【英语语言学习】想要了解一个人 先逗笑他

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is For the Record. The White House welcomed foreign dignitaries, national security experts and community leaders to Washington this past week for what was billed as a summit to counter violent extremism. The administration took great pains to avoid the phrase Islamic extremism in connection with this event; an effort to take the focus off Muslim communities that have felt unfairly targeted for years. In his remarks at the summit, President Obama said there are still public misperceptions about Islam that to do damage.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Many people in our countries don't always know personally somebody who is Muslim. So the image they get of Muslims or Islam is in the news. And given the existing news cycle, that can give a very distorted impression.

MARTIN: After the recent terrorist attacks in Europe, the news cycle has included controversial statements like this.

(SOUNDBITE OF FOX NEWS REPORT)

STEVEN EMERSON: There are actual cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim, where non-Muslims just simply don't go in.

MARTIN: This is Steven Emerson, a terrorism analyst² on Fox News talking about Muslim communities in the UK.

(SOUNDBITE OF FOX NEWS REPORT)

EMERSON: You basically have zones where sharia courts are set up, where Muslim density³ is very intense, where the police don't go in and where it's basically a separate country almost.

MARTIN: Fox News later apologized and corrected his remarks. Muslim community leaders in the U.S. and Europe have been working for years to draw a sharp distinction between Islam and the terrorists who distort the religion for their own purposes. But if you really want to alter public perceptions, it helps to make people laugh first. For the Record today, telling jokes to change minds.

We're going to introduce you to three comedians⁵ - one British, two American, all Muslim and all fairly irreverent. Here's Adil Ray of Birmingham, England.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "CITIZEN KHAN")

ADIL RAY: (As Mr. Khan) Look, I got the new call to prayer app on my phone.

 

RAY: (As Mr. Khan) Good, huh? And it lets you pause Angry Birds while you pray.

MARTIN: And Ahmed Ahmed of Riverside, Calif.

(SOUNDBITE OF STAND-UP COMEDY ACT)

AHMED AHMED: Whenever I get on a plane, I always know who the air marshal is. Yeah, it's always the guy sitting there, holding People magazine upside down looking right at me.

MARTIN: Lastly, Negin Farsad of New York City.

(SOUNDBITE OF STAND-UP COMEDY ACT)

NEGIN FARSAD: I actually had to go to Iran not too long ago because my cousin was getting married. And even though we were the same age, it was so weird⁶ for me to go hang out with her because I didn't know if I should, like, censor⁷ myself around her, you know what I mean? If I should hide all the freedoms I enjoy like boys and alcohol and peaceable assembly, you know.

 

MARTIN: Each of them caught the comedy bug⁸ fairly early in life. Again, Adil Ray.

RAY: I would do, like, impressions of the royal family, or I would do, you know, magic tricks or do impressions of my aunts and uncles as a little sort of routine after dinner. Oh, there's our nephew. Let's humor him, you know. But it was certainly sort of - there was lots of encouragement from my mom. Oh, isn't our son very funny. Yes, he's hilarious⁹.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

RAY: And I have to say, my mom doesn't even talk like that. I don't know why I do that. I don't know why, whenever I do my mom's voice, I have to do that. And she talks nothing like it.

MARTIN: Here's Ahmed Ahmed.

AHMED: In the detention¹⁰ room in high school, that's when they laughed, when I got kicked out of class for cracking jokes. And then all the kids would sit around and snicker, you know, at each other, but, you know, I grew up in a very strict Muslim household so that was considered forbidden. You know, you're supposed to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, owning your own gas station. And to be in the entertainment industry, you know, you're kind of looked at as a dark horse.

 

MARTIN: And Negin Farsad.

FARSAD: Like a switch turned on when I was cast as Kitchen Wench Number 3 in a high school musical. And the power of just getting the laugh was intoxicating¹¹, you know, at, like, the tender age of 15 or something.

MARTIN: They came into comedy in their own way - moonlighting and standup clubs or working in radio. But eventually, they all had to decide if Islam was going to be part of their comedy and to what extent. For Ahmed, it happened when he went on a religious pilgrimage.

AHMED: I performed Hajj in 1997, and that kind of changed my whole perspective on Islam.

MARTIN: What happened?

AHMED: After traveling to Mecca and seeing 4.5 million people walking side-by-side from all different walks of life, that's what sort of opened my eyes to the religion as a peaceful religion and as a religion of unity¹.

