Laughing at Ourselves

That IS interesting!

That's it... I'm starting a riot. brb

If you consider a sense of humor as a factor in survival....

That's it... I'm starting a laugh riot. brb

Of all the most stupid, dumbest ideas ever!! this has got to take first prize!!
Which assh*le thought of this one??

Get people to draw disgusting racist cartoons because we should be able to 'laugh at ourselves?'

Since when has it been funny to be reffered to as a monster or demonic? is that funny or pitiful? Its pitiful.

Why is it not immoral that jewish people have drawn those cartoons yet it would be immoral if nazis or the KKK had drawn them .

The absurd thing is now the racists can remprint those cartoons everywhere to re-enforce their racist stereo types and get away wit it.

This was truely a grotesque idea and many of the cartoons are not even funny but sickening and I dont see the moral justification to allow even a Jewish person to vilify the Jewsh people.

What would be said of a black person who drew racist pictures of black people, I think such people are reffered to as Uncle Toms, such a gesture is not considered funny but self hating and demeaning.

These cartons are disgusting, just plain disgusting.

The New Yorker had some Art Spiegelman cartoons that were the same idea a couple of issues ago. I got it, and I love Art Spiegelman, but I didn't like the cartoons. (Not that I was supposed to...) There was some article I was reading on the opposite page and I had to put something over the cartoons to read it, they were bothering me so much...

a few were funny, a few more i didn't get, and the rest were poorly drawn or in questionable taste, IMO, but if anyone's entitled to parody Jews, it would be Jews themselves.

Jewish humour is among the best, because they do not take themselves too seriously.

Think of Monthy Python and how they ridiculed British stuffed shirts.

All those who never laugh at themselves have no sense of humour.

With these cartoons they took the wind out of their enemy's sails.

I do like that part. (The wind-out-of-sails part.)

Or since East is East and West is West, the cartoons convinced the Arabs-in-the-souk that Jews are decadent westerners and a godless people.

Personally, I was happy to see the contest, but I'm not sure that self-mockery is part of the Arab mentality.

Laughing at Ourselves
What a good article, detano inipo. Although I don't like mocking, it's good for us to step back and tease ourselves a little, whenever we start taking ourselves too seriously!

I think if Hitler had done this, he might have been a nicer fellow.

Definition of 'high horse':
To be on one's "high horse" is to be disdainful or conceited.

That's what happened to the protesting Muslims. They are not squeaky clean. It is good to look into a mirror and see some blemishes.

I'm so humble, I'm afraid to look. LOL.

PS, I am certain Hitler had no sense of humour at all.

This can be a silly argument.

When was the last time you succumbed to uncontrollable laughter? The sort where you gasp for air and your stomache hurts. I suppose it's possible, but I have never experienced such a moment that was at the expense of someone else's pain.

Laughter is a tonic for the soul.

Insane people may laugh when they cut off the limbs of their victims, but they are insane. We don't develop social mores around the propensities of the insane.

finn: I have never experienced such a moment that was at the expense of someone else's pain.

I agree with you there. I don't understand the rest of your post.

Simple: Humor is good. Laughter is good.

A tiny sliver of evil human beings can pervert any and all natural beatuies.

They are the exceptions, and not the rules.

That is an interesting question...is it?



Self mockery is a strong part of Australian culture...I know it is of Russian humour.....is it of American?


I honestly know not enough of Arab culture to comment.


Does anyone know?

So...searching...found a few interesting sites:

http://www.levantinecenter.org/


Hmmm...there is some tradition of satire in literature:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_literature


Satire site: Dunno if they be laughing at themselves...

http://www.assyrianconvention.com/Satire.aspx


Arab-American comic:

http://www.hanania.com/humor/feature802.htm



http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=20213

Humour sites:

http://go-leb.com/humor.html

Deb--

Thanks for the research. I did some hasty sampling of several sites and decided that perhaps Arabic humor doesn't translate well.

I haven't read The Arabian Nights for years and years and years, but as I remember Scheherazade got through a thousand and one nights without a humorous story.

Noddy, the Tale of the Barber was quite funny, at least in the translation i read.