Authors

Discussion

Satire under Fire: Humor, Satire and Subversion at the Times of War

How can political humor and satire survive in a police state? What happens to satirical expression when any critique of the state is explicitly banned from all mainstream media? Is it at all possible to talk about political satire at the time of war? These questions became especially relevant after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. 

The pre-war decade starting with the 2011 protests and ending with the beginning of the war in Ukraine was characterized by the increasing oppression in almost all spheres of culture, including humor and satire, and revitalized the eternal debate whether satire can provoke social change. In my paper I am trying to answer the following questions: 1) what forms does satirical expression take under authoritarianism, and 2) how it is being employed both by opposition and the pro-State agent? I pay special attention to the TV shows of the post-2022 period and attempt to map the current canonized repertoire of ‘safe’ themes and genres. I also examine what strategies are now being used for humor and satirical expression, and how they differ from the pre-war period.