From hungary-report-owner Thu Sep 14 14:45:36 1995 Received: from localhost (daemon@localhost) (fnord) by nando.yak.net (8.6.5/8.6.5) id OAA00102; Thu, 14 Sep 1995 14:45:36 -0700 Received: from localhost (daemon@localhost) (fnord) by nando.yak.net (8.6.5/8.6.5) id OAA29993; Thu, 14 Sep 1995 14:45:19 -0700 Received: from bruner@isys.hu () via =-=-=-=-=-= for hungary-report@hungary.yak.net (29991) Received: from kingzog.isys.hu (KingZog.isys.hu [194.24.160.4]) (fnord) by nando (8.6.5/8.6.5) with ESMTP id OAA29975 for ; Thu, 14 Sep 1995 14:44:12 -0700 Received: from [194.24.161.10] (bruner.dial.isys.hu [194.24.161.10]) by kingzog.isys.hu (8.7.Beta.11/8.7.Beta.11) with SMTP id XAA05949 for ; Thu, 14 Sep 1995 23:43:17 +0200 (MET DST) X-Sender: bruner@mail.isys.hu Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Thu, 14 Sep 1995 23:40:13 +0100 To: hungary-report@hungary.yak.net From: bruner@isys.hu (Rick Bruner) Subject: H-Report 1.22 (Feature) Sender: owner-hungary-report@hungary.yak.net Precedence: bulk Reply-To: hungary-report@hungary.yak.net ======================== The Hungary Report Direct from Budapest, every week No. 1.22, SUPPLEMENT September 14, 1995 ======================== ============= FEATURE STORY Democracy is no laughing matter By John Nadler Copyright (c) 1995 When communism in eastern Europe collapsed with the Berlin Wall, everyone expected the departure of the visible trappings of socialism. Politburos and secret police. Commissars and bread queues. But few predicted that a genre of humour would be tossed on history's trash heap along with one-party rule. In fact, when demonstrations in 1989 began to topple the totalitarian regimes of the east, one group shivered in fear more fiercely than the tyrants who faced firing squads: communism's political comics. "We were afraid of a change in the political system," admitted Hungarian actor Robert Koltai, whose Soviet-era cabaret act satired Magyar socialism and its leaders. "We thought at the time: 'We don't know what to do. We can't say anything. There will be freedom. Our main source of humor will disappear'." Of course, Koltai soon found that laughter would survive Leninism. But his fears were not completely unfounded. When communism collapsed, the place of humour in Hungarian society pivoted as perceptibly as the political spectrum. The reason: in democracy, a joke is a joke. But in a police state, a joke can be a weapon. And for 40 years of communism, Hungarians tossed political jokes like hand grenades, developing both an acidity and delicacy in their humour that would be the envy of any American stand-up comic. "During the communist years, Hungarian humor was subtle," said film director Gabe von Dettre. "People needed to express their opinion in a rather political way that wouldn't be obvious for censorship." In this sense, a joke was not just a pressure release, it was a loaded message, as brief as a haiku but packed with meaning. In 1987, when asked her opinion about the fate of the socialist status quo, a 24-year-old Csilla Sebestyen responded with this joke: "What is the definition of communism?" Answer --"It is the long way to capitalism." Two years after this telling, socialism in Hungary fizzled and surrendered to market economics. Csilla, in a dozen words, had already pronounced an ironic post-script to its 40-year reign. Communism sharpened Magyar humor, but it didn't invent it. Sadly, the oppression which made satire in Hungary so sharp between 1949 and 1989 was no new phenomenon. Explained Dettre: "Hungary's unique humor is derived from a strong sense of inferiority. Because since the 13th century we've been oppressed by one country or another. Before the communists, it was the Hapsburgs. Before the Hapsburgs it was the Turks." According to Dettre, centuries of oppression molded a dark wit within the Magyar consciousness. In the past era, communist oppression forced a discipline of subtlety upon political satire. But in every other realm of existence, Hungarians learned to express their unique angst in humour that is sometimes, admitted Dettre, "morbid and ruthless." There are few topics -- from the Holocaust to the lame -- which are taboo. Mused Dettre, who has also lived in US: "There are jokes told here you could never tell in the States." Despite having the freedom to harpoon any topic under the sun, Hungarian humorists during the last four decades chose to ridicule socialism, because to do so was perilous. An act of dissent. While the common man exchanged puns over beers, comics lambasted socialism from the stage. Actor Koltai developed a cabaret character called the 'Comrade in Charge,' a bumbling spoof of the generic socialist bureaucrat. The act was a hit. And because Koltai's satire ridiculed everyone in general by naming no one in particular, it was tolerated by the Party. In 1989, when Hungary's dictatorship began to dismantle, Koltai began to panic. Perfect democracy would eliminate the material and the raison d'etre for the satire he had spent a career perfecting. "Comedy," he explained, "needs something to oppose." Relief came when comics like Kotlai realized that democracy is far from perfect. Hungary's new regime has proven worthy of ridicule. Moreover, capitalism's stresses -- unemployment, poverty -- have made audiences yearn for something other than satire in entertainment: namely, escape. The box-office records broken by Koltai's 1992 apolitical comedy film 'We Never Die' proves that Hungarians need humor as they struggle through a difficult period of transition. Explained actress Kathleen Gati, one of the movie's co-stars: "You've got to