no authority when it comes to PJ's, neverthless I thought I can share my limited
wisdom on this topic with you. To the uninitiated, PJ stands for "Poor Joke". I must also
add, oxymoronic as it may sound, that there does exist something called as a good PJ. (though my friends firmly believe I am incapable of crackin one !)

Sometimes PJ's are "real" simple, at other times they might be "complex" (e.g P + iJ).
There are two broad categories into which PJ's can be classified, situational and classics.
There is also a sub-section of PJ's which are neither situational nor classic, but which
yearn to be classic and thrive as long as they can find a patronising audience. These are
generally cracked by budding PJ enthusiasts or by yours truly.

Classic PJ's are real hard to come by. They need a very keen sense of humour and a very
fertile mind to develop. Ever since my 'A-' I think my knowledge ('Naal-edge') regarding
classics have received a jolt. Some of my recent attempts have all fallen into the
sub-section that I have mentioned in the previous paragraph. The classics are always fun to
narrate - cause these are time tested and have proven to evoke atleast a semblance of
laughter even amongst very serious personalities.

Situationals PJ's are very contextual and are cracked impromptu. There is a very less
likelihood of them being appreciated outside the specific context. These PJ's have a very
short lifespan, and humorous as they might be, are neverthless banished into oblivion at the end of the conversation. A small piece of advice while recieving these kind of PJ's - if you
dont get it the first time, just hide your ignorance and laugh alongwith others. Failure to
do so might result in people laughing at you, rather than with you. Also, principle states
that no "corollaries" should be cracked once the main "lemma" is stated. Applied PJ is a
whole new ball game and must be rehearsed only in the presence of an experienced and well
trained audience.

I have always found that the quality of PJ cracked depends to a great extent on the
company that you are. Two of my friends, Totti and Ronnie George (ddf), are like tonics to
the ego of any PJ cracker. Somehow both possess an uncanny ability to laugh at even the
poorest of the poorest PJ. On the other hand I have come across people who dont possess even an iota of sense of humour and would frown down at any attempt to regale them.

At the beginning of the year I had this New Year resolution of putting together a website
on PJ's. I appointed myself and Kiran Aatre as the associate editors of our "International
Journal of PJ's (IJPJ)", and Totti as the webmaster. Param and many others had even agreed
to contribute articles to it. The phonetic nature of a some of the PJ's makes the web a difficult place to convey them effectively....and so like most of my other New Year resolutions this one never saw the daylight !