Humour as a weapon of oppression
This article was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-4, Dec 79-Jan 80)
What a society considers funny can tell us a lot about the nature of that society. Humour in an unequal society is inevitably directed against oppressed groups and minorities. The ruling group always sees the members of the oppressed group as having certain fixed and unvarying qualities. Thus the popular British notion of the Scots as miserly and the Irish as idiots. Anti-Semite humour portrays the Jews as crafty, avaricious and mean. Anti-black jokes perpetuate the stereotype of the black as a good-natured, lazy, childlike idiot who needs protection and constant supervision. In North India anti-Sikh jokes make this community seem stupid to the point of imbecility.
Humour as a weapon should not be underestimated. It performs two distinct functions — makes the oppressed feel inferior and justifies the oppressors to themselves. If this was said in so many words it would sound unconvincing but humour can often persuade where rational argument would fail. It appeals to and justifies the deepest prejudices of an unjust set-up, which are already being sustained through the education and entertainment systems…
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