We
have new competition for my favorite book this year! Tales of Juha was great so
far. I didn’t know what to expect, but as I read the introductory pages that
explained the humor of Juha, I had a feeling it would be something I would
enjoy. The first set of jokes was titled “Wit and Wisdom”. I love witticisms
and cunning remarks, and so these Juha jokes were great!
The
thing that made these jokes so entertaining was that I was constantly on the
edge of my seat waiting for the punch line. Sometimes, I could predict
something like what Juha would say, but the entertainment value was not
reduced. Since some of the jokes were too long to type up, I’ll stick to the
smaller jokes for the most part. One of the jokes I laughed at was on page 25:
A punctilious person
asked Juha what was the best position to take in a funeral procession. Was it
ahead of the coffin or behind it?
“As
long as you’re not in the coffin,” Juha said, “you can walk wherever you like.”
The sense of sarcasm in this joke
made it funny to me. Sarcasm was definitely a theme of Juha stories, but the
presence of the donkey was certainly the most common word. I’m not completely
sure what a donkey represents in Arabic culture, but it seemed to be present in
almost half of the stories. I suspect the donkey represents stubbornness or
annoyance, similarly to how we think of donkeys in the U.S.
I
also really enjoyed the jokes when it appeared that a secondary character had fooled
Juha (and made him look like an idiot), promptly followed by a quick retort by
Juha that makes him a hero. An example of this occurs in the very first story,
on pages 11-12. After describing a crazy situation about boiling wheat before
planting the seeds, the judge questions the strangeness of his description, but
Juha immediately changes the context and uses the argument to win the trial for
his “client”.
Most
of these jokes were entertaining and enjoyable, although some of them were
difficult to understand based on cultural differences. Overall, I think Tales
of Juha will be one of my favorite books this semester.
Michael,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you! So far, I have enjoyed reading Tales of Juha. I understand the humor a lot better and have also wondered about the significance of the donkey.
I found it interesting that the two anecdotes you chose to write about were two of my favorites as well! I wonder if they are the closest to American humor...?
Along with you and Rebecca, I also agree about the jokes in Tales of Juha and the enjoyment I had reading them. I found them entertaining because, like you, I was waiting to see what Juha would say. They were definitely different than what I've heard in the US. I think I'd like to know what the people from Juha's culture think about these jokes, and whether they find them as funny as we do!
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree with you that this book definitely tied at the number one spot for me this semester. I really enjoyed the surprise in seeing how well this humor connects to swell to our "Americanized" humor. I really had no clue that Juha and this humor from the middle east would even have the slightest resemblance to what I usually find funny.
ReplyDeleteA pleasant surprise, indeed.