Arab Sitcom Animations as Platforms for Satire
-
Omar Adam Sayfo
Abstract
Sitcom animations have since long been a powerful medium of social and political criticism in the Western world. Series such as The Simpsons and South Park gained huge popularity among children and adults alike, and inspired many adaptations around the globe. However, it took a long time for this popular format to reach the Arab world, a culturally conservative geocultural region often characterised by strict political censorship. Since the early 2000s, producers from a number of Arab countries decided to create their own local sitcom animations. Now Dubai, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia all have their own ‘national’ animations characterised by hyper-reflexivity and intertextuality with local popular culture, containing up-to-date satirical reflections on public life and even political affairs.
Abstract
Sitcom animations have since long been a powerful medium of social and political criticism in the Western world. Series such as The Simpsons and South Park gained huge popularity among children and adults alike, and inspired many adaptations around the globe. However, it took a long time for this popular format to reach the Arab world, a culturally conservative geocultural region often characterised by strict political censorship. Since the early 2000s, producers from a number of Arab countries decided to create their own local sitcom animations. Now Dubai, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia all have their own ‘national’ animations characterised by hyper-reflexivity and intertextuality with local popular culture, containing up-to-date satirical reflections on public life and even political affairs.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- About the contributors ix
- Introduction 1
-
Mapping the Field
- Satire and dignity 19
- The Authenticity of Play 33
- Cultural Flow 47
-
Space
- Reshaping the Border Zone. An Approach to Satirical Space 61
- Mediating satire 71
- Arab Sitcom Animations as Platforms for Satire 81
-
Target
- Contesting Political Boundaries in Contemporary Moroccan Satire 95
- How to Burlesque a Burlesquer 105
- Who is the ape, who the human? Reize door het Aapenland (1788) and Die Affenkönige oder die Reformation des Affenlandes (1789) considered 135
-
Rhetoric
- Looking backward. The rhetoric of the back in visual satire 147
- "A bull is a ludicrous jest": fable and the satiric bite in Arbuthnot's John Bull pamphlets 175
- Bas Jan Ader's Ludic Conceptualism 185
-
Media
- Absolutely Fabulous 197
- TV Satire and its Targets 207
- Enlightenment Subverted 217
-
Time
- On the power of Money and the King of Spain's son-in- law 235
- Who are the Frogs? The Transmigration of a Symbol of Nationality 247
- Hydropathe Caricature 259
- Conclusions 269
- Index 275
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- About the contributors ix
- Introduction 1
-
Mapping the Field
- Satire and dignity 19
- The Authenticity of Play 33
- Cultural Flow 47
-
Space
- Reshaping the Border Zone. An Approach to Satirical Space 61
- Mediating satire 71
- Arab Sitcom Animations as Platforms for Satire 81
-
Target
- Contesting Political Boundaries in Contemporary Moroccan Satire 95
- How to Burlesque a Burlesquer 105
- Who is the ape, who the human? Reize door het Aapenland (1788) and Die Affenkönige oder die Reformation des Affenlandes (1789) considered 135
-
Rhetoric
- Looking backward. The rhetoric of the back in visual satire 147
- "A bull is a ludicrous jest": fable and the satiric bite in Arbuthnot's John Bull pamphlets 175
- Bas Jan Ader's Ludic Conceptualism 185
-
Media
- Absolutely Fabulous 197
- TV Satire and its Targets 207
- Enlightenment Subverted 217
-
Time
- On the power of Money and the King of Spain's son-in- law 235
- Who are the Frogs? The Transmigration of a Symbol of Nationality 247
- Hydropathe Caricature 259
- Conclusions 269
- Index 275
