Greek Humor in Times of Crisis

Amid all the economic doom and gloom coming from Greece these days, you’d think the Greeks don’t have much to laugh about. But actually, humor is alive and well in Greece, and it’s helping many cope with some dark times. From Athens, The World’s Clark Boyd reports.

Each day seems to bring more bad news from Greece. Greeks are furious over wage cuts and tax hikes; many have lost their jobs. Amid all this economic doom and gloom, you would think the Greeks don’t have much to laugh about. But actually, humor is alive and well in Greece, and it is helping many cope with some dark times.

It’s one o’clock at the studios of Real FM in Athens, and one of Greece’s most popular radio shows, Ellinofreneia, or “Greek Madness,” is about to go on air. For ten years, the program, which does a bit of call in, and some gag calls to politicians and state officials, has been zeroing in on those in power.

Today’s target, as usual, is the Greek government, and in particular Prime Minister George Papandreou.

“In Greece, we’ve had a tradition of making fun of people in power since the time of Aristophanes,” says Ellinofreneia’s host Thymios Kalamoukis. “Humor is the most important thing Greeks have at this time. It’s the only thing we have left.”

“You can’t listen to Prime Minister George Papandreou and not start laughing,” Kalamoukis says.

I ask him about his favorite “economic crisis” joke.

Kalamoukis tells me that people have taken to saying, tongue firmly in cheek, “George will save the country.” Apparently, even members of Papandreou’s own party laugh at that one.

But, Kalamoukis says he also makes fun of himself, and his callers. After all, he notes, we’re the fools who elected the fools. He says that there is an appropriate word for this in Greek — “harmolipi.” It might best be translated as “joyful sadness” or “bittersweetness.”

“If you go bankrupt yourself,” says Kalamoukis, “you’ll have a better idea of what Greek humor is. Even during the darkest years of our history, the civil war, the military dictatorship, we approached the situation with humor.

“I don’t know,” he laughs, “maybe it’s the sun.”

Burger and Fries

And speaking of the sun, I am quickly introduced to a song here called “It’s Never Cold in Greece,” by the Athens-based reggae and ska outfit Locomondo.

The song’s upbeat sound masks lyrics dripping with sarcasm.

“Do you want to go on a trip to a magical country, where everybody has fun as if they were experts?” the song asks.

“I studied and lived and worked in Germany for nine years, and the reason I came back to Greece was the humor,” says guitar player and vocalist Markos Koumaris. “I couldn’t live without it, and the combination of humor and this wonderful weather is very important for me. I’ve never regretted coming back to Greece, even during this crisis period.”

Koumaris’ bandmate, Yiannis Varnavas, notes that Greek humor is quick, cynical and direct.

Here’s his favorite “economic crisis” joke, which has to do with the kind of job you can get in Greece these says, even with a good education.

“There are two PhD graduates, one with a job and one without a job,” Varnavas starts. “They meet, and here is how the discussion goes: The one without the job tells the one with the job, ‘I’d like a burger and fries, please.’”

Locomondo’s “Magic Carpet”

Corrosive and Poisonous

If you like your Greek humor with a slightly harder edge, then the band Lost Bodies may be more your speed.

For more than 25 years, the groups has been plying its own brand of punk rock. One song, Yelaste, sarcastically invites you to sit back and enjoy it, while those in power take everything from you.

“Laugh, laugh a lot,” the song goes, in a rhythm reminiscent of a German beer hall drinking song. “Even though wages are low and life is too expensive.”

“Forget your worries, laugh…laugh a lot.”

That quickly gives way to a fearsome punk attack inciting “the armies of the unemployed” to “break into parliament and burn it down.”

“Our songs, our music — they’re tragicomic,” says Thanos, the singer and main songwriter for Lost Bodies. “Our jokes are a way of surviving this crisis.”

“Of course, our band’s sense of humor is corrosive and poisonous.”

Well, it is punk rock after all.

I ask Thanos for his favorite joke.

It goes like this.

The Greek Finance Minister managed to turn the Euro into s—. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Lost Bodies “Gelaste”