On February 6th 2011 The Regency in Qatar held a big comedy show starring Gabriel Iglesias (AKA. Fluffy) as well as many other comedians from different cultures. Hearing about this I could not wait to attend as I am a huge fan of Gabriel Iglesias and stand up comedy in general. The show included comedians from not only the Arab world but all over the world including Saudis, a Qatari, a Palestinian, a Native American, a Pakistani and one person from the Philippines. Therefore, in addition to being a fun time I thought it would be the perfect event to talk about in my blog considering its gonna include many cultures.
The comedians came on one by one each discussing their own culture and poking fun at it. The Qatari Comedian Mohammed Fahad Kamal, discussed the Qatari cultures and poked fun at the social norms that exist. Meanwhile, Edwin San Juan, a Filipino American, discussed the filipino culture and the difference between the older generation and the younger generation. Each comedian focused mostly on their culture discussing the norms. For example Fahad Al Butairi, host of a popular Arabic web show Layekthar Show ('Enough Show'), made jokes concerning the Saudi culture. For example one joke was regarding the Saudi engagements and how his mother would bring up different women who she thought would be great for him. Another joke is the Saudi culture in regards to cars and shopping, as seen in the video below.
Some comedians delved into more sensitive issues such as the Egyptian situation and other political and social taboos. For example, the Qatari comedian discussed the flirting culture in the Gulf, or Ibraheem Al Khairallah who discussed Egypt and Hosni Mubarak.
In terms of sociology this event fell under the critical theory, because it allowed these comedians to discuss issues, which may not be acceptable to discuss normally, through comedy. This created a lighter atmosphere without changing the message. It also fell under the Interaction theory as it allowed many different comedians from different cultures to interact with a large, diverse audience and bridged cultural gaps and stereotypes. As the lead comedian Gabriel Iglesias mentioned in his set he had very stereotypical ideas of what the Middle East would be like yet when he arrived he saw a completely different thing and felt guilty for having those previous stereotypes, furthermore, he said he'd be telling people all over the United States about how untrue those stereotypes are. He ended his set by saying that he believes comedy is a great way to get over differences and create a bond globally, because as he tweeted "East Meets West & together we laugh the best :)"
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