For most of us Christmas is a time for kindly laughter and merrymaking. For the Comedy Knights troupe, in 12 Months of Funny, put up at the Salesians Theatre, Sliema, the laughter they evoke is rarely kindly.
It is the delighted and some-times angry laughter evoked when an audience sees what is dishonest or profoundly un-fair exposed by being depicted as ludicrous.
The many sketches in the show, written by various authors (quite a few of them by Chris Dingli, who is the kingpin of the group), are short but hard-hitting, whether the target is a politician, a snobbish middle-class woman, a self-important parvenu or an ignorant set of local councillors.
The show, expertly directed by Wesley Ellul, does have a sketch about Santa Claus, who is revealed leaving gifts in what he wrongly believes to be an empty house, but this is really a token inclusion that does not produce the guffaws a good many other sketches do.
On the other hand, the dialogue between a couple of ‘smart’ Sliema women, which skilfully sends up their snobbishness towards all the many ħamalli they despise, is handled with beautiful lightness by Pia Zammit and Jo Caruana.
Zammit is even more skilful in a wickedly satirical monologue about a woman, now very much in the public eye, revealing in her mock-genteel speech her social ambitions and declaring again and again how proud she is of being the consort of such a powerful man.
However, she keeps him waiting while, from backstage he calls her ever more desperately to join him in bed. Her favourite book of the moment, by the way, is Fifty Shades of Grey.
Racism in Malta is treated in a small-scale but devastatingly funny piece inspired by the film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
In this sketch, a racially narrow-minded couple meet their daughter’s British-Ghanaian boyfriend and fail to restrain their prejudice until the daughter (Jo Caruana) explosively rounds on them.
Zammit and Marc Cabourdin, as the parents, are funny in not reali-sing how shockingly they behave, while Camilleri’s dignity is superb.
Most of the other sketches or satirical songs are directed at the current Labour government, politicians and hangers-on.
One is a withering sketch featuring the right-wing politician Norman Lowell, while the current Nationalist leadership receives a few very barbed darts as well.
The very shocking Sheehan/ Manwel Mallia episode gets more than one mention in the sketches, but the main attack is in a longish song sung by Dingli, which uses Sheehan’s name in a refrain sung by the audience with much relish.
Mallia and his man cannot complain that their departure in disgrace has remained unsung.
Another amusing sketch involves a new ambassador sent by Labour to represent Malta in the UN wearing a vest and no shirt and introducing himself disastrously to the UN Secretary-General.
The man (Thomas Camilleri) even thinks he is “at the EU” and, when his error is pointed out, says, “U iva, what’s the difference?”
Their show, I suspect, is the season’s funniest one
Perhaps the funniest, because it may be too close to the truth, is the song I Believe, with lyrics by Dingli, who also sings it.
It is an intelligent depiction of why so many people still strongly believe in the Labour government, despite all the blatant mistakes. Just as funny, or perhaps even fun-nier, is another piece written by Dingli.
In this sketch, a very sick man is taken to hospital to be cured of his ailment – that of having put aside his Nationalist affiliation and voted Labour in 2013.
The physician’s medication includes a ritual-like moment when he produces Labour’s electoral manifesto, holds it high and reads from it.
The man (Cabourdin) is cured, but may be heading for a relapse when told the identity of the PN’s current leader .
The Comedy Knights have a very good team of actors and writers. Their show, I suspect, is the season’s funniest one.