MARTIN: Before you went to Mecca, had you - I mean, were you incorporating Islam into your comedy?

AHMED: I always talked about it because I wanted to point out the elephant in the room. My name's Ahmed Ahmed. So there's always this little hesitance when I go up on stage where people are like, well, what's he going to talk about? So often times, I'll say hey, everybody, I was raised Muslim. And then there's like his awkward silence, and then I go boo. You know, I just do it to kind of lighten the mood. And it always gets a big laugh because people don't see that coming. It's like I'm playing on the stereotype¹², but I'm doing it on purpose because I think that people need to let their guard down.

MARTIN: For Negin and Adil, 9/11 forced their hand. After that, they said Muslim comics didn't really have a choice.

FARSAD: With the Islamophobia that was sparking after 9/11, you know, and the subsequent wars, you know, I felt like more and more of, like, a responsibility to address my own identity.

RAY: Suddenly, we, you know, we were all in the limelight. And whether you were - had extreme views or not, as a Muslim, you were expected to have some kind of opinion on what was going on around the world. But I quickly realized then that at first, there will be discussion, there will be debate, there will be discourse¹³ and that will continue. But then at some point, the creative discussion will start happening. And that's really important because it just kind of shows that there is more and there's a broadness and there's a depth to the Muslim community.

MARTIN: Feeding that creative discussion about Islam means pushing audiences into places that are uncomfortable, says Adil. He's done that with the TV show he created called "Citizen Khan." It airs in prime time on the BBC in the UK.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "CITIZEN KHAN")

RAY: (As Mr. Khan) Welcome to Sparkhill, Birmingham, the capital of British Pakistan.

MARTIN: The show plays up some Muslim stereotypes¹⁴ for comedic effect. And Adil has gotten hundreds of complaints. But he says the intention was not to offend.

RAY: If people are going to be offended, unfortunately that's not my problem. I always say to people, you know, just don't allow yourself to be offended. The intention is certainly not to mock the faith. Intention is to humanize, and you can't can't write sitcoms¹⁵ without flawed characters. And of course, Mr. Khan has to be flawed.

FARSAD: I don't censor myself.

MARTIN: Here's Negin Farsad.

FARSAD: And that sometimes means I don't censor my dating or sexual life. And that is very difficult, I think, for some conservative members of the Muslim community, conservative members of the Iranian-American community, people who are just, like, what are you doing? We're supposed to be model minorities. Like, stop talking about that. (Laughter).

MARTIN: Ahmed Ahmed says there are things he won't joke about. He doesn't talk about the Prophet Muhammad in his comedy, for example.

AHMED: Yeah, like, I'm trying to stay alive for a while.

MARTIN: But other than that, he says anything is pretty much fair game, including the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

AHMED: How does this organization defeat so many communities and countries and, you know, be able to dominate when they're driving 1970 Toyota pickup¹⁶ trucks. Like, seriously. And then, you know, this ISIS group was talking about how they're using social media to get their word out. And so the guy was - they subtitled what he was saying. And he was like, we Muslims around the world are getting the word out to other Muslims to wage war against America. Social media has been a great help to our cause in getting the word out about ISIS so please like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Instagram @superscaryjihad.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

AHMED: If you post a picture burning the American flag, we will retweet you. And we prefer to Valencia filter.

MARTIN: He has performed all over the U.S. and in the Middle East as well, where he got mixed reviews.

AHMED: I started seeing all these comments, you know, saying stuff like, this is not funny, you're not a real Muslim Allah will have his wrath¹⁷. And then some other guy writes, how do we book you in Boston? And so like, I can't win either way. But I'm going to talk about it. And if, you know, Muslims can't catch up and get a sense of humor sometime soon, we are going to remain in the dark ages forever.

MARTIN: But when I asked Ahmed if he felt some kind of responsibility to create a different public narrative¹⁸ about what it means to be a Muslim today, he said no way.

AHMED: Am I responsible? Is it my duty? No, because I'm a comedian⁴ first. I'm Muslim and Arabic second when it comes to entertainment. So I'm not trying to wave the flag and carry the torch. My thing is, hey, if they laugh with me, then that's one other person in the world that has seen a different side of me, which would reflect in what they would perceive maybe Islam would be, if that makes any sense.

MARTIN: Adil Ray says he does have a role, but so do his critics.

