Moroccan Satirist Bziz Returns

A little rusty after 18 years of censorship. The interview with Ahmad Mansour on بلا حدود was ostensibly about the regulations recently drawn up by Arab Information Ministers to regulate, censor and otherwise muzzle unruly satellite channels which often wound the feelings and sensibilities of Arab dictators and their extended literal and metaphorical families.

This explains the banter Ahmad Mansour indulged in before beginning the interview, with a lot of theatrical antics followed by the extraction of a promise that there will be nothing but effusions of praise for our beloved leaders on this show. Al Jazeera, Mansour said gravely, has taken the decision to be good and follow the rules.

In keeping with this promise, Sanoussi praised Arab scientific and technological achievement in undertaking this giant leap for mankind (the giant leap being the establishment of space police), and lauded the fact that were once we had rigged elections, we now have elections that are rigged in a fair and transparent manner. Leaders were referred to as Our Lord so-and-so. Sanoussi also reverentially spoke of His Royal Highness the President.

That little preamble over, they proceeded with the by now well-worn substitution of South American for Arab. “Arab leaders…” (Sorry, I mean South American leaders…) As evidenced by this incredibly ancient formula, much of what Ahmad Sanoussi had to say was recycled, and overly insisted upon. Sentences you would have laughed at once don’t seem quite as funny repeatedly rephrased.

That said though, the incoherence of the pseudo-analysis was very real, in its baffling juxtaposition of our Golden Age and this present time, consistently couched in your every-day Arab demagogue’s high-flown spittle-spraying rhetoric. Wonderfully uncanny, including the section with Andalous, illegal migration, fat cats and fat whales all in one sentence. This was achieved by transforming Tariq Ibn Ziad’s famous words: “the sea is behind you and the enemy is in front of you, so by God there’s nothing for you but constancy and patience” into the words of would-be immigrants today: “injustice is behind you and the racism is in front of you, so by God there’s nothing for you but drowning or death!” Bziz then praised state-sponsored “terrestrial TV” as a fool-proof method of torture and advised Information Ministers to introduce a little rhythm and turn the Leader-met-with-Minister type news into songs.

Asked whether there were any limits or rules in satire, he said that there was one, which was that satire should be directed at the powerful, not making fun of the oppressed. So there were some serious moments, albeit brief. One of the high points of the show was probably when Egyptian actor/comedian Mohammad Subhi called, in the role of an Information Minister accusing Ahmad Mansour of laughing, which is against the regulations. Mansour’s response: La ya Bei!

Subhi also wondered why people are upset about this document, since as Sanoussi said, the miracle of Arab Ministers agreeing on something is in itself an achievement. Subhi then dismissed the regulations with the persuasive argument that they won’t be implemented, obviously, because it would be too much for anyone to hope that anything Arabs have unanimously agreed upon will actually be implemented. From there, Subhi got a little sidetracked into the return of the Danish cartoon controversy and video clips determined to prove we really aren’t terrorists, honestly. He then encouraged Sanoussi to continue down the satiric path, with the following reassurance: “Don’t fear! Hint and insinuate all you want, wallahi they don’t get it. You’re lucky if they manage to understand what you’re saying when you’re actually saying it directly.”

At one point, Bziz lapsed into reality stripped of all humour. (Today, there are people who inherit millions, and there are people who inherit millions of people.) But the term Jumhalakiyat is anything but new. I don’t think it is Ahmed Sansoussi’s invention either. Neither is the Chair Disease, once a staple of CBM’s type of soft-centred comedy. Sanoussi waved a small throne around while holding forth on the epidemic of love affairs between South American leaders and their chairs, and the side-effects of this disease, more than apparent in the woodenness of their words. He did dub the الجامعة العربية (Arab League) المانعة العربية which I haven’t heard before, but that’s no stroke of genius.

What all this tired repetition seems to underline though is how little things have changed. Tragicomic in itself.

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