This post is part of neweurasia’s cross-blog survey devoted to humor in Central Asia

The humor here is rooted deep in the centuries when Kazakhs were nomads. Despite a rather tragic history, Kazakh folklore is stuffed with easy-going characters playfully coming out of troubles with smile on a face, such as Aldar Kose, Zhirenshe and Yer-Tostik. The 20th century was even more dramatic – famine, repressions, war, nuclear tests… No fun, of course. But if people endure serious challenges, their sense of humor should not disappear. It just gets reshaped.

NOMADIC EXPERIENCE

Historians say that humor and satire were a big deal in Kazakhstan’s ancient times. Since the nomads spend most of their time moving from one pasture to another, almost the only places they could get together and practice their wits were different kinds of celebrations – in the first instance, certainly, weddings – and at the trade-fairs where they bargained the products of their year-round roaming with the cattle.

The so-called ku’s (“sly guy” in Kazakh) were the folk comics-jokers, who amused the people at the festivities. Their arsenal included jokes, pranks, humorous songs and sketches. For example, at the nuptial betashar ceremony (when the bride’s face is about to be unveiled), a ku presented the young lady’s new family (usually very big in Kazakhstan) by jokingly parodying their habits, and “extorting” gifts for the bride from them.

Besides, the akyns and zhyraus (bards, who sang lengthy edifying, moralizing or satirical songs accompanying themselves with a dombra, a two-strings musical instrument) performed regularly at the aitys’ (competitions of bards from different parts of the country), which were attended by the aristocracy, including khans. The most brave and civilly conscious of the akyns were outspoken enough to satirize social and political issues.

Today both of these arts are practically forgotten.

Since the times of great humanist Abai, Kazakhs speak – bitterly or jokingly – about their “nomadic” vices as a lust for easy life, like in this funny story. “A Russian, a Ukrainian and a Kazakh found themselves on uninhabited island. One year later, a Russian builds a house and a bath-house. A Ukrainian sets up a farm and a spirits distillery. A Kazakh was enjoying idleness, but when he saw the neighbors’ success, he came to them and declared that since now he will serve as their tax officer”.

LANGUAGE TRICKS
For quite a long period of time, the Kazakh language was in deep crisis – Kazakh high schools were un-prestigious, the Kazakh media was unpopular, and there was little necessity to learn and use Kazakh back in Soviet times. As a result, today most of the urban Kazakhs either don’t know the native language, or speak Kazakh using Russian words heavily in their speech. It sounds quite funny, although it is a huge problem for national identity. “One of the shows on a TV, Shala Kazakhtar (Fake Kazakhs), makes fun of people like me who use such pidgin language”, says Aizhan, a translator from Almaty.

Such type of punning humor is widespread among the people of Kazakhstan, provoking smiles from almost every representative of the multi-ethnic society. Several years ago, one of the most entertaining jokes was to find Kazakh roots in foreign words, mainly in geography. They usually started with an intro: “When Kazakhs were great seamen”. For example, two brothers Parakbai and Orakbai discovered Paraguay and Uruguay. Argyns (a large Kazakh clan of tribes) gave the name to Argentina. And the equator was named so because in the middle of ocean two warriors (eki batyrs) met in a deadly combat.

The most elegant joke, however, lies apart of geography. Jesters claim that karaoke, a Japanese invention, is based on two purely Kazakh words, which perfectly describe its principle: kara and oku, meaning “watch” and “read” respectively.

LAUGHING AT ONESELF
“The best jokes that Kazakhs do are about themselves”, says Maria, a PR-expert. Indeed, it is true. For instance, “it has been long time that the Kazakhstani runners with balls are struggling for the right to call themselves footballers”. A couple of years ago, one of the most popular e-humor disseminated through email were the lists of characteristics.

The whole country laughed at a resident of mountainous Almaty abroad (“you will know where is “up” and where is “down”, even in the flattest city on Earth”), an Almatian in Moscow (“you think there are too few Uighurs and Koreans here”), a foreigner in Atyrau (“now you know for sure that mosquitoes are not insects, but birds”), a Shymkent man in Astana (“you are convinced that the most beautiful girls live everywhere”).

