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Title: National Styles of Humor http://www.public.asu.edu/~apnilsen/afghanistan4kids/

1
National Styles of Humorhttp//www.public.asu.edu
/apnilsen/afghanistan4kids/

by Don L. F. Nilsen, and
Alleen Pace Nilsen

2
Afghanistan at the Crossroads

Ghenghis Khan came to Afghanistan.
Marco Polo came to Afghanistan.
The Silk Route went through Afghanistan.
The British came to Afghanistan.
The Americans came to Afghanistan.
The Russians came to Afghanistan.
The Kuchies travel through Afghanistan
They travel toward Russia in the Spring and
Summer time.
And they travel toward Pakistan in the Fall and
Winter time.
Afghanistan is like New York.
Its a great place to visit, but nobody gets to
stay.

3
International Humor that Translates Well from
Culture to Culture

Physical humor tends to play well across
international borders, and of course comedians in
Americas silent films had international
audiences.
Examples of comedians who have international
audiences include
Charlie Chaplin,
Buster Keaton,
Laurel and Hardy, and
The Three Stooges

4
Bulgarian Humor

Every year there is a humor festival in Gabrovo,
Bulgaria, that attracts visitors from around the
world.
They have a museum called the House of Humour
and Satire with tanks and guns made out of soft
cloth.
In front of the House of Humour and Satire is a
statue of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.
They make fun of the fact that they are cheap.
They erected a statue of their humorous founder
Racho Kabacho (Racho, the blacksmith) in the
middle of the river, because that was where the
land was cheap.
And during the festival, dozens of people dress
up like Charlie Chaplin with mustaches, top hat,
tuxedos, oversized shoes and canes. And they all
walk in straight lines and then make right-angle
turns to walk in a new straight line.

5
Political Cartoons across International Boundaries

Another type of humor that translates well across
international boundaries are political cartoons.
These cartoons are caricatures in which the
salient features are exaggerated, so that the
depictions become very recognizable.
The cartoon must also be epiphanal, so the
characters in the cartoon tend to be very
stereotypical.
This allows the point to be made in a very quick
and succinct way, much like the punch line of a
joke.

6
Classical Greek Satire

But much humor is situated both in time and in
space.
Horace wrote mild and gentle humorous satires.
These were called Horatian satires.
Juvenal wrote bitter and sardonic satires. These
were called Juvenalian satires.
We also have Horatian and Juvenalian satires in
later times.
Jonathan Swift wrote the Horatian satire
Gullivers Travels, and he also wrote the
Juvenalian satire A Modest Proposal.
Similarly, George Orwell wrote the Horatian
satire Animal Farm, and the Juvenalian satire
1984.

7
Postmodern Deconstructed Humor

A satire presents a dystopia (what life is), and
suggests a eutopia (what we want life to be), but
in order to do this, it has to be judgmental.
When satire becomes non-judgmental, it turns into
gallows humor, and in America most of our satires
have become ironic rather than satiric. Examples
include
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller,
One Flew Over the Cukoos Nest by Ken Kesey, and
The World according to Garp by John Irving
These are all dark, but there are some that are
even darker
Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, and
Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

8
Frontier Tall Tales vs. Urban Legends

In early America, some people stayed in the safe
and comfortable East while the adventurers went
West to tame the frontier.
These early American frontiersmen sent stories
back to the gullible Easterners about the
frontier West.
They told about obsidian mountains, and fish that
jump into boats, and about water shooting out of
the rocks at regular intervals of the day, and
about grand canyons.
And some of the stories were true, while other
stories were tall tales, and many of the
Easterners couldnt tell the difference.
There were frontier stories about John Henry, and
Paul Bunyan, and Pecos Bill. It is said that
Pecos Bills tombstone reads Here lies Pecos
Bill. He always lied, and always will. He once
lied loud. He now lies still.

9
Frontier Humor vs. Urban Legends

But as America became industrialized, and
Americans moved to the cities, a new type of
humor developed the urban legend.
These urban legends were about new inventions,
new discoveries, and new fears about city life.
There is an urban legend about a solid cement
Cadillac, and about a 100 Mercedes, and about a
thief in a changing room, and even one about
Little Mikey who would eat cereal that nobody
else would eat.
Little Mikey is said to have eaten some pop
rocks, and to have drunk some Coke, and to have
exploded.

10
The Alligators in the Sewers

One of these urban legends is about the
alligators in the sewers.
Some Americans bought tiny alligators and tiny
turtles for their children, and when they were
finished with them they flushed them down the
toilets into the sewers.
Some other Americans homes were raided while
they were smoking marijuana, and they flushed
this down the sewers.
The sewer was a very rich environment for the
many plants and animals that were flushed down
the toilets, because of all of the water and
fertilizer.
So there are urban legends about alligators in
the sewers, and powerful marijuana in the sewers,
and even of turtles that have mutated into
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

11
German Schadenfreud Humor

Germany has Der Struevelpater, a dark figure
who burns up little children who play with
matches and cuts off the fingers of little
children who play with scissors.
This dark figure is designed to teach children
that there are serious consequences for doing bad
things.

