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Part of
The Power of Satire
Edited by Marijke Meijer Drees and Sonja de Leeuw
[Topics in Humor Research 2] 2015
► pp. 81–90

Arab Sitcom Animations as Platforms for Satire

Sitcom animations have since long been a powerful medium of social and political criticism in the Western world. Series such as The Simpsons and South Park gained huge popularity among children and adults alike, and inspired many adaptations around the globe. However, it took a long time for this popular format to reach the Arab world, a culturally conservative geocultural region often characterised by strict political censorship. Since the early 2000s, producers from a number of Arab countries decided to create their own local sitcom animations. Now Dubai, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia all have their own ‘national’ animations characterised by hyper-reflexivity and intertextuality with local popular culture, containing up-to-date satirical reflections on public life and even political affairs.

Published online: 22 October 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/thr.2.07say
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Cited by 3 other publications

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Mustafa, Balsam
2022. The Bigh Daddy Show: The potentiality and shortcomings of countering Islamic State through animated satire. Digest of Middle East Studies 31:2 ► pp. 113 ff. DOI logo
Sayfo, Omar
2023. Mediations of Political Identities in Arab Animation. In The Handbook of Media and Culture in the Middle East, ► pp. 286 ff. DOI logo

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