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Most everyone tells jokes and there are multitudes of\nreasons why. Some like to entertain or seek comfort in laughter. Others want to\nbelittle something and mock it. Why then would a national socialist or\ncommunist party publish joke magazines? Who are they entertaining, comforting,\nor mocking? What is their purpose? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a March virtual visit to Miami University\u2019s Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies lecture series, Dr. Martha Lampland answered these questions. During her lecture \u201cWhy do extremist political parties publish joke magazines,\u201d Lampland argued that these satirical magazines served a vital role for their regimes. Despite the censorship imposed on publishers or by publishers, there was still a great deal of thought and art that was communicated and both Nazis and Communists alike deemed communication an important tool for their power. As Lampland has shown in her research in Hungary, this was a vital tool used in the 1940s by National Socialists and Communists for their expression of power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hungary\nwas caught in the middle of the political tensions between the far-right and\nthe far-left in the 1940s, experiencing both fascist and communist rule. The Communist\nParty had a brief stay of power at the end of the First World War but was soon\nreplaced by right-wing rule. The interwar period witnessed the emergence of\nseveral national socialist groups and sectarian tensions. This situation\npersisted until 1944 when communism returned after the Red Army\u2019s victory in\nthe war. While never existing together, each of these periods of either\nfar-right or far-left rule published satirical magazines. The national\nsocialists published Steel Brush<\/em> and the communists Ludas Matyi<\/em>, named after the protagonist in a famous\nHungarian poem. While they never competed for readers, their ideals and\nrepresentations were decidedly at odds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Steel\nBrush <\/em>and Ludas Matyi<\/em> both embodied their respective ideologies in\nways many would expect. The fascist publication turned to anti-Semitism to mock\nJewish populations and the communist magazine mocked capitalism and the\neconomic elite as well as the fascists. Despite the vast difference in their\nbeliefs and the outright hatred they had for each other, these magazines\nexisted and were created for much the same purpose. Both magazines satirized\nwhat they viewed as problems. Their articles and images proposed future solutions\nthrough their respective ideological lenses. Readers of Ludas Mayti <\/em>would\nsee caricatures of the bourgeois hording their wealth and then the strong\nworker, with plow in hand, who had seized the land and achieved communism. The\nreaders of the Steel Brush<\/em> would see the caricatures of Jewish people\nengaged in stereotyped behaviors and uniformed men hauling them to camps. These\nmagazines served as tools of the regime to build their ideologies through\nsatire and sought to provide meaning to readers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These\nmagazines and their respective regimes communicated ideas quickly to the public\nand attempted to explain the world around them. The magazines were critical of certain\naspects of Hungarian society and strove to reveal these elements in Hungary.\nCommunists stated they were building a better society and criticized the nepotism\nof capitalism and black marketeers stockpiling essentials the people needed.\nThe problems seen in life were shown as products of capitalism and the former\nfascist powers in the eyes of communist satire, problems which communism would\nfix. The fascists engaged in similar satirical practices. However, jokes did\nnot do the heavy lifting of acting out these ideals; they served as great\nmobilizers for action. Even today, as seen in the Alt-Right in the United\nStates, humor has been used to subvert criticism while all the while still\npushing harmful ideas upon people to find new subscribers. Simple jokes about seemingly\nmundane issues such as vaccines suddenly undermine entire industries and trust\nin those professionals. Humor and jokes can have powerful unifying effects, as\nHungarian fascists and communists both recognized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Duncan Burke is finishing his joint BA\/MA in Political\nScience at Miami.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Duncan Burke Most everyone tells jokes and there are multitudes of reasons why. Some like to entertain or seek comfort in laughter. Others want to belittle something and mock it. Why then would a national socialist or communist party … Continue reading