Stand-up for integration: stand-up comedy and its effects on social integration of expats and other migrants
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Olivera Tesnohlidkova
Olivera TesnohlidkovaDepartment of Sociology, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Joštova 10, Brno, Czech RepublicDiesen Autor / diese Autorin suchen:
Abstract
This paper explores the effects that stand-up comedy performed by expats and other migrants can have on social integration of migrants. The study is situated in the Czech Republic where migrant population is growing fast and the necessity for exploring successful integration strategies increases. The study is designed as ethnographic research which relies on participant observations – attending and recording stand-up performances; semi-structured qualitative interviews with comedians; and informal interviews with audience members. The main findings identify three key aspects through which stand-up comedy can foster social integration of migrants: community-building and a nurturing a sense of belonging; acquiring cultural competencies of the host culture; and enabling inter-cultural understanding through cultural exchange.
1 Introduction
Prior to the armed conflict in Ukraine, which resulted in an influx of primarily Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic, there were approximately 650,000 registered migrants in the country (Český statistický úřad 2021). According to the Czech statistical office, between 2004 and 2021 the number of migrants in the country increased by almost 150 percent. Simultaneously, another trend occurred during this period – stand-up comedy has been increasing in popularity. In the past years, several stand-up shows have captured the attention of many Czech television consumers and stand-up events have become frequent in pubs and theatres across the country. Although these two trends seem unrelated, they have a common denominator – expat and migrant stand-up comedians. There are approximately 30 expatriates and other migrants regularly performing and organizing stand-up comedy events in English and Czech, especially in cities with large population of migrants. In this research I explore the connection between the two observed trends by focusing on how stand-up comedy performed by expats and migrants can benefit and foster social integration of migrants. According to the latest Strategy for Integration of Foreigners in Brno, integration plays a significant role in establishing and maintaining social cohesion, and economic, social and cultural development in society (Magistrát města Brna 2020). Since successful integration largely depends on the social relationships created between migrants and locals, this has become a priority in the adopted Strategy for 2020–2026 period (Magistrát města Brna 2020). This study, therefore, addresses a timely topic and aims to demonstrate that the effects of stand-up comedy exceed its entertainment value.
This research project is designed as an ethnographic study combining several research methods: participant observations; semi-structured qualitative interviews with comedians; and informal conversations with audience members. The study builds on existing knowledge about stand-up comedy as a cultural phenomenon that can facilitate community-building (Brodie 2014; DeCamp 2015), promote social change (Chattoo 2019), and assist cultural exchange by presenting the migrants’ perspective (Bower 2014). Throughout this research I adopt an understanding of social integration as a two-way process that requires participation of both migrants and locals (Bosswick and Heckmann 2006), and I build on literature highlighting the effects of exchange of cultural knowledge between migrants and host society (Agier 2021; McKowen and Borneman 2020), as well as on research concerning leisure activities and immigrant communities (Fong and Berry 2017).
My main findings demonstrate that, within the context of the Czech Republic, there are three key aspects through which stand-up comedy performed by expatriates and other migrants can advance social integration of migrants. Firstly, stand-up comedy helps community-building and developing a sense of belonging. Stand-up comedy serves an important function by allowing people to build primary relationships and expand their social networks within the host society, making them feel more independent, while hosting the shows also allows the comedians to feel like they are contributing to the community. Secondly, stand-up comedy helps expats and other migrants acquire cultural competences of the host society. For comedians, this happens during the process of writing new comedy material. When comedy sets concern the Czech Republic and local traditions, they become a reservoir of cultural knowledge available to audience members, and valuable for fellow migrants who might otherwise lack access to or understanding of the local culture. The third key benefit of stand-up comedy concerns its potential to foster mutual understanding between migrants and locals through cultural exchange. On the one hand, when comedians incorporate their own culture in jokes, they necessarily spread knowledge about it to audience members. On the other hand, jokes reflecting on local culture can become a window for understanding the struggles that expats and other migrants deal with and an opportunity to relate to the migrants’ unique point of view.
2 Theory
The aim of this research is to explore the effects of stand-up comedy performed by expats and other migrants on the social integration of migrants. In this paper, I work with several relevant migration categories: tourists, migrants, and expats. ‘Tourists’ here are understood as individuals who came to the Czech Republic for a short-term visit, presumably for pleasure (e.g., traveling, sightseeing, visiting friends or relatives), and do not intend to settle in the country. The term ‘migrant’ represents an umbrella term for anyone who has crossed international borders to settle in the Czech Republic, making it their country of usual residence, regardless of the motives, country of origin, employment, legal status, or their decision to return. In that sense, an ‘expatriate’ designates a subgroup of migrants (Andersen et al. 2014). However, I also acknowledge the ambiguous nature of these migration categories, and especially the contested meanings of the term ‘expatriate.’ In academic as well as public discourse ‘expatriate’ is often reserved for skilled, white Western migrants (see Andersen et al. 2014; Cranston 2017; Koutonin 2015; Kunz 2016) and is therefore racialized and “linked to realities of global power relations and inequality” (Kunz 2016: 92). Moreover, the ‘expatriate’ identity is constructed in opposition to the ‘migrant,’ rendering the latter group socially less valuable and often associated with illegal movement (Cranston 2017; Kunz 2020). Since the aim of this research is not to provide conclusions on either group explicitly, as a way of acknowledging the qualitative differences and the hierarchical differentiation that these terms carry, I opted to classify the migratory status of my respondents as ‘expat(riate)s and other migrants.’ Such formulation also highlights that among the participants of this research there are those who can be classified or self-identify as ‘expatriates,’ and therefore, makes this study and its implications more transparent.
