Egyptian political jokes target the nation itself rather than the regime
Evidence
I found this kind of rather neurotic self-criticism very frequent. It can be discerned for example in the political joke—that standard expression of dissent in autocracies. But whereas the political joke in Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia tended to be directed against the leader or against the re´gime, in Egypt it is as often as not directed against the Egyptian nation itself. It is not uncommon to find the expression of extreme nationalist views coupled with an almost nihilistic rejection of the Egyptian nation as incapable of anything at all. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1252
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- XREF: Contrasts with how political jokes function in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, which the author names directly.
- QUESTION: What does it mean for dissent that a public mocks itself rather than the ruler? Worth pursuing whether this self-directed humor actually defuses political anger.