RAY: I think it's essential that we have a counter-narrative to what's going on at the moment. A lot of people actually are getting, you know, into sort of spats¹⁹ with me on Twitter, and they'll - Muslims aren't like what you're portraying²⁰ in "Citizen Khan." And I'll say, well, you know what? Go and write your own. You really must. We must hear what you want to put out there.

MARTIN: So how do each of these comics measure the kind of difference they're making? How do they know if a counter-narrative is taking hold? Here's Ahmed Ahmed.

AHMED: Often times after shows, just regular audience members will walk up to me and say hey man, I just see what I see on the news. And I got to be honest man, you're one funny Muslim. I'm like, oh, cool, can you go tell 10 friends?

MARTIN: And Adil Ray.

RAY: We'll know when things have absolutely worked when we hear things like, you know, middle-aged²¹, white, English woman sort of nudges her husband as they're watching the show with afish and chips on their plate and says that Mr. Khan is just like you. And that's starting to happen now, which is just fantastic.

MARTIN: That was Adil Ray. Earlier, you heard from Ahmed Ahmed and Negin Farsad.

1 unity   

n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调

参考例句：

• When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
• We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。

2 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

3 density   

n.密集，密度，浓度

参考例句：

• The population density of that country is 685 per square mile.那个国家的人口密度为每平方英里685人。
• The region has a very high population density.该地区的人口密度很高。

4 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

5 comedians   

n.喜剧演员，丑角( comedian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The voice was rich, lordly, Harvardish, like all the boring radio comedians'imitations. 声音浑厚、威严，俨然是哈佛出身的气派，就跟无线电里所有的滑稽演员叫人已经听腻的模仿完全一样。 来自辞典例句
• He distracted them by joking and imitating movie and radio comedians. 他用开玩笑的方法或者模仿电影及广播中的滑稽演员来对付他们。 来自辞典例句

6 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

7 censor   

n./vt.审查，审查员；删改

参考例句：

• The film has not been viewed by the censor.这部影片还未经审查人员审查。
• The play was banned by the censor.该剧本被查禁了。

8 bug   

n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器

参考例句：

• There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
• The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。

9 hilarious   

adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed

参考例句：

• The party got quite hilarious after they brought more wine.在他们又拿来更多的酒之后，派对变得更加热闹起来。
• We stop laughing because the show was so hilarious.我们笑个不停，因为那个节目太搞笑了。

10 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

11 intoxicating   

a. 醉人的,使人兴奋的

参考例句：

• Power can be intoxicating. 权力能让人得意忘形。
• On summer evenings the flowers gave forth an almost intoxicating scent. 夏日的傍晚，鲜花散发出醉人的芳香。

12 stereotype   

n.固定的形象，陈规，老套，旧框框

参考例句：

• He's my stereotype of a schoolteacher.他是我心目中的典型教师。
• There's always been a stereotype about successful businessmen.人们对于成功商人一直都有一种固定印象。

13 discourse   

n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述

参考例句：

• We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
• He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。

14 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

15 sitcoms   

n.情景喜剧( sitcom的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This is the stuff most stadard TV sitcoms are made of. 这是大多数标注的电视幽默剧所采用的题材。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• In most countries, prime-time Monday night television is dominated by sitcoms. 在大多数国家，周一晚上的电视黄金时段都由连续剧所占据。 来自互联网

16 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

17 wrath   

n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒

参考例句：

• His silence marked his wrath. 他的沉默表明了他的愤怒。
• The wrath of the people is now aroused. 人们被激怒了。

18 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

19 spats   

n.口角( spat的名词复数 )；小争吵；鞋罩；鞋套v.spit的过去式和过去分词( spat的第三人称单数 )；口角；小争吵；鞋罩

参考例句：

• Gasoline is a solvent liquid that removes grease spats. 汽油是一种能脱去油迹的有溶解能力的液体。 来自辞典例句
• Then spats took a catnap, and the bird looked out for dogs. 然后斯派茨小睡了一会儿。小鸟为它站岗放哨，防止狗跑过来。 来自互联网

20 portraying   

v.画像( portray的现在分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• The artist has succeeded in portraying my father to the life. 那位画家把我的父亲画得惟妙惟肖。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ding Ling was good at portraying figures through careful and refined description of human psychology. 《莎菲女士的日记》是丁玲的成名作，曾引起强烈的社会反响。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

21 middle-aged   

adj.中年的

参考例句：

• I noticed two middle-aged passengers.我注意到两个中年乘客。
• The new skin balm was welcome by middle-aged women.这种新护肤香膏受到了中年妇女的欢迎。