Another important migration-related concept employed here is ‘social integration.’ Unlike assimilation which leads to disappearance of migrants’ cultural and behavioral patterns in favor of those of the receiving country, social integration (i.e., bicultural integration) allows migrants to exercise both patterns rather than replacing them (Esser 2006, as cited in Algan et al. 2012; Zwahlen et al. 2018). The focus here is on two aspects of social integration – cultural integration and interactive integration. Cultural integration (i.e., culturation) refers to the acquisition of knowledge and cultural competences necessary for successful participation in the host society, while interactive integration (i.e., interaction) designates the private realm of social relations and participation in public or political life (Esser 2006 as cited in Zwahlen et al. 2018). Hence, my interest lies in understanding how stand-up can help migrants acquire “the core competencies of the [host] culture and society” and nurture their acceptance in “primary relationships and social networks” within it (Bosswick and Heckmann 2006: 10).
Moreover, integration is understood here as a mutual, two-way process which requires participation of migrants, and the host society which must “learn new ways of relating to immigrants and adapting to their needs” (Bosswick and Heckmann 2006: 10). As I will demonstrate, in the Czech Republic, stand-up comedy performed by expatriates and other migrants is a medium which can facilitate such interactive integration. According to Agier, there are three goals to be pursued so that migrants can develop a feeling of belonging and be welcomed and accepted by the host society: “increased freedom of movement,” “increased rights of belonging,” and “increased knowledge and recognition of the other and of shared cultures” (Agier 2021: 116). As demonstrated in the analysis, the latter can be accomplished through stand-up comedy. On the one hand, joking about the host culture incites comedians to be more open to that culture and more inclined to learn about the customs, traditions, history and language of host society. On the other hand, by listening about the performers’ culture, experiences and struggles of living in the Czech Republic, and their perception of local culture, the host society can better understand their perspective and relate to them. In addition, as McKowen and Borneman argue, “[w]hile migrants incorporate meanings, goods, practices, and habits into their performative repertoire, they inevitably refashion them and return them, changed, to circulation. In turn, when communities incorporate new people into their groups, they are also transformed” (2020: 9). Through fusion of their own cultural heritage as well as the knowledge and competences of the host culture that migrants have obtained, migrants produce “new cultural combinations” (Agier 2020: 88–9). When expatriates and other migrants settled in the Czech Republic incorporate local cultural references into their comedy sets, they inevitably present them through an outsiders’ prism which is informed by their own culture. Such fusion of cultural inputs is particularly interesting for locals, who then relate and perceive their own traditions, language and habits from this estranged perspective and acquire new ways to connect with migrants.
In the context of this research, adopting an interactive approach to social integration implies that the interaction between the comedians and the audience can provide vital insights regarding the effects of comedy on integration of expatriates and other migrants. In general, forming ties between the comedian and the audience, and creating an impression that the audience is a homogenous group directly impacts the success of a stand-up performance (Brodie 2014; Mintz 1985; Quirk 2015). Hence, comedians employ different techniques depending on the “context-of-the joke” (Filani 2017) including common beliefs, shared knowledge, and their initial relation with audience. A common practice for an outsider is to “describe that place as he or she sees it, which both addresses ‘foreignness’ or ‘otherness’ and demonstrates an effort to make a connection with the day-to-day world of the local audience” (Brodie 2014: 144), which is something my research participants also practice. In doing so, comedians enable their audience to relate to them and their material which further cultivates a sense of community (DeCamp 2015; cf. Double 2014). This speaks to the impact that stand-up comedy can have. Chattoo identified five aspects through which comedy can influence the public opinion and foster social change: “attracting attention and facilitating memory; persuasion; opening a door to complex social issues; dissolving social barriers; and encouraging sharing with others” (2019: 512). Through stand-up comedy, performers can “reconstruct and challenge stereotypes [by] resignification” of contestable ideas (Michael 2013: 142) by “making the migrant perspective the point of reference” (Bower 2014: 363). Being a platform where contestable ideas and outsiders’ viewpoint can be voiced and presented in a non-threatening way (Chattoo 2019; Quirk 2015), stand-up comedy can influence host society’s perception of migrants. Through exploring the case of the Czech Republic and contextualizing the findings around the issue of social integration of migrants, this study contributes to the existing knowledge on how comedy fosters an understanding between minority and majority groups and helps create social ties and sense of community by breaking cultural barriers and encouraging cultural exchange.
