TO LAUGH, OR NOT TO LAUGH: THAT'S THE QUESTION!

KUALA SELANGOR 23 OCTOBER 2011: For Shakespearean aficionados who took part in Soroptimist Treasure Hunt 2011, it must have been a rewarding experience for them!

They came to join an event, one hopefully capable of rendering lasting memories, of providing great value for money and of course, of offering entertainment! They found more than what they could have bargained for; just not in the way they could have envisaged!

Their entry fee not only entitled them to join the “Hunt with A Heart”; it was also a ticket to watch the farcical remake of one of the Bard’s well-known plays – The Comedy of Errors!

How else can they react to this hunt that saw the comical COC unintentionally bemused the participants with humorous anecdotes and reasons for his clownish performance?

Soroptimist Charity Hunt 2011

COC Francis Lee












COC jokes are always good for a chuckle but for the frustrated hunters caught in his antics, it’s no laughing matter!

The course of true hunt never did run smooth!
(misquoted from A Midsummer Nights Dream)


“All answers are in sequence!” was the COC’s final instruction during the hunt briefing in the morning. Yet within the next few hours, his hunt tulips proved to be a horrendous contradiction, when several questions inexplicably appeared in the wrong order.

Half-way through the hunt, one probably suspected that the questions were sequenced by a toddler learning to count in a nursery. Such amateurish mistakes were utterly avoidable if the COC had religiously performed final check on the tulips. Instead the participants were needlessly sent on a wild goose chase as they searched in vain for the solutions in the wrong sectors.

And to cap it all, came the audacious excuse from the COC! When queried about the influence behind such an exceptional blooper, he initially responded with an indignant challenge “Are you sure?”

However as the grilling of interviewers gradually intensified for clarification of ‘answers in sequence’, the nonchalant shrug eventually gave way to a wry chuckle, before he casually dismissed it with a cheeky confession “That day I was taking some drugs; maybe got the signs mixed up a bit.”

It was scarcely a convincing vindication. If the excuse of medication was meant to diffuse the tension and tickle the funny bone, the hunters were somehow unsure whether to laugh with him or laugh at him.

Typically an act of getting 2 or 3 questions in wrong sequence would have induced a slap on the wrist; but it was still forgivable. However an ‘outstanding performance’ of six sequentially-wrong questions (in 3 different sectors), coupled with such defiant response must surely have merited sufficient votes for Award in BAFTA (short for Blind And Foolhardy Technical Advisor).

Another theory was that perhaps the COC was on a secret mission to get his names into the Malaysian Book of Hunt Record under several categories.

If the above effort somehow failed to qualify for “Most Wrongly-Sequenced Questions” entry, perhaps his attempt for “Longest Distance for a Question Sector” was worth a shot. In an endeavour to slow the hunters down, the COC proudly boasted a record-breaking 9-km distance for the sector of Q37, with the solution appearing right at the very end.

“Ha...ha…. now you all must slow down to look for the answer; look left and look right until the end” he added with a sarcastic snicker. Cheap tricks were indeed the last resort of the uncreative.

Participants during briefing

Donation to the charity

    

Hunters make use of time, let not advantage slip
(misquoted from Venus and Adonis)

He further demonstrated his tendency to blather during the winners’ announcement. A straight-forward announcement would have accomplished the task; yet somehow his misplaced effort to inject drama into the proceedings by taunting the winners of 3^rd and 4^th placings horribly backfired.

“Wah.... the 3^rd winner came back early; but didn’t want to submit & stayed for a while. If they had stayed a bit longer, they would have lost the 3^rd prize cash RM500! The 4^th-place team lost to them by the time tie-breaker of just 1 minute, as they left 7.45am this morning and came back bla...bla...bla...”

When the 4^th-placed team rightly pointed out to the COC later that their starting time was 7.50am, instead of 7.45am as announced by him (hence they should be third), he momentarily reverted to his cantankerous, incredulous stare. Thankfully to his credit, this time he decided to personally check the time record sheet.

Yet upon the discovery of the faux pas, he must have felt that his talent of comic timing would have again resolved the matter when he delivered another hilarious one-liner “Oh... it’s my wife that transferred the time record!”

Shakespeare, no doubt had him in mind when he aptly put it in his Twelfth Night –

“Alas our frailty is to blame, not we!

For such as we are made of, such we be!”

 

Brevity is NOT the Soul of Wit (misquoted from Hamlet)

And most damningly of all was the decision by the COC to punish anyone who didn’t write the answers in both English AND Malay languages!

In treasure hunts, the general rule of thumb is to write the answers in full; which is commonly interpreted as including the nature of business and Sdn Bhd or Enterprise or others. Where the name of business appears in dual language, the hunters can choose either one; unless one is more fitting than the other.

However unknown to most hunters, the COC who may be a linguaphile, somehow failed to mention his affection for both languages in his Briefing Notes; or else the hunters would have gladly penned in both languages & any other languages (if necessary).

“Aiya... you must write the answer in full. Must write in both languages. This is basic stuff for hunters!” was his post-hunt pearl of wisdom.

And to think that the advice came from a COC who can’t get the basics of the question sequence and time record correct, it’s a bit like ‘Luis Suarez labelling John Terry a racist’!

It is one thing for a COC to ask others to stick to the basics, but quite another when he practises otherwise, and offers pathetic excuses for doing so.

Another debatable punishment meted out in the hunt was the spelling error. Fair enough, if he wanted the key words of the answer to be spelt correctly; but if he chose to penalise others for spotting a different signboard for the same business (which have slightly different non-key words), that would be a bit nonsensical.

Q29 Those born in February should
 know it is purple in colour.
Which is the correct answer?

Kedai Lampu Dan Hiasan Amethyst?
OR Kedai Lampu & Kipas Amethyst?
OR both are acceptable?

 

 

Now is The Winter of Our Hunt Discontent (misquoted from Richard III)

“Why so serious?” our COC spoke, downplaying the gravity of his mistakes, with a grin from ear to ear. “This is just a fun hunt!”

If this was a friendly charade game at his home during Christmas party, no one would be overly concerned with such boo-boos. However for such an open hunt, with cash prizes up for grabs (though this may be a charity event), there must be certain guidelines and rules of engagement that are transparent to all.

If so many points were lost due to the wrong sequence of questions, gaffes in time record and so-called mistakes in spotting equally valid answers, surely ‘fun’ would be the last thing in the minds of the hunters!

Kind of like a contestant of the quiz show “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” belatedly finding out that the host was the goofy Mr Bean; and the rules of the game were changed during the show. Perhaps for the Phone-A-Friend lifeline, you have to call Teddy, his teddy bear.

One can’t help feeling that if this didn’t come close to a self-indulgent, low-camp tomfoolery version of The Comedy of Errors, nothing else will!

For the neutrals, such slapstick undoubtedly provided great entertainment, with moments of back-slapping guffaws.

For those unfortunate hunters who were ‘sorrow-ptimized’, they must have been doubled over by such buffoonery.

Funny thing is …. you can’t make out whether they are laughing or crying!

 
 

1st-Runner Up



Champion