Excellent commentary. I would add that the Maghreb also has a deeper .... well cultural tradition such that satire seems far better accepted. For all that, some things just are not satirisable. Takes time to build this.

Takes time to build this

Indeed, the Kingdom is hardly ready for it's own version of Spitting Image. Re the Maghreb's more lenient attitude, one finds that the more developed a political culture is, the less there is offence at pisstaking. Not a judgement on the modernity or lack thereof of a country, merely on the heritage of political participation and relative social autonomy.

Laughter is the pleasurable orgasm of realizing you are not afraid of something. Often the pleasure of a joke is the surprise realease from the strains of conventional thinking and social demands of reverence.

Boy, that was dry. But anyway, humor is a "tiny revolution" as Orwell noted in an essay. THere is not alot of hilarity in the sacred Scriptures of many faiths for example (despite subtler or extraneous evidence that Jesus, Mohammed and Paul had well-developed senses of humor, not sure about Moses) because their purpose is about promoting reverence and obedience.

So humor has to tread carefully. Modern taboos often yield to suppression of humor about ethnicity, gender, and victimization (no joke, in the USA at least, begins "9/11, the Holocaust, and a lynched black man walk into a bar"), etc. because such sensitivities have risen to the level of secular pieties.

But the general level of tolerable humor is a somewhat useful gauge of social liberalism and it proceeds in fits and starts.

'Humor is subversive; ultimately every joke is a custard pie.'

He said. Question is, is humor destructive?

A lack of awarness of what it can get away with is only detrimental to its message.

I am reminded of the Karen Hughes visit to KSA, which led to a similar reaction after she clumsily discussed women's rights. The Saudi women who were interviewed went on the defensive (e.g. saying they didn't want to drive anyway). Bad approach, poor results.

I'd have to argue with you that the Saudis are ignorant of their self-denial. Saudi papers are full of self-criticism on all sorts of issues, including important ones, from dysfunctional education to the ignorance of the Haya.

I think rather that their problem is in figuring out how to deal with them. Saudi society is still very much a patron/client society. The patrons are expected to fix things. The client is expected to shut up about it until it's fixed. Taking personal responsibility for one's actions does not have a long history there (or much of anywhere, actually).

That realationship, though, is changing; it's just really, really hard for people who are used to doing something in one manner to quickly shift gears and find another.

I think, too, that attacking something with humor is more fruitful than whacking it with a stick, most of the time. "Tash" seems to be using humor to defeat the stick-wielders, with some success.

By providing laughs, it's encouraging the troglodytes to make even bigger, more obvious fools of themselves. We can only cheer that.

Dear JB,

the fact that Saudi papers include criticism of issues (although I would hardly call them "full of self-criticism") doesn't mean that Saudis are aware of their own denial of many problems. To the contrary, many might point to those stories as "proof" of just how open & self-critical Saudi society & its media are.

Most, if not all, MENA societies are "patron/client" societies, including places like Morocco and Lebanon. Still, criticism is possible and widespread. So is humor.

To me, the main issue in KSA seems to be a classic case of "what shouldn't be, can't be" - and thus "embarrassing" occurances are swept under the carpet or blamed on outsiders. Also, honor and dignity are prized so high that humor is easily mistaken for mockery. Add to that a system of culturalist-religious institutions that combine zeal with paranoia & you get 'ulama calling for the punishment of comedians.

I do very much agree with your argument that habits are, sadly, hard to change. And I join you in your cheers to make the traditionalists look as silly as they are.

--Matthias

Ahem:
Most, if not all, MENA societies are "patron/client" societies, including places like Morocco and Lebanon. Still, criticism is possible and widespread. So is humor.

Matters of degree. North Africa and the Levant (well Jordan and Leb Land, Syria is a wierd twilight zone in my opinion) are hardly in the same league as KSA in terms of the patron-client networks. KSA that is effectively government and society. In the Maghreb and Lebanon, it's parallel and sometimes in urban areas weaker than 'modern' society; in any case there are strong competitors to traditional / neo-traditional clientelist networks.

Vast difference.

Dear L,

I merely pointed out that a reference to "patron/client" relationships doesn't explain KSA.

And in the kingdom it's not quite as simple as "gov't and society", either. I agree that the relationships are 'clearer' than in, say, Lebanon. Thus, YES - "vast difference". But within a similar basic system.

--Matthias

I'd have to argue with you that the Saudis are ignorant of their self-denial.

Maybe I am being obtuse, are you suggesting that Saudis in denial know that they are in denial or that certain activists in the media etc recognise the trait in their societies? If the latter is the case, then the reports in the newspapers are about problems not about the culture of denial of problems, which are two different things.

Taking personal responsibility for one's actions does not have a long history there Agreed, that is still some form of not recognising one's faults is it not?

By providing laughs, it's encouraging the troglodytes to make even bigger, more obvious fools of themselves. We can only cheer that.

I for one am cheering that, my concern is that in doing so recklessly the show may have inspired sympathy for the icons it is attacking and imposition of an alien humour may be as destructive as a stick.

I entirely disagree.

With whom and what ya shiek?