Furthermore, it is also necessary to account the impact of such stand-up comedy on community-building. As Fong and Berry (2017) argue, immigrant communities are essential for integration process and crucial in providing support to fellow immigrants. Communities centered around leisure activities create and maintain social networks through which their members can access an array of information relevant for their everyday life (Fong and Berry 2017; cf. Small 2002). However, unlike other immigrant communities which are centered around nationality or ethnic identity, the stand-up community that I reflect on in this paper is not defined by nor limited to specific groups (although language barrier can exclude some from participation). Rather than fostering ethnic solidarity, stand-up events I observed tended to facilitate solidarity based on mutual experiences and help create ties between diverse social groups, which in turn helps social integration of migrants. Hence, my research supports the argument that leisure activities foster a “two-flow influence” between host society and immigrants, as stand-up comedy can indeed “represent symbolic and social boundaries between groups, but also serve[s] to build bridges of shared cultural ties and meanings” (Fong and Berry 2017: 85).
3 Methodology
To understand how stand-up comedy can impact social integration of expatriates and other migrants in the Czech Republic, I approached this question from an ethnographic perspective, combining emic and etic approaches (Fetterman 2009). Throughout this project, I have identified two key social groups whose experiences directly relate to my research question and who are therefore a gateway for understanding the relationship between stand-up comedy and social integration of migrants – expatriate and other migrant stand-up comedians, and the audience attending their shows. Although participating in stand-up comedy events is a mutual trait of both groups, their role in such events differs. Because of the different degree of their involvement with stand-up comedy, the level and the relevancy of their experiences also varies, and for that reason I have prioritized the former group.
Throughout this project, I applied several research methods: participant observations, semi-structured qualitative interviews, and informal conversations. Firstly, I have conducted in-depth interviews with stand-up comedians which provided insight into their experiences as foreigners in the country as well as their approach to stand-up comedy itself, the stand-up community, their jokes, and the impact stand-up has on their personal lives. In addition, I have attended and video-recorded their stand-up performances, so that I could explore how their comedy sets relate to my research question. This enabled me to observe the community in what can be perceived as comedians’ and audiences’ native environment (Fetterman 2009). While attending the shows, I collected field notes and observed reactions to jokes and interaction between the comedians and the audience. Attending these events also enabled me to identify and approach audience members and to conduct informal interviews with them, that way gaining a better understanding of who attends the shows and what their impact might be.
In the first instance, I turned to internet research and identified around 30 expat and other migrant comedians performing in English or Czech, and 3 major comedy groups (Velvet Comedy, Comedy Prague, and Underground Comedy Prague). However, because Slovak migrants are a priori well integrated into the Czech society because of their cultural and linguistic proximity as well as the unifying history of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Slovak comedians located in the Czech Republic rarely reflect on their experience as migrants. Moreover, they perform largely for local, rather than migrant communities. Therefore, I have excluded Slovak comedians from my sample. Overall, the sampling was based on the comedians’ role in stand-up community (founders of comedy groups, organizers of events, hosts, performers), although most of them assume multiple roles simultaneously; their nationality; place of residence; and the language they perform in. In total, 14 comedians participated in this study. As for the audience members, I conducted informal interviews with 28 people during five different events. The interviewed audience members were mostly expatriates and other migrants (18), and locals (8),[1] apart from two tourists (although one of them previously lived in the country), ranging in age from mid-twenties to mid-fifties. Since audience members rarely attend the shows alone, informal interviews were conducted in groups, which was the least disruptive way of getting their insight. While the data presenting the insights gained from audience members is anonymized, this is not the case for the comedians. The community of expat and other migrant comedians in the Czech Republic is still a rather small one, and a public one at that (events are public and advertised on different social media platforms, blogs, newspapers; some comedians even post their sets on YouTube channels or perform for television). Having this in mind, as well as the fact that my respondents were open about doing stand-up in other aspects of their lives which would likely make them identifiable even with careful anonymization, I have, with their consent, opted out of anonymizing them in this research.
Data were analyzed through a combination of open coding and hermeneutic analysis. Resorting to open coding was fruitful for initial analysis and for identifying patterns and substantive categories in the data (Maxwell and Chmiel 2014). I used F4 analysis software and identified several substantive categories referring to types of audience attending the shows and their reactions to comedic material, topics my respondents relied on in their sets, potential effects of stand-up comedy on performers and audience, general observations about the stand-up scene in the Czech Republic, and my respondents’ experiences and observations regarding the social integration of migrants in the country. Upon establishing a sense of the data, I resorted to a hermeneutic perspective which enabled a deeper interpretation and understanding of the data (Maxwell and Chmiel 2014). Moreover, through hermeneutic analysis that I was able to understand how the stand-up material, and the experience, attitudes, and opinions of my respondents relate to the issue of social integrations of migrants in the Czech Republic.
Before proceeding with the findings, I would like to clarify my own position within this research and reflect on any potential biases it carries. While I am not a member of the stand-up community, I have been a migrant in the country since 2017. I acknowledge the importance of bracketing and I have made an active effort throughout this study to put my own preconceptions aside. However, I do believe that having previously experienced some of the situations that respondents reflected on, while being fluent in Czech and immersed in the local culture, serves as an asset to this research. My migratory background and a similar vantage point regarding integration enabled me to be more sensitive to the information my respondents shared with me, while my language and cultural competences gave me a better understanding of their jokes.
4 Analysis
This research demonstrates that there are three aspects through which stand-up comedy events facilitate social integration of expats and other migrants in the Czech Republic: building community and a sense of belonging among migrants, acquiring cultural competences through creating and consuming stand-up material, and fostering understanding through cultural exchange. Although I develop an analytical distinction between each of these elements, in practice they unfold simultaneously and through different elements of performance.
