What's so funny in Afghanistan?: Jocular geopolitics and the everyday use of humor in spaces of protracted precarity

Abstract

Afghanistan has been embroiled in several waves of civil and international political conflict since the late 1970s. Insecurity and uncertainty consume everyday life along with various expressions of humor. This paper draws on geopolitical discussions of humor and feminist examinations of embodiment to examine every day uses of humor in Afghanistan by Afghans and international workers. I define Jocular geopolitics as a playful use of humor and counter-geopolitical tactic to resist or “make do” among civilians living in spaces of protracted precarity. This paper examines every day uses of humor in Afghanistan and analyses four interrelated forms of jocular geopolitics: 1) a survival tactic that calls attention to or highlights violence without romanticizing resilience; 2) a sociopolitical expression creating temporally limited spaces of inclusion/exclusion; 3) a form of discursive resistance and embodied release through amusement or playfulness; and 4) mockery employed as a form of discipline or rebellion. The counter-geopolitics expressed through jocularity engages with different forms of humor to counter and contradict dominant geopolitical narratives and epistemologies of time and space.