| Thursday, January 9, 2003 |
03:12 - Next Stop: Premium Blend
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A while back, I noted the marked lack in the Islamic world of that staple of modern society that we take so much for granted here and now, self-effacing humor. I said (or implied) that a social group has only really "arrived" when it produces a universally-known celebrity figure who uses self-referential humor to mock his very group, and thus to validate its strength and resiliency. If you know your group can stand up to the acid test of a home-grown stand-up comic's roasting, then you give it that roasting and let the world see how well it does. I wondered where the Muslim version of Chris Rock, Ellen DeGeneres, and Yakov Smirnoff was.
Well, just now I got an e-mail from Shahed of the alt.muslim newsgroup/website; he passed me two links as evidence of Muslim comics who are gaining an appreciative following. The first one has a number of links to various comics and humor sites, inclding a Muslim version of The Onion. (Really.) And the other one focuses on comedienne Shazia Mirza, whose act evidently is a big hit in Europe (particularly in Germany, where audiences reportedly like her because she reminds them of Hitler; ohh-kay).
Mirza's background necessitates finding new ground - after all, you can't do many gags about being drunk and stoned when your religion demands abstention - and the material based on that culture is easily the strongest. She does have other gags that do not rely on her faith, but these are not always as assured.
Interesting. I'd like to see this.
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