4.1 Building community and sense of belonging
For comedians I interviewed a common answer to the question whether doing comedy has helped them accommodate to the life in the Czech Republic was that comedy helped them find their place in society and expand their social circle. Many claimed that stand-up comedy has fostered a personal feeling of belonging to the local community. A South African comedienne, Debbie Liebenberg said that doing stand-up for her is a way
…to connect with people that maybe I wouldn’t connect with in other situations. So, it helps me build connections. With audience members, but also with other comedians. […] It’s also a, it’s very much like a sense of belonging to a community. A lot of the gigs are organized by, by like Comedy Prague, the organization. Or Velvet comedy, the organization. […] And that community is very nice, to belong to that community. So, yeah, I would say, generally it has helped me accommodate, for sure.
Even though most respondents noted that they made strong and meaningful connections with fellow comedians, rather than audience members, some argued that the connections they made with audience members are highly important as they become relevant in other areas of their life. Joanna Sio, comedienne from Hong Kong, who lives with her Czech husband in Olomouc where she organizes comedy events, claimed that the audience members she met through stand-up provided her not only a sense of belonging, but made her feel safer and more independent:
If my husband would be at a conference or somewhere for a week, like if something happened, I know that I have people that I can call. In the beginning I felt like that. He went to Indonesia for a week, I said: Give me all the numbers of your siblings and your parents and your friends. And then make sure, if anything happened to the kids, I have someone to call. And so now I’m not so worried. I feel like: Oh, there are people living in the same town, maybe just a few buildings away, that I can call.
Grant Gallacher, a Scottish comedian, said that some jokes allowed him to meet people with whom he can enjoy other leisure activities, such as playing Dungeons and Dragons. This study, therefore, confirms that leisure activities[2] help create and maintain social networks valuable in migrants’ everyday lives (Fong and Berry 2017). Moreover, it also suggests that stand-up comedy’s potential to build communities and create social networks is not limited only to the performers. Although comedians are more likely to experience feelings of belonging by doing comedy, it is not exclusive to them. A Portuguese attendee of The Gay Agenda show, organized by American comedian Jackson Smith and centered around the topic of “coming out,” and his Slovak roommate also articulated this sentiment. They believe that stand-up comedy events can a be a good way for people to feel “as if at home,” as if it creates a place where they belong. The Slovak roommate added that such comedy events also allow them to meet new people and create ties between diverse social groups (Fong and Berry 2017), hence fostering interactive integration (Esser 2006 as cited in Zwahlen et al. 2018).
Emcees also play an important role in community-building (Minz 1985). They spend most of their time on stage doing “crowd work,” asking the audience questions about where they are from, what they do or whom they are attending the show with. This primarily serves to gather information which helps the performers to get a “feel” of the audience and to modify their sets accordingly and establishes “for the audience that the group is homogeneous, a community” (Minz 1985) which will “respond in unison” (Quirk 2015: 5). This helps accommodate laughter by enabling the audience to feel like they are not surrounded by strangers, as they already exchanged information about each other by answering the emcee’s questions. At times, the emcees even foster this connection between the audience in a more palpable manner. During The Gay Agenda show, Jackson Smith asked his audience members at the beginning of the show to “turn to the person sitting on the right side of [them], shake their hand and say: thank you so much for coming, you’re, like, the prettiest person in the room tonight.” The audience excitedly complied, after which they were asked to repeat this gesture with the person sitting on their left side, establishing a connection, and meeting one another at least for a brief moment.
Moreover, several comedians that I interviewed perceive stand-up comedy as a way to provide a platform for other people. A South African attendee of the London Underground comedy show shared with me that she was interested in trying stand-up comedy and was already in contact with Sean Ríordaín (an Irish-American comedian who, together with Mexican comedian José Moreno, organized the event) about such a prospect. She believes stand-up comedy, and particularly open-mic nights or stand-up workshops, can be a platform for people who are shy, are introverts, or, like herself, have ADHD, to go out and “put themselves out there.” Providing an opportunity for others to express themselves, in turn allows comedians to feel like they contribute to society. Anne Johnson, an American comedian settled in Brno and the founder of Comedius – a monthly variety, open-mic show – as well as the Czech Theatre – amateur theatre for Czech plays in English, expressed this sentiment:
I feel like it’s more a thing that I do to help other people accommodate. Like, here is a way for us to stay. And this is, this is, I think, part of the theatre too. Is like, if all you’re doing is working and then going to the pub, you won’t stay. And it serves the city of Brno for expats to stay, and to feel connected to the community. And so, creating these kinds of events where people can meet other people from other countries and feel a little bit more grounded and, and, and secure. The comedy doesn’t help me feel like part of the community. The comedy does help me feel like I’m serving the community. And that, in a way, makes me feel like part of the community.
Joanna Sio responded in a similar vein, adding that meeting people and making connections happens not just because stand-up comedy shows are public social events, but because the genre itself makes interactions with strangers more comfortable and more meaningful:
I always find that doing comedy is a good way to meet people, because you have to embarrass yourself quite a bit. And I feel like that kinda lowers the barrier. Like, people feel like then you have to be slightly vulnerable for people to feel like they don’t have to go through the whole process. It’s not costume. But even for friendship, right? Where you have to, like, start a little bit and then be careful not to show so much, to see whether the other person is normal. Like, for comedy, it’s like you just completely like strip yourself. […] That you save a lot of time, I feel like. You’re not chit-chatting about random things. You can talk about really deep things from the very beginning.
