Namely, laughter is read as a means of expressing unbearable experiences in the nexus of Saudi society and a larger virtual community, all embedded in an autocratic context, including an internalized authoritarian epistemology. Satirical videos stage a society in crisis: forces of lethargy, connivance, and violence are entangled with aspirations for agency and change. They are critically looking into themselves and their society, at times confessing their helplessness and at other times colluding with the existing power structure, a move that redeems the state and reinscribes it within the national narrative of the ultimate savior.
First, humor and laughter, as a solid part of everyday life, clue us into practices through which people make sense of their lives in times of uncertainty and abrupt changes. The beginning of this decade witnessed what came to be called the Arab Spring. As the latter have uploaded episodes that deal with the Arab spring, their satirical renderings are selected for analysis.
In this section, the three first episodes posted on YouTube in June are introduced and thematized. This episode was selected as it critiques the ubiquity of real or symbolic violence involved in these trends, constitutive of the crisis delineated in the present study.
They are critically looking at themselves and their society, at times confessing their helplessness and other times colluding with the existing power structure, all of which typify being a subject in times of crisis.
Yet, critics point to a dark side. Yet, in , he was surprised by the remarks of a Saudi airline representative who was horrified at his coming home to the unbearable heat of Saudi Arabia while the norm had become to seek the coolness of England. The shift from a society based on brotherhood to a mode of interacting with others as if they were customers was palpable.
