Hizbullah’s Humour: Political Satire, Comedy, and Revolutionary Theatre

Abstract

Employing a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary humanities and social science approach, this chapter discusses how different forms of humour have been mobilised to negotiate, subvert, or sustain various paradigms of structural oppression, highlighting the shift between the sacred and the profane in humour as a genre of Resistance Art. Although there are a few studies focusing on political satire and Hizbullah’s reaction to the mockery of its leadership, hardly any have focused on the role of humour as a didactic genre of Resistance Art, with a clear purpose and function. Hizbullah permits purposeful humour, jokes, comedy, theatre, and political satire in its ideology since it regards popular culture as a site of struggle between the resistance of subordinate groups in society and the hegemonic authorities or ruling power elite. This chapter also studies aniconism vis-à-vis the political satire of al–Sistani’s caricature.