laugh at yourself and the situation, or else you will die." So comedy survived socialism, but comics say it is less graceful in an era where anything can be said. "Political jokes now are far more crude," reflected one joke teller. "I don't like them." Declared Koltai: "Some people now cannot distinguish between satire and slander." But even in this new era, jokes remain the front line of dissatisfaction -- an unconscious form of expression, perhaps like dreams and myths, which springs from the stresses of the present. For example, one joke circulating Budapest hints at the bitterness some Hungarians feel about their dashed expectations of capitalism's promises, and their wariness now to aspire for anything but a tolerable present: One sunny day a rabbit in the woods realizes that he is feeling, for the first time in months, perfect contentment. He encounters a fairy who offers him three wishes. The rabbit is silent. The fairy: "I waiting. What are your wishes?" The bunny: "Go to hell. For once I feel content, and you bother me with questions." * * * The evolution of the political joke Humor lampooning communism always mirrored the times, be it the Cold War or Glasnost. Some jokes, like this one from the early years of Hungarian communism in the 1950s, was not meant to inspire a laugh as much as distaste for the system's contradictions: A old woman from the country, ignorant of politics and the socialist revolution that has just taken place, goes to Budapest to visit her son who is an important Party commissar. Privileged, her son's apartment is filled with opulent furniture, and fine food. Not knowing her son's occupation, the women takes in these luxuries, and exclaims: "Very impressive, my son. But be careful. If those communists ever come to power, they'll take this all away from you." During the Soviet occupation, the Russians were a constant source of ridicule. Explained Hungarian Mark Gyukity, "Jokes were a way of criticizing them without fear of punishment." An American, Russian, and Hungarian are on a train. The American pulls out a bottle of whiskey, swallows a mouthful, and tosses the bottle out the window, saying: "We've got so much Whiskey, I can afford to throw away a bottle." The Russian, not wanting to be out done, pulls out a bottle of Vodka, gulps once, and also discards the drink. "Well we've got so much Vodka, I can throw away a full bottle." The Hungarian pulls a bottle of Palinka brandy from his jacket, swallows, then picks up the Russian and heaves him out the window: "Since we've got more Russians than you've got whiskey," the Hungarian says to the American, "I guess I can toss one away too." Outside of politics, a by-product of occupation was a morbidity in Hungarian humor partly revealed in this joke, told recently by a grandfatherly 81-year-old in Budapest: There is a knock at the door. A man opens it to find the Grim Reaper standing before him. "I am death," says the visitor. "Who is it?" shouts the man's wife from another room. The husband sweetly answers: "It's for you darling." =========== MORE UPDATE Thanks to all who sent encouragements after this weekend's comments about the Hungary Report's future, pending my move to San Francisco in four weeks. Good News! I'm optimistic that I'll find sponsorship to keep the Report going afterall. Negotiations are underway. Meanwhile, take a look at our snazzy new Web site: http://www.isys.hu/hrep/ Rick =========== FINAL BLURB The Hungary Report is free to readers. To subscribe, send an email message to the following Internet address: hungary-report-request@hungary.yak.net containing (in the body of the message, not in the headers) the single word subscribe Conversely, to stop receiving Hungary Report, simply send to the same address (in the body of the message) the single word unsubscribe Please note: all mailing lists suffer from frequent "error" addresses. If we have problems with sending to your address more than one week in a row, we will remove you from the list. If you haven't received the report for more than one week, feel free to enquire directly to Rick Bruner (but please wait for at least a week, as we're also just famously late in getting the thing out sometimes :) * * * Back issues of The Hungary Report are available on the World-Wide Web: http://www.isys.hu/hrep/ (in Europe) or http://www.yak.net/hungary-report/ (in the US) and via FTP host: ftp.yak.net directory: /pub/hungary-report/ login name: "ftp" password: your email address * * * The entire contents of The Hungary Report is copyrighted by the authors. Permission is granted for not-for-profit, electronic redistribution and storage of the material. If readers redistribute any part of The Hungary Report by itself, PLEASE RESPECT AUTHORS' BY-LINES and copyright notices. Reprinting and resale of the material is strictly prohibited without explicit prior consent by the authors. Please contact the authors directy by email to enquire about resale rights. * * * For information on becoming a corporate sponsor of The Hungary Report, contact Rick E. Bruner by email. Feedback is welcome. Rick E. Bruner John Nadler * * * For its briefs, The Hungary Report regularly consults the news sources listed below -- for information about subsriptions, contact them by email: The Budapest Business Journal <100263.213@compuserve.com> (and tell them what dwads they are for making us pay for issues at the newsstand); Budapest Sun <100275.456@compuserve.com>; Budapest Week and Hungary Around the Clock (same email address) <100324.141@compuserve.com>, and Central Europe Today (free online) . ================ END TRANSMISSION