Can ISIS Survive…Mockery?
Can an army of bloodthirsty theocrats survive a brutal ribbing? Well…yes. And a new supply of Chinese ground-to-air missiles gained courtesy of Qatar isn't exactly going to make ISIS hemorrhage too terribly under assault from even the most rapier-like wit. But political comedian Dean Obeidallah points out at The Daily Beast that the terrorist group/fundamentalist state has become a popular target of entertainers across the Middle East. Says he, "they mock ISIS on everything from being hypocrites when it comes to Islam to being bumbling idiots to simply smelling like crap."
He writes that one of the funnier videos he's seen translated into English is a Palestinian-produced take (embedded below) on an ISIS checkpoint manned by the Three Stooges of homicidal fanaticism. Belly-tickling-wise, it's probably better than some of the material that Saturday Night Live has inflicted on its audience. It ends with an off-tune dig to the effect that ISIS is more interested in terrorizing Arabs than in tormenting Israelis.
Which, again, is better than some of the material that Saturday Night Live has inflicted on its audience.
Whatever their quality, the comedic attacks, Obeidallah emphasizes, are a means for people across the region to defy ISIS. For comics in Syria and Iraq, that defiance potentially risks serious consequences, since entertainers face death for poking fun at the group.
Read the whole piece here.