This impression that comedy allows strangers to have more meaningful conversations stems from jokes, which are often based on observations or personal experiences, including negative ones, as well as personal values and opinions, but they also tend to be (presented as) shared experiences (Quirk 2015). To foster laughter, a stand-up comedian engages with the audience with a goal to become “accepted as an intimate by the audience” (Brodie 2014: 69). However, we must not neglect the role that the venue of stand-up events has in cultivating connections. Brodie already observed that through the minimalistic stage, common for Czech stand-up, usually containing not more than “the curtain and the brick wall, the impression created is that of performance abstracted from any artifice. If it is theater, it is theater removed from any of its trappings with nothing intruding on the intimacy between audience and performer” (2014: 51). Brodie (2014) also adds that microphone and speakers also take part in creating this impression of intimacy as they allow performers to maintain a natural register of their voice. Maintaining a natural register of voice can in turn make an impression that a comedian and their audience are engaging in a one-on-one conversation, provided, of course, that the overall style of presentation emulates a similar form of interaction. Such an impression of intimacy could make the audience more inclined to start a conversation with performers after the show and make new connections, which has been common for the shows I observed.
In short, as my data has demonstrated, through these interpersonal relationships, migrants can then learn and exchange information useful for orienting themselves in the host environment, or find support and seek help if needed (Fong and Berry 2017; Magistrát města Brna 2020). In other words, in case of the Czech Republic, stand-up comedy can be seen as a facilitator of interactive dimension of social integration (Esser 2006 as cited in Zwahlen et al. 2018).
4.2 Acquiring cultural competences
Apart from expanding one’s social networks, successful integration also depends on migrants’ familiarity with local culture and their cultural competences and knowledge about the host society (Bosswick and Heckmann 2006). Learning about traditions and getting to know the local culture can be a long and a confusing process, especially for those who have no contacts within the host society to help guide and teach them. In that regard, stand-up comedy can be a powerful platform through which both performers and audience members can acquire cultural competences necessary for successful integration into the host society. For comedians I interviewed, learning about local culture is an essential part of writing a comedy set. They usually compose jokes based on their personal experience. As migrants, a substantial part of their everyday life revolves around getting to know about the host society, learning and understanding their language, customs, and traditions, which is essential for cultural integration (Esser 2006 as cited in Zwahlen et al. 2018). To gather material for their jokes, expat and other migrant comedians keep an open eye and develop curiosity for local culture. Jackson Smith, described this process:
I wanted to do a bit that was like, what would, like, Czechoslovak Drag Race be like. And so, I had to, like, ask my Czech and Slovak friends, like, if there was a drag queen competition show, who would be the judge of it. And so, I have to, like, find out who kind of these people are. Because I’m like: O.K., she’s an old singer from the 70ies, she’s kinda cooky, she’s really fabulous, like she would be one of the hosts and one of the judges on it. So, when I, when I find out stuff like that, a lot of cultural references, I have to do investigating for. And also, a lot of like political stuff. […] ‘Cause if I talk about Czech-specific things, I wanna make sure I’m doing it right.
Grant Gallacher gave an extensive account on what he has learned about the Czech Republic by doing comedy:
‘Cause it’s like, everyone’s got their little nuances, they’ve got their little weird things that they do. And so, you, you’re trying to, like, find those things. And I think by doing that, it’s kind of given me a greater appreciation for, like, what Czech people are actually like, you know? So, I remember when I first moved here, thinking: Oh these, Czech people are really cold. You know, like, they’re really, like kind of stand offish and that type of thing. And then through paying attention to it, I realized: Oh, they’re not. Like, they’re just… They’re… They’re sort of… They’re very friendly, but only once they get to know you. And it’s like, before that sort of thing they’re kind of a bit, just on guard, I think, maybe. You know, they’re a small country surrounded by a lot of big countries, they’ve been invaded a whole bunch. And so, it’s like, why, why would they be extra friendly to all of these, to all these people when they don’t know what they’re all about, you know? Plus, they just came through communism and all that sort of stuff. Um, and that’s, that was one, one of the first things I’ve realized. It was like, well of course they’re like this.
But the capacity to learn about local culture is not reserved only for the comedians. Audiences can also learn new information through comedy (Chattoo 2019), and the entertainment value can even make the information more salient for them (Quirk 2015). Therefore, comedians can actually pass the knowledge they have acquired about the local culture through sets they perform on stage. In the Czech Republic, there are even comedy events dedicated to the life of migrants and their experiences and perception of the local culture, and for some people that topic was an incentive to attend the event. Czechmates is one such show, organized by Luke Ryan, an Irish comedian, and a founder of Comedy Prague group. One of his jokes from the show plastically demonstrates the educative character of jokes which can further audiences’ knowledge about the Czech Republic.
