Why All Dictators Have Moustaches: Political Jokes in Contemporary Belarus
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Anastasiya Astapova
Anastasiya Astapova is a PhD scholar at the Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore University of Tartu in Estonia. Her research focuses on the forms and genres of resistance and negotiation of political mythology and ideology in the Post-Soviet era, and includes the study of political humor, nationalist narratives, and conspiracy theories. Anastasiya was a recipient of the best student paper award at 2012 Summer Humor School and Symposium on Humor and Laughter for the presentation on student jokes. Among her recent and upcoming publications on the topic of current article are “De-Abbreviations: From Soviet Union to Contemporary Belarus” (Names, 2013) and “Political biography: Incoherence, contestation, and the hero pattern elements in the Belarusian case” (Journal of Folklore Research, in print).
Abstract
Based on the repertoire of Belarusian oral political jokes collected between 2011 and 2013, this article compares contemporary Belarusian humor to the earlier Socialist and contemporary non-Belarusian jokes. During this study, I discovered that Belarusian oral jokes mostly have versions created through various schemes of adaptation in other countries and about other figures (not necessarily political). The continuity goes far beyond the exchange of jokes between dictatorships (as it may initially seem after the comparison of Belarusian and Socialist jokes). I also discovered that Belarusian oral jokes are mostly authoritarian – ridiculing the regime and the president, unlike post-totalitarian ones targeting ideology. Finally, drawing from the emic perspective which coins many more forms and themes as the markers of political jokes than the scholars usually do, I show how expansive the notion of political humor may be.
About the author
Anastasiya Astapova is a PhD scholar at the Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore University of Tartu in Estonia. Her research focuses on the forms and genres of resistance and negotiation of political mythology and ideology in the Post-Soviet era, and includes the study of political humor, nationalist narratives, and conspiracy theories. Anastasiya was a recipient of the best student paper award at 2012 Summer Humor School and Symposium on Humor and Laughter for the presentation on student jokes. Among her recent and upcoming publications on the topic of current article are “De-Abbreviations: From Soviet Union to Contemporary Belarus” (Names, 2013) and “Political biography: Incoherence, contestation, and the hero pattern elements in the Belarusian case” (Journal of Folklore Research, in print).
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the European Social Fund’s Doctoral Studies and Internationalisation Programme DoRa; the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (Centre of Excellence, CECT); Estonian Research Council (Institutional Research Project ‘Tradition, Creativity, and society: minorities and alternative discourses’ (IUT2–43)); ETF grant 8149 ‘Cultural processes in a changing society: Tradition and creativity in post-socialist humour’. I would like to thank Michael Furman for his help with this research.
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©2015 by De Gruyter Mouton
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Understanding the Sequential Resources for Doing Humor in the Language Classroom
- Radical Clowning: Challenging Militarism through Play and Otherness
- Like Watching a Motorway Crash: Exploring the Embarrassment Humor of The Office
- Why All Dictators Have Moustaches: Political Jokes in Contemporary Belarus
- “Some Species of Contrasts”: British Graphic Satire, the French Revolution, and the Humor of Horror
- Sexist Humor in Facebook Profiles: Perceptions of Humor Targeting Women and Men
- Book Reviews
- Jocelyn Chey and Jessica Milner Davis: Humor in Chinese Life and Letters: Classical and Traditional Approaches
- Sam Friedman: Comedy and Distinction; the Cultural Currency of a ‘Good’ Sense of Humour
- Blank, Trevor J: The Last Laugh: Folk Humor, Celebrity Culture, and Mass-Mediated Disasters in the Digital Age
- Dynel Marta: Developments in Linguistic Humour Theory. Topics in Humor Research. Vol. 1
- Acknowledgement of Referees
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Understanding the Sequential Resources for Doing Humor in the Language Classroom
- Radical Clowning: Challenging Militarism through Play and Otherness
- Like Watching a Motorway Crash: Exploring the Embarrassment Humor of The Office
- Why All Dictators Have Moustaches: Political Jokes in Contemporary Belarus
- “Some Species of Contrasts”: British Graphic Satire, the French Revolution, and the Humor of Horror
- Sexist Humor in Facebook Profiles: Perceptions of Humor Targeting Women and Men
- Book Reviews
- Jocelyn Chey and Jessica Milner Davis: Humor in Chinese Life and Letters: Classical and Traditional Approaches
- Sam Friedman: Comedy and Distinction; the Cultural Currency of a ‘Good’ Sense of Humour
- Blank, Trevor J: The Last Laugh: Folk Humor, Celebrity Culture, and Mass-Mediated Disasters in the Digital Age
- Dynel Marta: Developments in Linguistic Humour Theory. Topics in Humor Research. Vol. 1
- Acknowledgement of Referees
