The Amman Comedy Festival is the only stand-up comedy festival in the Middle East and December 2009 marked the second edition of this weeklong rib-tickling extravaganza. The first, held in 2008, attracted an audience of over 3000 Jordanians and Arabs, and was such a resounding success, organizers the Greater Amman Municipality decided to do it all over again. The event is held in collaboration with the New York Arab American Comedy Festival and invites comedians from Jordan and other parts of the world to come and raise laughs.
I think the festival’s a great idea, and represents a wonderful, good-spirited way to dispel some of the stereotypes and misrepresentations of Arabs in the mainstream press.
Experts at Making Fun of Ourselves
Audience members laughed deep from their bellies, as comedians stood up and revealed some of the anecdotes of Arab life, from the inside. Two of the festival’s seven nights were dedicated to stand-up material in Arabic.
A Christian Science Monitor correspondent who was at the festival in Jordan reveals some of the hits: comedian Maysoon Ziyad put a spin on the pressures to get married, while Persian-American comic Maz Jobrani mused how Iranian opposition protesters were forced to shorten Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s name for rally chants.
Joke telling in Arabic is a much more “around the houses” than it is in say English. It focuses on details rather than timing, according to Korean-Jordanian comic Wonho Chung. The build-up to a punch line can be closer storytelling, spinning a yarn and admiring the scenery of a joke.
Breaking Taboos and Cracking the Mold
According to the CSM correspondent much of Arab humour is based on regional references; referring to well-manicured Lebanese men as “the most beautiful Arab women,” or poking fun at Saudis’ “disappointment” at the grand opening of the Virgin Megastore in Jeddah.
This seems relatively harmless to someone like me, who has lived in Spain for many years, where humour is raucous, outrageous, often discriminate and anything but demure, subtle or modest. Yet in Jordan, this festival is breaking some major taboos in more traditional culture: the art of revealing personal lives in public, and adding exaggeration, self-irony and sarcasm to the mix.
A Bold Step: Going Where Arab Humour has Never Been Before
American Comic Amer Zahr affirmed in the CSM article that not everyone in Jordan, or even in the audience at the festival is ready for such a bold step. The mention of family members or spouses on stage still attracts shouts of “shame on you!” as well as laughter, he noted.
Veteran Jordanian satirist Nabil Sawalha added that the popularity of stand-up comedy proves that “humourless Arabs” are eager to laugh at themselves.
“Why not? We came up with the greatest joke of all time,” Mr. Sawalha said. “Arab politics.” I’m sure that comment earned him more than just applause!