I wonder what the fuck happened 2000 years ago, when Father Čech came to Czech lands. We all know Father Čech? There is like three brothers: Čech, Lech and Rus. Rus went to Russia, Lech went to Poland, Father Čech came here. He stood on top of the Říp hill, about an hour north from Prague. He’s there with all of his followers, he’s there with his wife, Jana. He’s there with his best friend Honza <laughter>.[3] He’s looking out, he’s looking out over the Czech lands from Říp hill and he’s like This, my friends, my followers, Honza and Jana, <laughter> this will be our land. This will all be our home for thousands and thousands of years. We are gonna be so happy here. This will be our home. This will be amazing. We are going to eat pork. <laughter> And Honza answered him
I like pork, Father Čech.
I know you like pork.
It’s very good.
I know you like pork. We’ll eat so much pork, Honza. We’ll eat pork shoulder, pork ribs, pork knee. We’re gonna eat so much pork. We’re gonna eat pork every day. We’ll put ham on the vegetarian menu, ‘cause it’s, it’s not really pork. Yeah, we’re gonna eat pork every single day of the year, Honza. Every day of the year, except one.
What day will we not eat pork, Father Čech?
Christmas Eve. <laughter>
What will we eat on Christmas Eve, Father Čech?
Carp. <laughter; applause>
[…]
Oh, and you know what, Honza? We’re not just going to go into Tesco or to Billa and buy that carp <laughter> a couple of days beforehand <laughter> and put it into fridge. No, no, no. We’re gonna go to Billa or Tesco a week beforehand. We’re gonna buy that fucker alive. <laughter> We are gonna take it home and we’ll dump it into the bath <cheers>, where it can swim round, and round, <applause> and round for a week before Christmas. And every morning when you go down to the bathroom, and you’re sitting there, taking your morning dump, <laughter> you can watch your Christmas dinner, swimming round, and round, and round. <laughter; applause; cheers>.[4]
In this excerpt, an array of cultural references is given through Luke Ryan’s comic interpretation of the legend of Father Čech. While most migrants are likely already familiar with Czech everyday cuisine just from attending local restaurants, knowledge about the legend of Father Čech and Christmas traditions might not be as readily available. In fact, when he asked his audience whether they are familiar with the legend of Father Čech, only two people responded. Such knowledge can be particularly relevant for those expatriates and other migrants who have not developed social relationships with members of the host society who would give them an insight into the local culture and traditions. This example, therefore, demonstrates how comedy can be educative and can help other migrants and expats to adopt cultural knowledge about the host culture, which is an essential aspect of social integration (Bosswick and Heckmann 2006; Esser 2006 as cited in Zwahlen et al. 2018).
4.3 Fostering understanding through cultural exchange
Apart from expanding migrants’ and expats’ knowledge about the host society and culture, stand-up comedy can also advance knowledge about migrant minorities and advance intercultural understanding, therefore fostering “reciprocal exchange and convergence” between the host society and migrants (Zwahlen et al. 2018). When performers joke about their culture of origin, they inevitably spread the knowledge about it among audience members. During the in-depth interviews, I asked comedians what a typical interaction with the audience looks like. A common answer was that audience members who linger after the shows often ask them questions related to aspects of their culture discussed during the show. Such conversations usually start with the audience asking performers whether something they mentioned during their set is true or not. This, for example, is the case with one of Debbie Liebenberg’s jokes about growing up in South Africa. In one of the childhood stories that she shares on stage she compares the safety of living in the Czech Republic from her partner’s perspective to safety of living in South Africa.
Growing up in Prague and growing up in South Afrika are very different. So, this one time Kuba told me [hand apostrophes] a scary story about growing up here in Prague. He said One day, I went outside to play with my bike and an older boy came out to me with a knife and he told me to give him my bike. And I did. And I was sad. And I react to this by saying: What?! You played outside?! <laughter> I was never allowed to play outside! My parents told me bad people would steal me and turn me into medicine. <Oooh> I wish that was a joke.[5]
During the interview she said that this joke particularly sparks curiosity as people would approach her after the show, asking whether South Africa is really dangerous and whether her parents truly told her she would be turned into medicine. Overall, at the shows I observed, the audience was receptive to the performers’ culture and the knowledge shared to them through jokes, and such cultural jokes at times became an incentive for further conversations and cultural exchange. Although usually only around 20 percent of the audience at the English-speaking shows are Czech, according to comedians, Czech are no less inclined to approach them after a show and talk with them. Therefore, stand-up comedy events equally provided an opportunity for locals to gain a better understanding and learn more about migrants.
Frequently, jokes told during the shows I attended relied on cultural stereotypes both about Czechs and about comedians’ culture of origin. Stereotypes are important because they are part of the common knowledge which is necessary for understanding jokes. Mohammed Babiker, a young comedian from Sudan who’s lived in Saudi Arabia most of his life, highlighted that when joking on stereotypes, he tries to paint “the full picture” helping his audience understand the stereotype better than if he was to deny it. In a similar vein, Carmine Rodi, an Italian comedian, noted that he tries to pay attention to the “messages and metamessages” that stereotype-based jokes carry, adding: “Comedy has this great power of uniting people. Or dividing people. And if that’s a political choice, I want totally to be on the healthy side. I want to do something that, in the end, brings people together a little bit, even when there is conflict.” Stereotypes commonly have a negative connotation, and by relying on them stand-up comedians run the risk of keeping them alive by introducing them to new people (Quirk 2015). However, when handled carefully, as Mohammed Babiker and Carmine Rodi did, they can also become tools for modifying individual and public opinions, attitudes and behaviors through comedy and the comedian’s persuasive power and their comic license (Chattoo 2019; Quirk 2015).
