Thinking back on the moments of comedy I have enjoyed the most, very near the top must be the exploits of Neil, the depressed hippie from British comedy “The Young Ones”. Etched in my mind is a scene where Neil decides to have a bath in water that is a week old and already washed in by three other people. In the darkness, he sits in sludge and soon discovers his old bicycle hidden in the murky depths. Another memorable scene finds Neil, before a group visit to the launderette, declaring how cool it would be to become known as the dirtiest students in the whole world who will never, ever, wash their clothes again.
Comedy aside, I have recently read about an Iranian man, Amou Haji, who has been dubbed “The World’s Dirtiest Man”, for real. Haji is quoted as saying he hasn’t had a bath in sixty years. The eighty year old, reportedly emotionally scarred in his teenage years, lives alone in the desert, eats rotten porcupine meat, and smokes dried animal dung. He believes bathing will bring him disease and will not countenance it.
For me, the original Young Ones sketches were so funny because they were so outrageous. Little did I know the most extreme comedic depictions of grimy student life would go full circle and actually be reflective of reality.
Amou Haji’s story is, in my opinion, a sad one. It does, however, remind me of the charm I saw in Neil’s embracing of personal freedom and challenge of the established norms. It is an individual’s right to choose when to wash or not wash one’s body and clothes. Like Neil, Haji has chosen to exist on the fringes of society. Effectively a hermit, he is believed to be older and happier than many other local people living more conventional lives, surrounded by comforts and mod cons.
Both Haji and Neil, one real, one fictional, crave peace, love, and freedom. This seemed to me an instance of the blurred lines that increasingly bridge the gap between fiction and reality. Turning our backs on traditional society is our own choice….even if we are a bit smelly
I’m D.B.G (Dan Barnaby Goddard), a writer and recording artist based on Dartmoor in the West of the U.K. My songs are musical poems reflecting things I have seen and felt throughout my life and I’m always on the lookout for stories which reaffirm my trust in humanity and the human spirit.
In this Buzz column I seek out instances to fill in the spaces left by an increasingly corporate world, commenting on the unpredictable and heart warming gems which are created as the wheels of power keep turning round.
