You find this fun?

I do not see where is the joy in making others suffer.

I do not understand where is the fun in making fun of others.

I'm all for a little joke. But sometimes people take it too far, it's not funny any more.

There were these jokes/riddles/games that started in Rouen, where there was a bunch of us Malaysians gathered together in Sia Ven and Yilie's place. The first one was the one-two-three joke. We make 3 formations with objects, telling you that the first one is one, and the second one is two, and then the third one is three. Then we make a fourth formation and ask you what it is. You guess wrong, and you simply do not get why the answer is what it is.

Then there is the key joke, where someone drops his keys onto the table and asks you to whom they belong now. That is the dumbest among them all, I think, because it is all up to chance and you might just miss hearing it (this might be cryptic, but it is all I can say without giving the game away)

There was also black magic and white magic...and the weird boy who likes certain things but doesn't like others. Like...he likes Pizza Hut but not Domino's, he likes Maggi but not Cintan, he likes toothpaste but not Colgate, spoons but not forks, etc. And you have to figure out why he likes these stuff and dislikes others.

These jokes were shared one night in Rouen, one after another. We sure had fun. But after that, it didn't die down. Instead, when there were others who didn't know these jokes, it somehow found its way into the conversation. And that's where it stops being funny. Because those who knew the answers refused to tell those who didn't (or to let others tell them). And not only at the beginning, not for a while, but for days, probably weeks...

Worse is when a bunch of people play the joke on a single person. Their "victim" is the only one who doesn't know the trick, and has to puzzle it out on his own while all the others look on knowingly.

The worst, is when that single person, already alone, is submitted to five jokes in a row. Wait, not even in a row. At the same time. Because before discovering the answer to one, he's already pushed into the next.

And don't say that it isn't unkind because you went through that yourself, that you also had to guess. Just because someone did it to you doesn't mean that you have to do it to others. That, to me, is akin to paying it forward...the "it" being revenge.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I have known this quote like forever (but I just found out that it comes from Jesus Christ), and I have always agreed with it. Why not? Another quote I like is from Dalai Lama: Be kind whenever possible...it is always possible. I wouldn't be so idealistic as to completely believe the second part, but I would say that it is more often possible than not.

I am not saying that I would not give others those riddles. I would. But riddles are to be answered, to be shared. In a friendly setting.

Maybe I am asking for a too ideal world. But I know that I am not completely alone in this, since I did not figure it all out on my own, and yet I know the answers. I shall pay it forward and/or back, you only need ask.

But I shall not post the answers here. Why? Because I want to be a sport. Because there is fun in guessing, as there is in making others guess. But there is a limit to everything. One should be able to give up and ask for the answer.