Arab Comedy

Laugh and the World Laughs with You - or does it??

Have we lost the ability to laugh at ourselves??

Some months ago I got an email from a Canadian TV producer wondering if there is a lot of comedy in Jordan other than Nabil Sawalha and Hisham Yaness. He also asked if there are men and women from other Arab countries doing comedy here that they can't do in their homeland, because Jordan, as he put it, is more liberal than some other Arab countries.

This got me thinking, and thinking. When I was very young; it was Abu 3awwad, and Sum3a… they were and still are highly respected Jordanian artists, and their show back then was such a part of Jordanian culture. And of course we had Nabil, Hisham, and Amal… as kids we didn't understand all of their political jokes, but they were a lot of fun, and I guess part of the reason for their success was the mere fact that they impersonated Jordanian political figures, regardless of whether their performance was that funny or not. And not to miss anyone here, I will mention "El-3am 3'afel" and company – of whom I was not a fan, but I'm sure they had their audience as well.

The reason I'm pointing out all of these is not to go into an analysis or critique of what they do, but rather to pose the question: How come we haven't had any other bright new comedians for over a decade?! All of these comedians came out around the same period of time – as far as I remember. I haven't heard my parents talk about any local comedy that existed before – and I can definitely tell you, we don't have any new, young, and very popular comedians these days… The question is WHY??

I think a large part of it can be attributed to the fact that young people here aren't encouraged to take up acting in the first place. A 14-year-old cousin of mine has a wonderful sense of humor and loves acting, now while his parents have encouraged him to be in a number of plays and performances, I'm sure they would do everything in their power to dissuade him should he ever decide to take it professionally. To be fair, I think this is the case in other places as well… but perhaps not to the same extent. A person wants to make a good living, right? Something that isn't exactly easy for most actors in Jordan. Another reason is that having a great sense of humor and making everyone laugh is not exactly the most respected quality in the eyes of the society – perhaps more so if it's a girl. Being a loud funny girl doesn't go with the social norm I suppose!!

Some time ago at a gathering of friends we watched a video of a stand-up comedy by two Arab-Americans: Dean Obeidallah (Palestinian-American) and Ahmed Ahmed (Egyptian-American). I found it hilarious! "From racial profiling to the myriad Arab stereotypes, these daring performers will shed light and humor on what it means to be an Arab-American in today’s political climate and at all major airports" – Arab Center in Washington. Dean has recently been awarded the "Bill Hicks Spirit Award" for "Thought Provoking Comedy". As he puts it:

I honestly believe that comedy, and the arts, are a great way of raising awareness of an issue and hopefully changing the public's opinions and misconceptions. Just watch Chris Rock, Pryor, John Stewart and you will see that is what they are about. My comedy is intentionally a grass roots campaign to both make people laugh as well as try to foster understanding of Arabs by my fellow Americans. The media's portrayal of Arabs and especially Palestinians is very negative. So I hope through comedy that I can try to change people's opinions and negate stereotypes. Only time will tell if I can change public opinion, but I'm trying to one audience at a time.

Read more - the Washington Post on Arab-American Comedians

I believe this is so true – and as it seems, there are some outstanding smart and funny young Arab-Americans who are taking up this task. One of them is Maysoon Zayid, who – along with Dean – founded the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival (this year in its third run, taking place between November 13th and 17th). It's worth noting that Maysoon spends three months out of the year running an arts program for disabled refugee and orphaned children in Palestine, and about 80% of the money she spends on that comes from her comedy.

If you check out the festival's website, you'll get introduced to an amazing number of performing Arab-American comedians. So this brings me again to the question; why is this kind of comedy absent here in this part of the world?? I might not be totally fair since I don't watch much TV, but I'm not talking about the likes of CBN, "Tash ma Tash" (sorry Farooha) or Mohammad Huneidi for that matter!! I'm talking about something different – Something that touches on politics and its social implications in a different way… smarter, more spontaneous and witty, less redundant… less simplistic and more original for a change! Does anyone out there know what I mean??

You know the proverb that says "Sharrul Baliyyati ma Yud7ek" (roughly translates into: the direst hardship is one that makes you laugh)… this region should get rich selling comedy! It just hit me though – haven't we been talking about the lack of political awareness among youth here?? Could that be a reason why we don't have young comedians taking over from Nabil, Hisham, and their generation?? What about social awareness?? Is it absent as well??

This space is open for debate… I'd love to hear your thoughts on this issue of Arab comedy and some of the questions posed here, so if you have something to share, don't hold back ;)