Iradi humor
Iradi humor draws on folk tales, regional rivalry and, since 2024, jokes about the absent Governor. Its best-known forms are the "three travelers" joke cycle and the tales of the trickster Kara Tülkü.[1]
The three travelers
The standing joke cycle is that of the three travelers (üch jolooch): a Talas professor, a Nurzhan oil driller and a Chatkal herder meet at a well, a checkpoint or the gates of heaven, and the herder always wins. Variants bring in a Tat trader, a Gendarmerie sergeant or an American.[1]
Kara Tülkü
The folk trickster Kara Tülkü ("Black Fox") is a herder's son who outwits khans, mullahs, commissars and, in modern versions, Gendarmerie officers. He appears in the Six Volumes of folk tales and in every children's book.[1]
Governor jokes
Since 2024 jokes about Governor Erlan Toktarov's absence from public life (Gubernator tamashalary) have been told quietly: "Toktarov isn't absent; he's on extended retreat from us", or "Why does the Governor's address never mention the weather? It was recorded in 2023." Television comedy on IradOne, such as Kuda and Foal Zone, stops short of national politics; the jokes do not.[2]
References
- ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2016). The Professor, the Driller and the Herder: Iradi Joke Cycles. Talas State University Press.
- ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2025). 'Laughing Quietly: Political Humor in the ISEZ after 2024.' Vol. 32, Iss. 2, pp. 140–158.