Cited from: International Society for Persian Humor, July 2016
This report concerns Mahmud Farjami’s doctoral thesis on the motivations of Iranian political satirists, whether writers or cartoonists, in undertaking the process of producing satire for print and online media. The study was conducted from 2010 to 2014, during PhD studies at the School of Communications, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The thesis was registered under the title “Motivations of Iranian Political Satirists: A Case Study” in July, 2014.
By: Mahmud Farjami
Why Motivations?
Critical humor and political satire have existed in Persian literature for more than a millennium. Satire and satirists have often been beloved by the people and feared by men of power. Biting criticism coexists with playful humor in the most prominent works of Iranian satire. Soon after the Iranian Constitutional Revolution (1905-1907) and the appearance of free press in Iran, writers, artists, and journalists tapped this rich tradition to produce widely influential political satire for the growing mass media, in the form of prose, verse and cartoons. However, producers of satire have faced serious dangers: prison, exile, even death. Why have some satirists continued to produce political satire on this hazardous ground?
This study’s first aim was to explain each of the satirists’ individual motivations; the second to identify the strongest common motivating factor. Data was derived from interviews with nine Iranian political satirists, each with at least ten years’ experience in working for Iranian print or online media: Hadi Khorsandi, Ebrahim Nabavi, Mana Neyestani, Roya Sadr, Abolfazl Zaruee NasrAbad, Firouzeh Mozaffari, Hadi Heidari, Pouria Alami, and F.M. Sokhan (penname).
The Methodology
The study’s theoretical framework combined the three major theories of humor, Superiority, Relief and Incongruity theories, to cover the social, psychological and cognitive aspects of humor. Also, key terms,including humor, satire, satirist motivations and hegemony, were conceptualized and outlined, looking to previous studies.
In order to answer the general question about their motivations, interviews with the satirists consisted of open-ended questions, each one related to at least one of the theories embedded in the theoretical framework. These semi-structured, in-depth interviews were used to collect the data. The Directed Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) approach, which uses a mixture of concept-driven and data-driven categories to create the coding frame, was used to take advantage of pre-existing theories while not being limited by them.
A long chapter (Chapter Three) was provided which included a comprehensive background account of the development of political satire in Iran, and this was used as a secondary source of data. A part of this chapter has been published in the journal Iranian Studies and was the basis on which the author awarded a Graduate Student Award in the 24th annual conference of the International Society for Humor Studies, 2012, Krakow.
Findings
I analysed the data derived from each satirist’s interview first individually and then collectively. The overall conclusion was that “relief from anger and aggression” is the strongest motivation behind the production of political satire in Iran. This need for relief usually is caused by observing the incongruence between the ideal and the actual; it drives the satirist to social action in the form of punishing the cause of the (actual) corruption and oppression through ridicule or humiliation. The study also shows however that even a framework made up of the three dominant theories of humor cannot account for all the motivations of professional political satirists and a significant amount of motivational aspects cannot described by these theories. By other words, a combination of the three best-known theories of humor is necessary to explain motivations to produce political satire but is not sufficient. Significantly personal satisfaction, in the form of intellectual, professional, and financial interests, also strongly motivates the production of satire.
A short personal Epilogue
I would like to express my appreciation to some satirists as well as to humor scholars who kindly let me benefit from their reviews, comments and assistance.
Prominent Iranian humor scholar Professor Hasan Javadi, very kindly allowed me to cite his valuable works in my thesis which is greatly appreciated.
Several notable professors, among them Dr Jessica Milner Davis (University of Sydney), Professor Ahmad Sadri (Lake Forest College), Associate Professor Robert Phiddian (Flinders University), Professor Conal Condren and Dr Mark Rolfe (both University of New South Wales), Professor Michael Carter (University of Sydney), Professor Mohammad Tavakkoli-Targhi (University of Toronto), Dr Vahid Vahdat Zad (Texas A&M University), all gave me valuable assistance for which I am grateful. The late Dr Hossein Shahidi from the American University of Beirut kindly read some parts of Chapter Three and gave me very worthwhile comments about Persian and Arabian satire in the classic and modern periods. Dr Davis in particular has influenced me deeply and taught me unforgettable lessons not only about humor studies, but about life.
With more than ten years’ experience as a political satirist in Iranian press and print media, I have had the opportunity to stay with some of the interviewees in order to observe them closely in their day-to-day realities. In 2012 and 2013, I travelled twice to Belgium and spent a short time observing Mr. Nabavi’s activities and demeanor in his home in exile. I have been a close friend of Pouria Alami since 2006. I know Mrs. Sadr, having met her in Tehran and spoken informally with her about her professional and personal life. I met Mana Neyestani in Paris and stayed in his apartment briefly allowing both formal and informal conversation. I have a friendly relationship in cyberspace with political cartoonist Firoozeh Mozaffari, as well as with F.M. Sokhan, the pseudonym of a satirist active in online media. Hadi Heidari has been my colleague (but in different media) since 2007, and we did some work together, such as interviewing the prominent Iranian cartoonist Kambiz Derambakhs.
Mr. Khorsandi, who lives in London, kindly came to Paris to see me and to be interviewed face-to-face. In addition to getting the interviews done, those days in Paris allowed me to observe and record him in ordinary social activities, including casual gatherings. I also have known Mr. Zaruee for more than eight years and have interviewed him several times in his home and office in Tehran.
The author is truly in debt to all aforementioned interviewees for their time, effort, cooperation, and especially for their sense of humor.
About the Author:
Mahmud (Seyed Mahmood) Farjami is an Iranian satirist and journalist who began his career in 2002. He has published five books and more than three hundred articles and essays, mostly satiric. He co-founded International Society for Persian Humor (ISPH) in 2013, is a member of International Society for Humor Studies (ISHS), and has been a member of International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) since 2006. Farjami had to leave Iran in 2010 because of his critical writings and satires