Comic relief in Afghanistan
On a recent Friday night in Ghulam Faryad’s grocery store, half a dozen customers gathered for a weekly dose of comic relief from the tribulations of daily life in the Afghan capital.
Watching a flat-screen TV above the counter, they smirked as two inept police officers made fun of a man who was trying to report that his uncle had been robbed and killed. A few minutes later, they roared as amember of Parliament, obviously drunk, beat someone who complained about his son smoking hashish.
“They are showing the truth,” Faryad pronounced, as everyone in the store nodded appreciatively. “They raise awareness.”
Shabake Khanda, or Laughter Network, the wildly successful Afghan version of Saturday Night Live, is watched by millions once a week, with reruns airing twice more during the week. No one — not powerful politicians, corrupt bureaucrats, even Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani — is spared its skewering.
In fact, the regular impersonation of Ghani by comic actor Mohammad Ibrahim Abed — who casually mocks the president’s peevishness and political tin ear — is so popular that even palace aides call the show to complain if a Friday passes with no Alec Baldwinlike roast of their boss.
In a bow to nonpartisanship, Laughter Network also makes fun of Abdullah Abdullah, the government’s chief executive officer, whose relationship with Ghani has been strained since they agreed to share power after flawed elections in 2014. Actors Seyar Matin and Nabi Roshan alternate playing Abdullah.
One episode in January, after a string of deadly terrorist attacks in Kabul left more than 100 people dead, portrayed both leaders as clueless to the public’s distress and far more worried about their dependants living safely abroad.
In the sketch, Abdullah asked Ghani, wearing a turban and fake beard, if he was sad because of the bombings. “No, my son is sick and I am really worried,” Ghani replied. Then the president asked a teary Abdullah if he was weeping for the Kabul victims. The chief executive said no, it was because his son in New Delhi had caught his heel in a train door.
With few sacred cows, Laughter Network’s producers at the private TOLO television channel say its political satire gives struggling Afghans an outlet for frustration and brings the powerful down a peg. It is among the most widely watched shows in the country, tackling topics from air pollution to crime and corruption.
“I am proud of what I am doing,” said Roshan, 34. “When I play someone’s role to convey a message, I feel like I am in the front line of a war, like a soldier.”
Still, in Afghanistan’s conservative Muslim culture, there are red lines that cannot be crossed. Religious satire is strictly off-limits, and the editors bleep out potentially offensive language after the show is recorded live.
“It is not like Western countries, where we can speak freely,” Roshan said.