12
English Humor Chaucers Eccentrics

There is a Night, a Miller, a Pardoner, and a
Wife of Bath in Chaucers Canterbury Tales. The
following is a tale about the Nun.
Ther was also a nonne, a Prioresse,
That of hir smyling was ful symple and coy,
Hir gretteste oath was but by Seinte Loy,
And she was cleped Madame Eglentyne.
Ful wel she song the service dyvine,
Entuned in her nose ful semely.
And Frenshe she spak ful faire and fetisly
After the scole of Stratford-atte-Bowe,
For Frenshe of Parys was to hir unknowe.

13
Humor in Shakespeares Comedies

As an example of a Shakespearean comedy consider
A Midsummer Nights Dream.
It is a comedy of humors with many eccentric
characters, but the magic in the play makes the
characters even funnier.
Bottom, for example, ends up with the head of an
ass. His name is Bottom, and in English, ones
bottom is ones ass.

14
Humor in Shakespeares Romances

The women in Shakespeares romances can be very
uppity until the last act, at which time
everybody gets married, the natural order is
restored (with the man in charge), and they live
happily ever after.
This is true in Much Ado about Nothing, and it is
also true in The Taming of the Shrew, in which
the shrew gets tamed in the last act.
Romeo and Juliet is a romance that begins as a
comedy and ends as a tragedy.
In this play, Mercutio is a mercurial or comic
figure. When Romeo asks how badly he is wounded
he says, Tis not so deep as a well, nor so
wide as a church-door, but tis enough, twill
serve. Ask for me tomorrow, and you will find
me a grave man.

15
Humor in Shakespeares Histories

Mark Antonys speech in Shakespeares Julius
Caesar is dripping with irony
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones.
The noble Brutus hath told you Caesar was
ambituous
If it were so, it was a grievous fault.
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse was this ambition?

16
Humor in Shakespeares Tragedies

But the best humor in Shakespeare is the comic
relief in his tragedies. When the tragedy
becomes unbearable, the play must be comic not
only for relief, but also to contrast with the
stark tragedy that came before and will surely
follow afterward.
Consider the drunken porter scene in Macbeth.
Consider the fool-is-smarter-than-the-king speech
in King Lear.
Consider the Polonius in the wings speech in
Hamlet.
Or consider the grave diggers scene in Hamlet
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio a
fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent
fancy. Where be your gibes now? Your
gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment,
that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not
one now, to mock your own grinning?

17
Lewis Carrolls Parodies

With most of his parodies, Lewis Carroll was
protesting the didacticism and sentimentality
imposed on Victorian children and their parents.
Twinkle, twinkle, Little Star, How I wonder
where you are, becomes Twinkle, twinkle, Little
Bat, How I wonder where youre at.

18
Englands Didactic Tradition

G. W. Langford wrote a poem that not only
preached to parents, but also threatened them
with a reminder of the high mortality rate for
young children.
Langfords poem went as follows
Speak gently to the little child!
Its love be sure to gain
Teach it in accents soft and mild
It may not long remain.

19
Lewis Carrolls Parody of Langfords Poem

Lewis Carroll turned Langfords poem into a song
for the Duchess to sing to a piglet wrapped in
baby clothes
Speak roughly to your little boy,
And beat him when he sneezes.
He only does it to annoy,
Because he knows it teases.

20
Isaac Watts Original PoemAgainst Idleness and
Mischief

How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!

21
Lewis Carrolls Parodyof Isaac Watts Poem

How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!

22
Oscar Wildes Comedy of Manners

Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest is
a comedy of manners in which high society is one
of the targets.
Lady Bracknell asks Jack, Do you smoke?
Jack responds, Yes, I must admit I smoke.
Lady Bracknell continues, I am glad to hear it.
A man should always have an occupation of some
kind.
The Importance of Being Earnest is a play about
names. Jack Worthing invents the name of
Ernest for times when he is being anything but
earnest.
At the end of the play Jack discovers that Ernest
is his real name, and he says to Gwendolyn, It
is a terrible thing for a man to find out
suddenly that all his life he has been speaking
nothing but the truth. Can you forgive me?

23
American ParodiesParodies of Edgar Alan Poes
Bells

Hear the sledges with the bells
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the Icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight.

Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells, bells
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

25
Demer Capes Parody of Bells

See the doctors with their pills
Silver-coated pills.
What a world of misery their calomel instills.
How they twingle, twingle, twingle in the
icy-golden night

You have taken two that mingle.
And you wish youd had a single
While your cheeks are ashy white
Oh, the pills, pills, pills
Pills, pills, pills, pills.
So ends my rhyming and my chiming on the pills.

