generalspeaking

Finding Humour

"We never self-censor. It's not what we say about the government or don't say, it is how to make people laugh and have a good time. In times like these, this is a huge challenge.
"If people laughed, if people think we are respecting their mentality, that would be great. Given the circumstances, the panic, the violence, the hatred, the split (in the country), everybody wants you to say exactly what they want. It's very difficult.
"I wanted to tell the people, you know, this not a tool to bring down regimes. We never thought of ourselves like this. We were just, you know, cracking jokes about the status quo And it's a way to deal with our differences ... and I think it's a very healthy, cathartic way of freedom of expression.
"As a matter of fact, having a show like this reflects well on the government -- that it allows something like this."
Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef

People need an outlet for their pressing concerns, and comedy -- particularly the kind of comedy that demonstrates the irrelevancies, the absurdities, the senselessness of what is too often taken so seriously that people are swept up within a societal-altering wave of anger and violence -- can bring people to their senses. Humour is a great healer, and it is an excellent tool which if used with sensitivity and intelligence is capable of defusing tensions.

Bassem Yousssef has obviously honed his talent in focusing on societal malaise, his ability to take the sting out of public ire by demonstrating the absurdity and potential danger in some political positions that impact deleteriously on peoples' lives. His strain of wry comedy is capable of bringing people together, of forming a common front in their recognition of how best to counter adversity in a spirit of supporting the public weal and asserting the power of popular opinion, spurred by humour, however bleak.

He proved a thorn in the tender side of the Muslim Brotherhood when his analytical mind and his liberal tendencies brought him to a spirit of mockery when Mohammed Morsi spoke of representing the democratic order through the lens of religion, rather than understanding that religion has no place in democratic politics.  His brand of humour was definitely not appreciated by the Morsi administration and he paid the price through a brief imprisonment on accusations of levelling insults against Egypt's then-president and against Islam.

His arrest served as a catalyst for a growing civil frustration on the elevation of restrictions on freedom of expression, making it ever more problematic to criticize the government. A growing spirit of nationalism evoked by the military reinstituting their caretaker role between elections after the removal in July of Mohammed Morsi, curtailing the influence and the growing power of the Muslim Brotherhood, also created a backlash to the satirist's comments on military rule.

Egypt has been so gripped by the collision course mapped out by the Muslim Brotherhood against the military and its hordes of supporters, with violent attacks on the police, on Coptic Christians and their churches, on the vicious lawlessness in the Sinai, that military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's popularity has only grown as he resolutely continues to counter the efforts of the Muslim Brotherhood to harness their followers' opposition to their downfall.

"First of all, you have a whole block of media that has been removed from the scene, you know, the Islamic channels. So you already have a one-sided media. I think one of the reasons people got angry is that we spoke differently. We weren't against the regime. But we weren't totally 100 percent going with the flow. And I have a problem with the present media. There's a lot of propagating of fear and panic."
Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef

Well, the popular show is set to continue. The Program will go on. Mr. Youssef has assembled his scriptwriters and his presentation colleagues, and they now have no lack of channels offering to broadcast their show in the wake of the Egyptian CBC suspending it last fall because it was seen to be critical of the military and the nationalist popularity in opposition to the Islamists within the country continuing to insist that the Muslim Brotherhood be returned.

A little late for that, since Mohammed Morsi is being tried for treason, and hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood elite have been imprisoned and charged with criminal offences, including inciting to riot and murder. And the final blow to the Brotherhood, being declared a terrorist group, which will most certainly impoverish them and hamper their ongoing efforts to persuade the faithful to continue their offensive against the military which a whole lot of Egyptians see as a struggle against Egypt's future.

Egypt under the 40-year presidency of Hosni Mubarak was seen as a politically backward country, repressive and harsh, and President Mubarak as a benevolent dictator. France, in contrast is a constitutional republic, dedicated to its vision of a liberal democratic nation of equality, fraternity and freedoms. It fought a bloody revolution to free itself from an exploitative royalty. A reign of terror brought down the aristocracy and handed the country to the people.

Now, in Egypt, a professional and popular comic who makes it his business to mock and satirize power, is free to continue his entertainment for the masses, engaging them in his comedic routine while instructing them in the nuances of interpreting government. He injects a lightness into the prevailing grim mood overtaken by antagonistic, threatening instability.


And in France, where the popular press has revealed that the country's unpopular Socialist president is engaging in an extramarital affair, the political class expresses its outrage at the "invasion" of Mr. Hollande's privacy, threatening to punish the news media, the penalty posited a year in prison and a fine of $67,000.

Labels: Communication, Egypt, Human Relations, Islamism, Muslim Brotherhood, Social-Cultural Deviations

posted by Pieface @ Sunday, January 12, 2014