Structural Functions of Joke Cycles: The Case of Persian Qazvini Jokes

What is it about?

Focusing on the disciplinary function of humor, as an understudied subject in humor studies, this article addresses Qazvini jokes—the contemporary Persian joke cycle targeting men from the Iranian city of Qazvin—as mainstream gender humor that uses ridicule as a means of supporting heteronormativity and fueling homophobia. Adopting a historical-analytical approach, and considering examples of and references to Qazvini jokes, I argue that the joke series likely originated as a disciplinary tool, to buttress the emerging heteronormative gender order of early modern Iranian society. Contextualized instances of these jokes not only illustrate that this punitive function has endured to the present but also indicate their ongoing homophobic role.

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Why is it important?

This argument problematizes the claim made in humor studies that jokes have no social consequences. Qazvini jokes may be inconsequential in the limited sense that they might not affect attitudes toward their direct targets—that is, individual men of Qazvin—yet their heteronormalizing and homophobic functions clearly speak to larger social structures within Iranian society and culture. This form of ethnic humor both adheres to and informs Iran’s prevailing gender and sexuality norms; as such, in this broader sense, the jokes may indeed have far-reaching consequences.