Laughter: the best medicine

1.    Name the eminent English novelist whose characters, often referred to as caricatures, livened up his novels.

(a) Charles Dickens (b) William Makepeace Thackeray (c) Anthony Trollope

2.    A gem of a humourous cum satirical novel is Gulliver’s Travels. It gives us a highly convenient adjective to use, Lilliputian. Of the three noted Irish humorists, who wrote the famous novel?

(a) George Bernard Shaw (b) Oscar Wilde (c) Jonathan Swift

3.    One of the finest humourists in the English language was not a British or American writer. In fact, English was not his mother tongue. We are referring to George Mikes, a Hungarian who settled down in England. Of his rib-tickling works, three books were on Britain. Which was the first and the most highly acclaimed among the following three?

(a) How to be Inimitable (b) How to be Decadent (c) How to be an Alien

4.    Comedians are usually not necessarily humourists when it comes to writing, even if they are good at adlibbing. An exception was the British-born American comedian par excellence, who wrote a delightful book: I Owe Russia $1200. Identify:

(a) Bing Crosby (b) Bob Hope (c) Norman Wisdom

5.    Swadeshi Rail was the most celebrated work of this eminent humourist, columnist and broadcaster. One of the most endearing characters in the early history of Radio Pakistan was Qaziji, which he wrote and enacted before the mike. Who are we alluding to?

(a) Shaukat Thanvi (b) Ibrahim Jalees (c) Fikr Taunsvi

6.    Namakdan was a full-fledged humourous magazine published from Karachi in the fifties. Its editor was its major contributor. Who was he?

(a) Majeed Lahori (b) Dukhi Premnagri (c) Ilyas Rasheedi

7.    Patras Bukhari was a man of many facets.

He was an educationist, a broadcaster (he was the first Indian to become the Director General of All India Radio, before Independence) and a writer who excelled in two languages —Urdu and English. Patras was his nom-de-plume.

What was his real name?

(a) Zulfiqar Ali Bokhari (b) Ahmed Shah Bokhari (c) Mansoor Bokhari

8.    Arguably, the finest living Urdu humourist is Mushtaq Ahmed Yusufi. He was a banker by profession.

Name his debut publication.

(a) Zarguzisht (b) Khakum Badahan (c) Chiragh Taley