kitsch----->irony------> the universality of humor?

This advertisement from Egyptian tv doesn't really need to be translated. It is exactly what you think it is. The fat guy is a "boredom fighter" for the Egyptian equivalent of MTV called Melody Hits, but he's ready to quit because of the disrespect he gets from professors and parents. The woman is begging him to keep working, "if not for me, than for your son."


Yes, this ad is great. But its infinitely greater for being completely unique within the Egyptian cultural context. Egyptian mainstream humor is usually more like this:


(i saw this movie twice at full volume on the most painful bus trip of my entire life)

I guess, in keeping with my thesis of the Narcissim of Small Differences, i shouldn't be so hard on it. There are plenty of American movies that are just as painful. But it is not an exaggeration to say that i have never seen an Egyptian film where less than 80 percent of the lines were shouted full blast.

So what place does american style humor have in Egyptian society? Melody hits has recently started an ad campaign with videos like this:

First, the mother smacking her son on the back of the neck is classic: the quintessential egyptian attack.

But beyond that, there's a lot at work here: Juxtaposing egyptian traditionalism (fat kids, dirty streets, and traditional clothes are ubiquitous in the ad campaign) with American sex music video's has to be some sort of commentary...

The cynic in me sees these ads as geared towards a strata of society that -from my experience - has a universal desire to leave egypt. In two months of asking twenty-something English students about there dreams, i got 'leave egypt' about 95 percent of the time.

(a rebutal might be 'well duh, that's why they're taking english classes,' but everyone from this income level is taking english classes, so there.)

These ads highlight exactly what westernized egyptians hate about egypt - and then poke fun at them. They entrench egyptian ideas about a split between unattainable 'westernism' and inescapable 'egyptianism.'

Watching this commercial in a koshery joint next to a 10 year old and his veiled mother was awkward, but i can't imagine what either of them must think about it.

Yeah. There's more in my head to be said about this, but
not now i guess.