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Anything for a laugh: Literary pranksters and their exploits (Column: Bookends)

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By Vikas Datta
Among the many paradoxes of the human condition is that, despite time itself playing tricks on us, a large part of the world dedicates a special day for pranks — say, April Fools’ Day, the favoured choice across the West as well as India and Lebanon, among others. This “custom” may have its reasons, among which is our fascination with a cultural archetype called the Trickster.

Originating in religion and mythology, a Trickster freely disobeys rules and conventional behaviour. Be it a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman or anthropomorphic animal, they are clever and capable, mock authority, impulsive, keen on new ideas and experiences, may promote chaos — and are not deterred by being caught out or punished.

Found in religious traditions and folklore worldwide, some of the best-known are Hermes and Odysseus (Greek mythology), Loki (Norse), Krishna and the sage Narada (Hindu religion), Anansi (various African and Caribbean traditions), Puss in Boots, Brer Rabbit (American folklore), and the Coyote (several Native American traditions).

Tricksters are of various types — the Con Man, the Fox, the Hustler, the Lovable Rogue, the Shapeshifter and more, but since it is April Fools’ Day, let’s focus on the Pranksters.

At the simplest, these are men, women or animals who love practical jokes more than their friends, but are never selective about their targets, and hence a constant annoyance for all who know them — and many who don’t. They are, however, tolerated for the amusement they provide, as well their ability to pull something out of their hats at crucial moments.

Among one of the most prominent is that “shrewd and knavish sprite”, “that merry wanderer of the night”. Puck (or Robin Goodfellow), from William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”, plays a prominent part, creating the drama by breaking up one of the pair of runaway lovers lost in the enchanted forest, but also replacing one of the amateur drama performers’ head with that of a donkey to create further mayhem.

Then Brer Rabbit — in his original form in the Uncle Remus stories of Joel Chandler Harris and the more familiar adaptation by Enid Blyton — successfully fends of a range of predatory animals as well as the odd human or two.

Proving the female of the species can be more deadly than the male is one of P.G. Wodehouse’s finest but most underutilised characters — Roberta “Bobbie” Wickham. The alluring, red-headed cousin once removed of that celebrated raconteur Mr Mulliner and a former fiancee of Bertie Wooster, she appears in only four stories.

In three — “Something Squishy”, “The Awful Gladness of the Mater”, “The Passing of Ambrose” (all in “Mr Mulliner Speaking”) — her suitors of the time face some harrowing moments in their bid to impress her — from being identified as the owner of a snake, being mistaken for a high-society burglar and tasked with taking two children around London.

In “Mr Potter Takes A Rest Cure” (in “Blandings Castle and Elsewhere”), she adroitly uses an American publisher (without his knowledge) taking a holiday at her home to fend off the attentions of a pushy young politician courting her.

Captain (actually Flying Officer) W.E. Johns’ pilot hero James Bigglesworth, or “Biggles” as we better know him, isn’t beyond the prank to get even with those who have ditched him or bothered his friends during his World War I service.

Let down by his friend Wilks (Wilkinson of the 287 Squadron), Biggles concocts an elaborate revenge involving humbugs (the sweet) and sending his kit to the Germans (“Humbugs” in “Biggles of the 266 Squadron”). Then when his cousin Algy is chewed by a martinet at a nearby unit for aerial stunts, Biggles goes there and displays some atrocious flying. As, on landing, he gets an earful from the same officer — a Captain — he coolly takes of his flying jacket to show his (borrowed) uniform of a Colonel. Read “Reprisals” in the same book to know what happened after this.

Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” has Begemot (or Behemoth). A member of Woland’s (the Devil) entourage, he is a large black cat who can speak, walk on two legs, transform into a human briefly and likes chess, vodka, pistols, obnoxious sarcasm and mayhem — which he does in both his forms. In one of the book’s most uproarious scenes, he teams up with fellow acolyte Fagotto/Korovyev to trash a top supermarket and then a restaurant for the Russian literary elite.

Fred and George Weasley from the Harry Potter series are too well-known.

And then there are examples from real life — “Prince of Practical Jokers” Horace de Vere Cole (1881-1936), who in 1910 fooled the Royal Navy into taking him and a group of his friends, including Virginia Woolf, onto its most advanced warship HMS Dreadnought, and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard P. Feynman, who even while working on the atomic bomb during World War II, cracked safes with abandon and left mocking messages in them.

They deserve a separate piece — but those keen can read Martyn Downer’s “The Sultan of Zanzibar: The Bizarre World and Spectacular Hoaxes of Horace De Vere Cole” and Feynman’s autobiography “Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman”.

(Vikas Datta is an Associate Editor at IANS. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at [email protected])

–IANS
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Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones

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CasinoDays India

International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.

Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.

The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.

Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile

The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.

CasinoDays India

The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.

“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.

Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings

Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.

 

CasinoDays India

Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).

Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.

The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.

Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.

Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities

The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.

On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.

Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.

“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.

The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.

 

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