OUTBREAKS OF SATIRE: A POLITICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY OF DISSENT IN THEATRE, TELEVISION AND SOCIAL MEDIA MEMES (MALAYSIA AND INDONESIA, 1989-2018)

Abstract

Defining satire as ‘mocking authority by play’, utilising Michel Foucault’s notion that ‘where there is power, there is resistance’ and James C Scott’s ‘everyday resistance’, this thesis examines satirical expression as a form of dissent, including indigenous forms of ceme’eh (polite sarcasm) and wayang orang (human puppetry). Focused on three modes of transmission, three case studies serve as sites of analysis – the Instant Café Theatre Company (Malaysia), Newsdotcom television series (Indonesia), and 1MDB social media memes (Malaysia). Each mode was a determinant in generating different characteristics of satirical dissent that were also consistent with one or all three of the main theories of humour, including reclaiming ‘superiority’ over authority, irking through ‘incongruity’, and bringing about ‘relief’, even a catharsis, from a societal crisis. Outbreaks could be major or minor, but wedged within a rhetorical paradigm of illness and wellness, satire was made symptomatic of dis-ease (unease, discomfort or imbalance) within society.