Olga, a journalist and editor, tells a joke she saw at a local standup show: “A man stands on the stage in a robe, which symbolizes a map of Kazakhstan. Other guys ask him: Hey, what’s that wet spot? – Oh, it’s Aral (a huge salty lake that has dried down in an extreme eco-catastrophe), nevermind, it will dry out soon. – And what’s this gaudy patch about? – It’s Astana. Earlier it was a complete hole!”

The two cities – Astana and Almaty – are, perhaps, the most magnetic topics for jesters. Astana residents are known for creative nicknames they give to new buildings and sightseeing venues – a huge apartment house on the riverside is called “Titanic”, the monumental Baiterek tower – a “lollipop”, the giant ministerial skyscraper – a “cigarette lighter” (ironically, last year there was a fire there), and so on.

Almaty, a regional megapolis, is more ridiculed as a city where the wealthiest men of Central Asia live. Most of the people asked to tell a joke about Almaty go on with this one: “A drunk Almatian takes taxi in Paris and asks to take him to Samal, a luxury downtown area in Almaty. The cabman says he has no idea where it is. The Kazakh says he’ll pay $5,000, and the driver immediately specifies: “Should I better drive along Lenin Ave. or Furmanov Str.?”

What else do the Kazakhs joke about? “About the president”, says Adil, an advertising designer, remembering the most well-known one, dated back to late 1990s – when the capital was moved from Almaty to Astana: “The president wakes up, looks through the window and, to his horror, sees no mountains. He turns to his wife: – Good God, did we sell them too?! – No, dear, we are just in Astana”.

“SHOW-BIZ” HUMOR
While the Russian television – which has top rating among the viewers in Kazakhstan – features numerous shows of humor, including Soviet-style concerts, westernized standup shows and TV-series (many of them are adapted versions of the American ones), there are only few of them in Kazakhstan. And those existing are not too amusing for the public.

“Good jokes don’t reach the viewer. I have a feeling that humor is censored”, says Olga. Maria agrees: “I don’t watch those shows on our TV channels. Their jokes are exclusively banal”. The Yellow, Black & White Standup Show, a copy of mega-popular Russia’s Comedy Club, whose authors have become millionaires, according to “Forbes Magazine”, did not appear to be a good adaptation on the Kazakh land.

“As a rule, it leaves much to be desired. Usually, their humor is trivially “below the belt” with the excessive use of foul language, which, in their opinion, should be funny in itself, if pronounced from the scene”, comments Aizhan, disappointed after the show.

Daset, a developer of websites and keen collector of humorous stuff, says there is not much fun in Kazakhstan. “There is an adaptation of Russian “Kukly” (Puppets) televised satire show, but its quality does not meet the viewers’ demands, being politically insipid and bluntly offensive towards the opposition… In general, it’s all about banal copying of the Russian shows by the local dilettantes”. “It’s the stone-age”, adds Sacha, a manager at the commercial company, – “Just copying the other people’s jokes”.

Probably, this is why the most ambitious Kazakh humor activists aspire to come to the Russian show-business. KVN is a popular competition survived from the Soviet times, in which student teams from various universities exercise their wits, has now transformed in a glossy TV show with the teams having wealthy sponsors and professional script-writers. The Kazakh team “Astana” performs rather well there recently.

Dauren, an oil sector professional and amateur writer of satire stories, says there is no real humor industry in Kazakhstan, because the market is small, but there are many talents in the country, and – among them – especially gifted people. Probably, one of the brightest of them is “Jantik”, Zhantemir Baimukhamedov – a musician, a prankster and an entertainer. He gives live shows with his band (gigs are booked several months ahead), hilariously re-scores blockbuster movies with Kazakh specificity, and even plans to shoot a “revenge” movie called “Borat’s Brother”.

“My live shows are usually an improvisation. I have plenty of jokes; they are new and different all the time. I never repeat. I am brand new every single time. My shows usually go very easily and merrily – as we call them, “Perky contests and ardent fun with Jantik”. I believe that if an entertainer tells anecdotes from the stage, that’s a bad entertainment he does. It is a sign that the guy has nothing to say”, says Jantik in a brief interview.

Asked why the Kazakhs joke so much about things that are not actually funny – the Aral Sea, corruption or language degradation – Dauren opines that it’s a kind of protection mechanism: “The political inferiority complex of our people gets sublimated into irony, sarcasm and black humor about the reality they live in”.