Abstract
Jokes are primarily used to release tension and provoke humor. However, they can also be used as one of the strategies to marginalize a specific culture and effect cultural identity of a particular community. Pathans, an ethic minority in Paksitan and across many other countries as well, are generally seen to be target of humor and marginalization in terms of their intellect and ethnicity in Pakistani cultural context. This study aims to highlight the way pathans are represented in jokes on social media. The addressed themes include: representation of pathans in general, pathans exercising intellect and representation of Pashtun culture (culture of Pathans/Pashtuns). Data is comprised of jokes on pathans and has been randomly collected from social media resources i.e., Whatsapp, Facebook, and different websites. Twenty one jokes have been analyzed linguistically following Attardo & Raskin’s (1991) General Theory of Verbal Humor. The study indicates that pathans are represented as dumb, ignorant, illogical and devoid of any intellect. Pashtun culture‘s depiction strengthens stereotypes about identity of Pathans at the same time marginalizing them and their ethnicity. Significance of this study lies in the stimulation to provoke pathans to resist rather than to internalize these stereotypes, and to raise questions against such practices during any kind of social interaction.
Musarrat Azher, Saira Rashad , Madya Asgher. (2020) Role of humor in belittling minorities: Analysis of Pakistani social media using General Theory of Verbal Humor, Al-Qalam, Volume 25, Issue 1.
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