Current Trends in the Commercialisation of Humour and Its Implications for Egalitarianism: An Islamic Exposé on Muslim Urban Society Development

Abstract

Modern living is characterised by innumerable sources of vivacity, whether conventional or self-induced, to ensure living is lively. This parallel quest is sought for vehemently, even if it must be at the expense of expending finances to ensure this lively apparatus is at our disposal. This has exacerbated the increasing growth of the entertainment industry in the present milieu. Unarguably, one of the leading sales points of the entertainment industry is Humour creation. Popular content creators, skit makers, and seasoned movies, to name a few, are in consonance of generating comic artifacts. If not professionally managed and regulated, this quest for vivacity can end up serving as a thief of sanity: society, which is hitherto known as the joint juncture of individuals to discuss pressing issues and source common ground solutions, has grown copiously fragmented and delineated by a hypothetical "mind my business" ordeal. Humorous phenomena continue to gain commercial patronage and unwavering importance, deteriorating the egalitarian de facto as established by Islamic dictates, a dynamic with direct bearing on the development of Muslim urban society, where mosques, preachers, and Muslim content creators increasingly compete for attention within the same digital economy that commodifies laughter. Using a qualitative, case-study, and hermeneutic-evaluative design, this research critically analyses the implications of the far-reaching, widespread commercialisation of humour, highlighting the Islamic perspective and precepts on the foregoing through case studies and qualitative surveys, and providing palpable recommendations for content creators, preachers, and audiences within Muslim urban communities.