Critical laughter: humor, popular culture and Israeli Holocaust commemoration

Abstract

This article explores current trends in the representation of the Holocaust in Israeli popular culture through the analysis of the successful satirical television program: The Chamber Quintet. The article argues that the show's subversive and challenging interpretations of traditional Holocaust commemorations, indicates a major change in the collective memory of the Holocaust. The article explores the cultural role of the show's sketches relating to Holocaust memory by using three perspectives of analysis. The first is a historical–sociological perspective that deals with the development of Holocaust commemoration in Israel. The second perspective deals with the conflict between popular cultural practices and the conventions of Holocaust remembrance. The third perspective deals with the problematic relationship between the content (Holocaust memory) and the form (the genre of humor). Combining these perspectives reveals a dialectical discourse that connects prior voices with new modes of Holocaust representation in popular culture. The article suggests that the use of the popular medium and the genre of humor undermine the program's content. This process indicates a situation of deadlock in collective memory in which new voices criticize the traditional commemoration but can offer no alternative and subvert their own criticism.

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