In Europe, Good Wisecracks Make Good Neighbors
How the Seemingly Xenophobic Jokes Europeans Tell About Each Other Bring Them Together
To understand Europe’s humor is to understand its history; satire and politics have long gone hand in hand. Whether in drawings, ballads, or prose, humor has long provided a counterbalance and provocation to the political consensus of the Old Continent. Etiquette—that complex network of courtly conventions that we might today call political correctness—may have played a significant role in regulating people’s behaviors and social interactions. But humor has always been the people’s weapon of choice to challenge and criticize these norms when they become too oppressive. As such, comedy has …
