2023-11-19 06:43:59
Humor is often used during armed conflicts to rebel or to overcome the pain of war. The conflict between Hamas and Israel is no exception and comedians from around the world have taken up this very delicate subject. How to laugh regarding it, with whom and with what limits?
A week following the October 7 massacre in Israel by Hamas, on the British channel Talk TV, the very conservative presenter Piers Morgan receives the Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef, established in the United States for several years. He then uses provocation and black humor to defend the Palestinian cause and destroy preconceptions.
The clip goes viral, with more than 20 million views. The show suddenly becomes a relentless mirror of the often vain discussions that accompany this conflict. Alya Aglan, professor of contemporary history at the Sorbonne, analyzes this tightrope-walking rhetoric in the show Tout un monde.
“He denounces the hostages who were taken as human shields and he denounces at the same time the fact that we are not defending the Palestinians. It is very strong in reality. But first of all, we take his sentence in the figure saying to himself ‘but what is he talking regarding?’.”
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Weapon of resistance
The one who signed “Laughter or Life”, an Anthology of humor during the Resistance, specifies: “Mocking the powerful who decide but who remain indecision is a universal humorous vein. We are not going to not go and make fun of the victims whatever their side. It’s an insurmountable limit.”
Humor has always served as a weapon of resistance, as we saw once more during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Artists found themselves clandestinely in shelters to do stand-up or to parody Vladimir Putin. According to Alya Aglan, comedy is the weapon of the weak, one that requires few resources but a lot of courage.
Facing death
For spectators geographically far from the battlefields, humor then becomes a tool to manage the influx of stressful situations, underlines Marie Anaut, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Lyon: “It is the use of a vital impulse in a traumatic situation, in other words which puts the person face to face with the reality of death.”
Humor allows you to find a certain freedom in an alienating, dehumanizing and anxiety-provoking situation.
Marie Anaut, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Lyon
“The use of humor allows you to take a certain distance and find a certain freedom in an alienating, dehumanizing and anxiety-provoking situation. We saw this a lot around Covid. Some people were very confronted with the reality of death. There has been an explosion in the use of humor in social media, including self-deprecation.”
The psychologist specifies, however, that humor can also shock – rightly or wrongly – particularly in anxiety-provoking contexts, like the one prevalent today.
Historical heritage
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with its long history, disrupts a lot of established codes around humor. French comedian and columnist Guillaume Meurice recently received a warning from Radio France. In question, a sketch in which he compares Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “a Nazi without a foreskin”. The reactions were very strong.
This conflict makes the use of humor seem like something highly flammable
Alya Aglan, professor of contemporary history at the Sorbonne
This controversy concerns questions of tone, semantics and accuracy in privileged rhetoric. But there is also a very particular European historical heritage, recalls Professor Alya Aglan,
“There is uneasiness regarding our Western bad conscience for having never succeeded in helping this region emerge from a conflict which has lasted for more than 70 years. This conflict is also very dangerous for us, for the cohesion of our societies. I think that this conflict, with these two dimensions, makes the use of humor something highly flammable.”
An omnipresent bad time
What boundaries should be placed on humor and how not to alienate the spectator? In recent weeks the question has resurfaced underlyingly or even explicitly in several columns and sketches.
The Swiss Thomas Wiesel has addressed this theme on the RTS airwaves several times and speaks of a more minefield than any other, due to history and the vocabulary associated with it. But the comedian also points out the bad faith of everyone.
“It’s the war most people know regarding. Even if geographically it’s relatively far away, ideologically, it’s a more charged conflict than others, because everyone has an opinion, everyone has an opinion , everyone is almost ready to get offended before they even listen. And instead of listening to see what someone is saying, we listen to see what we can get offended regarding.”
>> Thomas Wiesel’s latest column on the war between Hamas and Israel: Thomas Wiesel’s column – Gaza under the bombs / The fine talkers / 6 min. / October 29, 2023
Radio subject: Anne Fournier
Version web: Antoine Schaub
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