|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Casualty of Glasnost: Soviet Jokes and Political Humor: A Short Lesson in History
| Article
# : |
18538 |
|
|
Section : |
CULTURE
|
| Issue
Date : |
4 / 1991 |
3,305 Words |
| Author
: |
Victor Raskin
Victor Raskin is professor of linguistics at Purdue
University. He is editor in chief of the quarterly magazine
Humor: International Journal of Humor Research. As a
contributing editor to the Culture section, he has prepared
the special series The Mission of Humor, which continues
publication in this issue of THE WORLD & I. The series, which
began in the April 1992 issue, will conclude in the August
1992 issue. |
Political humor is humor of suppression, of getting back at people who are powerful enough to influence one's life but over whom--in fact or fantasy--one has no control. Obviously, suppression is far greater in totalitarian and authoritarian political systems than in democracies, but even in the so-called free societies, ordinary people are often frustrated with their elected officials and tempted to lash at them with humor and satire.
In nonfree societies, however, excessive oppression can make humor life threatening. The last joke recorded out of Nazi Germany dates back to 1938: A famous cabaret emcee (in the movie version, he would, of course, be played by Joel Grey--in fact, Christopher Isherwood's prototype in the script for Cabaret must have been based on that same emcee) quipped,
"Heil who? I keep forgetting the name."
That was his last joke, and he was never to be seen again.
When you are bound to be killed for a joke, you probably stop joking. This presumably falls into a Freudian category of having strong feelings about something and not laughing about it--people are known to have strong feelings about their own survival. But there are exceptions: gallows humor, for instance--like the man being led to the gallows one Monday at dawn who felt compelled to remark that it was not a very propitious beginning for his week. Of course, it can be argued that his survival was not at stake--he knew he would not survive--and so humor was his last resort to get back at the executioners.
Stop killing people for jokes and people will start telling them about the most sacred and forbidden things, often still at a considerable risk to themselves. We see many examples of that coming from my native Russia, primarily before glasnost. Why before glasnost? Surprisingly, if Rule One for political humor is too much oppression kills humor of suppression, Rule Two, though you may not believe it, seems to be too little oppression kills humor of suppression. It appears that there should be just enough oppression--not too little, not too much--for political humor to flourish.
Follow--and assault--the leader!
Speaking of things Russian, this is, in fact, where I am headed. Soviet political humor is an unknown casualty of glasnost: reduced to a shadow of what it once was. It still
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
