The Best Medicine

I used to love this ventriloquist named Jeff Dunham... not literally, I just loved his act. He's really funny and his puppets are so lifelike. But when he introduced a new character, a Halloween skeleton to which he had attached a turban and the name "Achmed the Dead Terrorist" I was horrified. The new puppet, from its fake Middle Eastern accent, to its thick eyebrows and back story (being a dead suicide bomber) was the literal embodiment of every horrible Arab stereotype. I didn't want to watch the segment, but my ex pulled the "why are you always so up-tight" card so I stayed and I watched it. And I laughed, hard. It was hilarious.

A few weeks later one of my favorite radio stations did a 30 second sound bite joke: a call-in to a suicide bomber hotline, where instead of talking you out of killing yourself, they talk you into it. Also hilarious.

I felt guilty for thinking so. I hate (really really really) hate stereotyping, generalizations and any conception that allows you to categorize a diverse number of unique individuals into a faceless group. For me, one of the hardest parts of coming to the Arab world was getting to know the wonderful people here and realizing how wrong our perceptions of them in the U.S. are, and as I've discussed before, how wrong theirs are of us. The gap of understanding between the world I'm living in and the one I came from is so big and so empty that it defies words, even for me. So how can it possibly be okay to joke about it?

But lately I've started to think I had it backwards. Comedy acts like Jeff Dunham's dead terrorist, or the Axis of Evil comedy tour don't reinforce the stereotypes that divide the West from the East, they mock them. They highlight how utterly ridiculous they are, and we laugh because we realize how stupid and outrageous those perceptions have become. And laughing, that's healthy. Especially when both sides are laughing at the same thing. If we can leave behind our American or Arab identities for even one minute to be able to laugh at the same thing- even if that thing is the ridiculous misconceptions and stereotypes we have about one another- then maybe, for that one minute, we have something in common. And maybe we'll realize it.
Maybe, in that one minute those "other" people in that stereotyped group will become just like us. Sharing a joke. Its not much to have in common, but you have to start somewhere.

So I have changed my position. I think its okay to laugh. I think its good to laugh. I think maybe, if politicians and journalists and economists and definitely terrorists laughed more we'd be a hell of a lot better off than we are today.

So here's my challenge to you. I'm posting three videos. The first one is Jeff Dunham's Achmed the Dead Terrorist, discussed above. The second one is the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour's Maz Jiobrani. He is an Iranian American comedian who has succeeded in making both Middle Eastern and American audiences cry they were laughing so hard. Not to brag or anything but he'll be in Amman next week and guess who's got tickets... ha ha! Anyway, the third is a video my (Jordanian) friend filmed last semester with an American kid who was in my program.

The first video is apretty straight forward example of us laughing at our perceptions of them. And believe me they can laugh at it too, they think that puppet is hilarious. The second one makes light of situations and problems that impact us both. The third one is the challenge. It is basically Jordanians making fun of American fear and ignorance of the Arab world. Its a spoof of a terrorist hostage ransom tape. The "terrorists" are two of my very good friends - their names are Yezan and Khalil, holding fake machine guns in front of a Jordanian flag- (not a Palestinian flag which doesn't have a white star). They are not speaking Arabic, they're speaking gibberish and the kid they've got on his knees is laughing.

So lets see - can we laugh at ourselves? Can we laugh at how ridiculous this whole thing has gotten and how completely crazy and unfounded our fear has become? I hope so. Enjoy.

Love you all!
Caddie

P.S. - I'm rating these videos R, just a heads up


Video 1: Achmed! The Dead Terrorist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uwOL4rB-go

Video 2: Maz Jobrani, Axis of Evil Commedy Tour:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYlaIxNX01Q

Video 3: Yezan and Khalil, being the crazy shabab they are
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=533149033489&subj=20013394