Should I laugh or not? Is a question
that often comes to my mind, when hearing jokes about issues, such as
immigration, integration and ethnicity, to name a few. On the one hand, these
jokes are often funny, but on the other hand, they also address serious issues,
which not funny at all for some people's daily lives. Is then comedy or satire
the right genre to address these issues? By comparatively analyzing two very
contrasting comedians' performances I shall examine this question in the paper proposed hereby. Serdar
Somuncu, an 'actor, writer, satirist, comedian, and self-styled
philosopher of transnational humanism' (Bower 2012: 194) achieved fame through
his reading of Hitler's "Mein Kampf" on stage in 1996. Somuncu
ascribes himself the right to take part in the process of coming to term with
the past (Vergangenheitsbewältigung) as a 'informed German
citizen' and further, legitimizes his right to criticize German-Turkish
relations with his Turkish heritage (Bower 2012: 196). Further, he 'confronts
the cultural taboos silenced by political correctness or exaggerated
playfulness with ethnic stereotypes' (Bower 2012: 204). Kaya Yanar, comedian,
moderator and writer, became famous with the TV program Was guckst du? (What are you looking at?) launched in 2001. Using Somuncu's
words, Yanar is one of those comedians addressing ethnic stereotypes with
'exaggerated playfulness'. In contrast to Somuncu, Yanar puts the boundaries of
humour with issues that could hurt people, thus he does not joke about religion or tragic events (spiegel.de 2008). Moreover,
Yanar does not see politics as fitting for comedy, as it is not entertaining,
but exhausting. And integration, according to Yanar, is fulfilled, when a German-Turkish comedian can step on stage without
having to address his being German-Turkish (spiegel.de 2008).
In the context of the final paper for
this class I would like to look closer at how Somuncu and Yanar address
ethnic stereotypes, migration, ethnicity, belonging, identity, integration and
home; issues that we dealt with throughout the semester. What role does humour
inhabit when addressing these issues? Does it challenge stereotypes and common
perceptions or does it rather reinforce them? How does migrant background of
the performers play into the effects of their shows? What are the commonalities
and differences of the performances of Somuncu and Yanar? And how does the impact of their performances differ from one another, if at all?
References:
- Bower, Kathrin 2012: Serdar Somuncu: Reframing
Integration through a Transnational Politics of Satire. The German Quarterly 85
(2): 193-213.
- Spiegel.de 2008:
http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/leute/kaya-yanar-im-interview-mein-comedy-programm-ist-eine-danksagung-an-die-deutschen-a-542524.html
I think this is a very interesting topic, especially because these two comedians although they have the same migration background they deal totally different with this topic. I think in the public sphere Kaya Yanar is more known because he deals with all his topics it in a funny way. Serdar Somuncu on the other hand has more profound jokes. It would be very interesting to show the impact of these two different comedians.
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