The Grandfather Nobody Can Answer
A Tamil grandfather in Scarborough speaks to grandchildren who understand but cannot reply. Three generations of one family talk, in three languages, about what was lost and what was chosen.
Funnier in English, Sadder in Arabic
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Show notes
One comedian, two personalities
Omar performs stand-up in Cairo in Arabic and in London in English, and says he is a different person in each room. Lerato spent an evening with him after a show, going through the same five jokes in both languages to find where the personality shifts. It turns out to be about rhythm, taboo and the audience.
- Why the Arabic version of a joke has a longer run-up
- The topics that are safe in one language and dangerous in the other
- Code-switching on stage as a comic device
- What his mother says about the English material
- The one joke that works identically in both, and why that bothers him
Contains stand-up excerpts in both languages, with translation in the transcript.
Transcript
Welcome back to Mother Tongue, Borrowed Words. I am Lerato Dlamini, and this week we are talking about jokes. My guest Omar is a stand-up comedian from Cairo who performs in Arabic at home and in English in London, and he told me something that stopped me: he is funnier in English and sadder in Arabic, and he does not fully know why. So we sat down after a show and went through the same five jokes in both languages to find the exact place where the personality changes. We talk about the longer run-up an Arabic joke needs, the topics that are safe in one room and radioactive in the other, and what his mother said when she finally watched the English set. If you have ever felt like a slightly different person in your second language, this one is for you. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts.
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