However, based on the shows I attended, stereotypes were mostly reiterated. A Czech attendee from the Velvet Friday show confirmed this, saying that, although she and her friends truly enjoyed the show, comedians relied a lot on stereotypes without “taking them further,” adding that she believes Czechs enjoy a somewhat different type of humor more. On the other hand, during the London Underground show José Moreno incorporated stereotypes about Mexican culture, and a Serbian comedienne, Katarina Puškarov joked about Serbian mentality and their capability to “raise the tension and never release it”.[6] Even though these jokes also confirmed stereotypes rather than challenging them, a group of young ladies who attended the event said that stand-up comedy is an excellent way to learn about other cultures, one of them specifying that she learned a lot about Mexicans and Serbians from that show. Therefore, I would argue that we should not disqualify stereotypes as such but rather perceive them as a gateway and a good starting point for learning about other cultures, although caution and reflecting on knowledge gained through such jokes and the context in which they were presented is advised.
Apart from understanding the culture that the migrants originate from, successful social integration also requires the locals to understand the struggles that migrants experience and to try and accommodate to their needs (Bosswick and Heckmann 2006). In the Czech Republic, language presents one of the greatest struggles that migrants are expected to overcome. The Czech language is challenging for many foreigners for numerous reasons. The Czech alphabet contains 42 letters, differentiates between long and short vowels and hard, neutral and soft consonants, including a notoriously difficult letter to pronounce (Ř /rʒ/) and a plethora of consonant clusters; Czech language also distinguishes four grammatical genders (masculine animate, masculine inanimate, feminine and neuter) and its declination system contains seven cases, some of which trigger consonant or vowel alternations. It is, therefore, not surprising that the Czech language is a frequent topic in my respondent’s comedy sets. Apart from the complexities of the language listed above, they also joked about locals not understanding their pronunciation of Czech words, or not knowing how to appropriately greet people in a given situation due to a number of greeting phrases one can use as well as the rules of formal and informal ways of addressing someone (using “ty” – 2nd person singular or “vy” – 2nd person plural). According to my respondents, expatriates and other migrants in the audience find these jokes quite relatable, and it could be argued that they laugh with the comedians at their common struggle, while locals usually laugh at the comedians, especially when they mispronounce Czech words during the performance. However, these jokes also explicate for locals why Czech language can be so difficult for migrants. This was confirmed by a Czech lady who attended one of the shows with her American partner and said that the show actually did help her better understand the challenges that her partner faces. She expressed that the show enabled her to see that Czech language is an obstacle for other migrants as well, and that the problem does not lie in her partner but in the complexity of the language.
Jokes about host culture can also provide an insight for locals about how migrants perceive and understand their culture and traditions. The general impression of my respondents is that Czechs appreciate and welcome jokes about themselves and their culture. Sean Ríordaín argued that such jokes contribute to the “novelty factor as well, because like: Oh, man, this person is from X country, and they noticed this about, you know, this particular word in Czech. Like: Oh that’s crazy. Or like: Oh, they noticed how, you know, Brno people talk, you know, compared to how Prague people talk.” Luke Ryan articulated the same sentiment:
I think Czech people appreciate that you have a strong enough awareness of what life is like here. That you’re not just here to drink beer, or, you know? You’re not here to be disrespectful for the country that you’ve been here for a long time, you obviously know a lot about the country. You’ve made an effort to learn about it.
Hence, not only do Czechs appreciate being the butt-of-the joke, but through comedy they can also see and appreciate the effort that expats and other migrants put in understanding their culture. Moreover, jokes about the host culture can also give locals a new perspective on things they take for granted, such as their cuisine and Christmas traditions. During the shooting of a Comedy Club episode, a Czech stand-up show with live audience, broadcasted on Paramount Network, Nikola Džokić, a Serbian comedian performing in Czech language and a regular on the show, performed his set on why he loves Moravia,[7] burčák,[8] and cymbal music. Throughout his set he occasionally referenced his Serbian origin, for example, by comparing the experience of mishandling burčák to bombs and the ‘90s in Balkan. A Czech man who attended the show and regularly watches Comedy Club on television commented that Nikola Džokić, like other foreign comedians, have a different perspective on the culture and things that Czechs normally do not notice or recognize as special in any way. He added that when foreigners joke about the Czech culture, they provide a fresh outlook on the routine and taken-for-granted aspects of Czech everyday life, unwittingly describing a common comedic approach of connecting with the local audience by addressing their otherness (Bower 2014; Brodie 2014). Katarina Puškarov highlighted that such jokes also make it “much easier later to kinda, like, bond with somebody who’s Czech. Because a lot of Czechs would be like You were so right about that. Like, you’re so right about that. Yeah, and then, and then you have a bonding moment.” Therefore, I argue that when expats and other migrants joke about the host culture and society, they create an opportunity for locals to relate to their materials. In line with previous research (Brodie 2014; DeCamp 2015), I conclude that such effects of comedy can make locals more open and receptive towards others, and that stand-up comedy can create opportunities for integration by allowing expats and other migrants to expand their social networks within the host society.