27
Barry Pains Parody of Bells

Heres a mellow cup of tea, golden tea!
What a world of rapturous thought its fragrance
brings to me!
Oh from out the silver cells
How it wells!
How it smells?

Keeping tune, tune, tune
To the tintinnabulation of the spoon
And the kettle on the fire
Boils its spout off with desire,
But he always came home to tea, tea, tea,
Tea, tea, tea, tea.

29
Anonymous Parody of Bells

Hear the fluter with his flute,
Silver flute!
Oh, what a world of wailing is awakened by its
toot!
How it demi-semi quavers
On the maddened air of night!
And defieth all endeavors
To escape the sound or sight

Of the flute, flute, flute,
With its tootle, tootle, toot
Of the flute, flewt, fluit, floot, Phlute,
Phlewt, Phlewght,
And the tootle, tootle tooting of its toot.

31
The Irish Rogue

The Irish Rogue is not a criminal, but he is very
bright and charismatic. And he is subversive.
Eoin Colfers Artemis Fowl is a typical Irish
Rogue, in the tradition of Christy Mahon in John
Synges Playboy of the Western World, Mr. Boyle
in Sean OCaseys Juno and the Paycock, Finn
MacCool in James Joyces Finnegans Wake, and
Sebastian Dangerfield in J. P. Donleavys The
Ginger Man.
Jonathan Swift was even being a bit roguish when
he wrote A Modest Proposal.

Rogues are revered in Ireland, because it was the
Rogues who fought back when the English were
taking over Ireland.
Rogues break rules and laws, but it is always for
the greater good.
Rogues are entertaining and high spirited, and
they diffuse violence with their use of humor.
Although they are flirtatious, they seldom form
any lasting alliances with women.

Many rogues are linked to an aristocratic figure,
usually an Irish rebel chief, for whom they risk
their lives.
The rogue is articulate, good natured, fun
loving, and exhibits an irrepressible élan vital.
Rogues tend to be imaginative and resilient comic
figures.

34
Japanese Humor vs. Navajo Humor

The Japanese are very serious during working
hours. They consider their bosses and their
fellow workers part of their family, and they do
their best to be productive and impress their
working companions.
But after working hours, they go to Karaoke bars
and drink lots of saki, and make fun of their
boss and their companions. Their humor can be
very slapstick, and very silly.

35
Japanese Humor vs. Navajo Humor

In contrast to Japanese humor, Navajo humor is
part of everyday life. It tends to be physical,
and it involves many practical jokes. Navajos
will often parody white men by talking loudly,
boasting, and interrupting others.
When a child is born into a Navajo family,
everybody tries to make the child laugh, and the
first person who is successful in doing so
becomes a part of the family. There is even a
formal ceremony to induct this laugh-inducer into
the childs family.

36
Trickster TalesPourquoi Stories Cautionary
Tales

Most American Indian tribes, like many African
tribes, have trickster tales. The tales are
cautionary, and they are also explanatory.
African Anansi tales tell why mosqitoes buzz, and
why the elephant has a long trunk.
Indian Coyote stories and other trickster tales
tell how a person should act often by
demonstrating how not to act.

Indian culture also often has contraries who do
everything backwards.
They ride their horses backwards.
They wear little clothing in the winter and much
clothing in the summer.
They lift great weights with ease and have
difficulty lifting light weights.
They attack a powerful enemy, and cower at a
lesser power.
And they say the opposite of the truth.
Some ritual clowns also do the opposite of what
is right as a demonstration of what not to do.

38
Humorous Metaphors in Farsi (Iranian Persian)

NOTE In Farsi, these are dead metaphors and are
therefore not funny. But to an outsider learning
Dari, they are very funny.
The Farsi word for walking is baa Xate yazdah
(going by bus line number 11). The 11 stands for
two legs while walking.
The Farsi word for ladybird is kafsh duzak
(little shoe-smith)
The Farsi word for osterich is shotor-morgh
(camel-hen)
The Farsi word for pneumonia is sine pahlu
(chest-side)

Humorous Metaphors in Dari (Afghan Persian)
The Dari word for popcorn is chos e fil
(elephants fart). This has recently been
changed to pof-e fil (elephants puff).
The Dari word for turkey is fil morgh (elephant
chicken)
The Dari word for turtle is sang posht (rock
back)
The Dari word for walnut is chahar maghs (four
brains)
--Thanks to my Dari and Farsi consultants
Sajida Kamal Grande of the University of
Nebraska, Omaha
formerly of Kabul University in Afghanistan
And Behrooz Mahmoodi-Bakhtiari, University of
Tehran