Partially Lifted Lockdown Bulletins - Confounding Expectations

A lot of people believe that Australians and English people have the best senses of humour (a lot of English people would not include Australians, believing the trait is unique to them). While both Australians and English people certainly can be absolutely hilarious, they can also be the most unbelievably po-faced individuals on earth. I think most of the activities of the British police in connection with so-called "hate crime" bear this claim out, and anyone who has encountered a representative of Australia's quarantine bureaucracy will also agree that they are pretty short on humour.

In fact, there is probably a case to be constructed from the argument that nations with very good senses of humour are nations where a lot of the people actually have no sense of humour and those who make jokes are doing it as a reaction to that mob.

Leaving that aside, I think I can assert that Hungarians are not generally known for their sense of humour. Not that they have none, but it is not the first thing you think of when someone mentions the Hungarian nationality to you.

Or, in my case, it wasn't until now the first thing I thought of.

What has completely changed my perspective is the Instagram account of the Hungarian Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. During lockdown, it has invited anyone who feels like it to send in photographs of themselves, plus friends and family, doing their best, using only what they have to hand in their houses, to create a tableau matching a painting in the museums collection. The results have been, for me, a complete revelation of a huge streak of not taking themselves seriously running through the heart of the Hungarian population.

Here are some examples:

1. I hate Cranach, but he seemed to inspire some people. I think the woman with pink tufts in her hair gets the Cranach woman's expression best.

2. I don't know these paintings but in the first one I love the inexactitude of the props, in the second I like the spirit of the whole thing, particularly the woman's sheer abandon and in the third the buckets for hats win my heart.

 3. This is so simple - a towel and a bit of eyeliner - highly ingenious.

 4. This one proved a popular subject. I'm torn between version 1 and 2, as in each the men are enjoying being frightful. I also love version 3 because they are clearly having so much fun, even though it isn't very true to the original.

 

5. I love St Rocco, patron saint of people with sore legs, among other things. I'm very fond of the expression on the face of the man in the first one. The dog in the second is lovely.

6. I don't know why I like this one, but I do.

7. I love the size mismatch in this:

8. Here's another popular choice:

 9. And finally the ones with children.

10. Oh, and I almost forgot St Jerome.

For more, go to this Instagram account.