5 Conclusions
This study demonstrates that stand-up comedy can benefit social integration of migrants. On the one hand, stand-up comedy events can be an excellent opportunity for expats and other migrants to expand their social relationships which can further enable them to develop a sense of belonging to the community. On the other hand, jokes about local culture can help both comedians and audience members to acquire core cultural competences about the local culture. Finally, when expat and other migrant comedians joke about their own culture or discuss the culture of the host society from the outsider’s perspective, they provide new means for locals to gain a better understanding about struggles, experiences and perspectives of migrants living in their country. In that regard, stand-up comedy can educate the local society on how to accommodate the needs of expats and other migrants.
The increasing population of migrants in the Czech Republic and the fact that the importance of social relations in the context of migrants’ integration have been neglected until recently (Magistrát města Brna 2020), testify to the relevancy of this study. My research adds to a larger volume of work on social implications of stand-up comedy and its effects on public opinion and cultural mediation (Mintz 1985; Quirk 2015). Moreover, this paper can be a valuable contribution for migration scholars and policymakers who are interested in utilizing arts and cultural events towards bettering migrants’ integration and advancing solidarity between migrants and host societies.
Like any research, this one is not without its limitations either. Firstly, it is important to highlight the specific context in which this study and its findings are situated. Most comedians participating in this research performed in English, rather than in Czech language which undoubtedly affected the attendance of the local population. Therefore, the positive effects pertaining to the impact stand-up comedy had on the locals and the ability of migrant minorities to build a connection with mainstream society have only a limited scope. In that regard, studies reflecting on the effects of comedy on social integration of migrants in, for example, English speaking countries could provide valuable insights in terms of the scope of the findings I presented here. Such studies could also monitor the motivation of local audiences to attend expats’ and other migrants’ stand-up performances. Secondly, it is important to acknowledge that majority of my respondents are white and/or European, performing in a European country populated by predominantly white people. Further research on this topic in a different socio-demographic context could better illuminate the imprint stand-up comedy can have on social integration of migrants. Lastly, considering that my research design prioritized comedians’ perspective, I propose that additional data with a stronger emphasis on audience could help us better understand how and why stand-up comedy has the effects observed here.
Funding source: InternÃ-grantová agentura Masarykovy univerzity
Award Identifier / Grant number: CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/19_073/0016943
About the author
Olivera Tesnohlidkova is a Ph.D. student of sociology. She studied general literature and literary theory at the University of Belgrade, and cultural sociology at Masaryk University, Brno, where she is currently a doctoral student. Her main research interests and expertise are qualitative research and sociology of humor.
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Research funding: This research was supported by the Operational Programme Research, Development and Education (OP VVV) from the project “Internal Grant Agency of Masaryk University” reg. no. CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/19_073/0016943.
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Transcription conventions
Ellipsis in all quotations is denoted by “[…]”.
[Text in italics in square brackets] denotes comedians’ gestures.
<Text in angle brackets> denotes audience reactions.
Text in italics denotes speech attributed to a character. Where character changes, speech attributed to the new character starts on a new, indented line.
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© 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- From the Editor 37-1 (2024)
- Full Length Articles
- Why cartoons make (some of) us smile
- Mock impoliteness in Spanish: evidence from the VALESCO.HUMOR corpus
- From I to we in humor research: a systematic review of the antecedents and consequences of humor in groups
- Conventional metaphorical scenarios of humor in Romanian
- Humor styles in the classroom: students’ perceptions of lecturer humor
- Stand-up for integration: stand-up comedy and its effects on social integration of expats and other migrants
- Book Reviews
- Cosse, Isabella: Mafalda: A Social and Political History of Latin America’s Global Comic (translated by L. Pérez Carrara)
- Rashi Bhargava and Richa Chilana: Punching up in stand-up comedy: speaking truth to power
- Patrice A. Oppliger and Eric Shouse: The Dark Side of Stand-Up Comedy
- Paul Bouissac: The End of the Circus: Evolutionary Semiotics and Cultural Resistance
- Massih Zekavat and Tabea Scheel: Satire, Humor, and Environmental Crises
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- From the Editor 37-1 (2024)
- Full Length Articles
- Why cartoons make (some of) us smile
- Mock impoliteness in Spanish: evidence from the VALESCO.HUMOR corpus
- From I to we in humor research: a systematic review of the antecedents and consequences of humor in groups
- Conventional metaphorical scenarios of humor in Romanian
- Humor styles in the classroom: students’ perceptions of lecturer humor
- Stand-up for integration: stand-up comedy and its effects on social integration of expats and other migrants
- Book Reviews
- Cosse, Isabella: Mafalda: A Social and Political History of Latin America’s Global Comic (translated by L. Pérez Carrara)
- Rashi Bhargava and Richa Chilana: Punching up in stand-up comedy: speaking truth to power
- Patrice A. Oppliger and Eric Shouse: The Dark Side of Stand-Up Comedy
- Paul Bouissac: The End of the Circus: Evolutionary Semiotics and Cultural Resistance
- Massih Zekavat and Tabea Scheel: Satire, Humor, and Environmental Crises