My shirt is bright yellow. Zuma’s rows of baby teeth are spread across my belly. On the way to the shop a guy says to me, softly with a nod to my shirt, “Viva Zuma”. He’s missed my shrewd irony, sees me as a JZ supporter and who can blame him? My stab at humour has assisted, by spreading camaraderie, the president I abhor.
On the way back home a construction worker cheerfully calls me JZ and asks for a cigarette. A group of kids strewn out on the grass — they must be eight years old — see my shirt and start chanting “Zuma, Zuma, Zuma”.
What’s weird is if I was wearing a Helen Zille T-shirt they’d be no cheering and most people would laugh. They might pause for a split second, but even a staunch DA supporter would probably chuckle at a late twenties man with a middle aged woman in tinted specs plastered across his nipples.
My neighbourhood’s reaction shows there’s no doubt in the fanatical mind of the JZ supporter — this is what’s needed for irony to gain traction. They must doubt what they love and believe in, just a smidge, but JZ supporters don’t. When they see my T-Shirt it raises their spirits.
I can’t approach a kid who’s screaming “Zuma”, sit him down and explain that my endorsement of the president is absurd to the point that it should cause a laughter response. “Imagine that! Supporting Jacob Zuma. Hilarious.” By slapping this on my body in a gratuitous way I’m letting you know that I am opposed to its content.
And this is how undetected irony backfires. It happened in the US: Will Ferrell’s damning impersonations of George Bush have been criticised for helping Dubya along in the 2000 elections. Ferrell portrayed Bush as a simpleton, but a likeable one. I’m not going to swing the election, but in a country where political campaigns are blunt and lamppost boards are a major target (which is essentially what I am, but mobile) I become an advert for JZ.
Even when it’s understood it’s true: the joke is crude, but what can you expect from a T-shirt? Unfortunately it’s also cowardly. In high school there was a fad of writing WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) on your satchel in tip-ex to mock the Christian kids. You were indistinguishable from the kids who were sincere, except you were prone to cackling if a teacher questioned you. But anti-Christian slogans weren’t allowed — you’d face severe wrath from parents and teachers — and “Yay 4 Evolution!” just wasn’t catchy. So if you wanted to make a negative statement and you weren’t creative or gutsy you used irony.
Nothing has changed. Zuma is perfect for the ironic T-shirt because he epitomises what I don’t want but I can’t offer up an alternative. In that sense I’m fanatical in simply being anti — which means I probably should turn DA, get a Zille T-shirt and wear it with pride. Too bad no one would take me seriously.
I can state, without fear of contradiction, that the vast majority of South Africans do not understand irony, and will never get irony. Even supposedly educated, intelligent South Africans who have been exposed to British comedy do not get irony. So there’s no hope at all.
>>but even a staunch DA supporter would probably chuckle at a late twenties man with a middle aged woman in tinted specs plastered across his nipples.
That would be ONE way to botox your nipples!
Ever tried telling your friends that you believe in evolution. Not a good thing to do in this “God fearing country”
Yeah, this one will fly way above the heads of most of us.
Paul, you are no difference to those who were calling names our Great Liberation Icon (Nelson Mandela) when he ascended to power, because they believe it’s only them alone who can do better. People like you cannot be satisfied untill they go back to their ancestoral land.
Paul, you must learn to accept that an African State will never again be led and be gorvened by the apartheid government.
Irony is a weird thing. Because the irony of irony is the last laugh is always on you. The ironic T-shirt that no one gets, the Poison album you play in your car, the B-grade horror movies that line your DVD shelf and the mullet haircut you paid a fortune for. At some point you realise they are not funny, they are just crap. And you may have been better off doing things because you genuinely like them rather than for sake of some elaborate ironic joke. A joke you thought you were making at the expense of the world. But oh the irony, it turns out it’s on you.
That’s very stupid if you expect people to recognize your wearing of JZ T-shirt as an irony, What makes you so special? It would certainly be an irony if the T-shirt was worn by Helen Zille, Terror Lekota, Patricia Delile or anyone of those people the citizen can clearly identify to present a certain ideology as for you, Its just the samething as spotting an irony on taxi-driver wearing DA T-shirt with Helen Zille’s face on it. I sense some self-importance and superiority on your part.
“My neighbourhood’s reaction shows there’s no doubt in the FANATICAL MIND of the JZ supporter “-
And there Paulito, there is where you miss the point.
David James Smith says it best. I could not put it better.
Paul, your brand of irony is specifically reserved for pseudo-intellectuals like you. You do everyone a disservice and the joke’s on you buddy!
I have decided to return my family to RSA after 13 years in New Zealand….Nice to see the quality of local comment has remained pathetic.Why don’t you use your position/profile to bring harmony to RSA.I see a future back home and I want my kids to grow up in RSA,I personally am sick of western civilisation…GO FIGURE
They must be playing ice hockey in Hell because I find myself in agreement with Mr Harris.
Where did you think all those votes for JZ came from? And what are people supposed to think if you wear Zuma on your T-Shirt? The joke’s on you for sure, and who’s the more agreeable person – you, or the guy who gives you a smile and a thumbs-up?
And while it may be fun to generate “ironic humour” with your clothing, it’s much more of a challenge to generate the kind of love and support that Zuma has managed to achieve! So much easier to mock, than to work at stuff.
A word on Evolution while we’re at it: I wish more people would try, when engaging in this endless dull debate, to give an account of Christian faith that like the majority of Christians is non-fundamentalist; or, for that matter a general grasp of post-Darwinian evolutionary science. Christianity does not of necessity deny the facts of Evolution; and theologians are interested in the meaning of existence, not its history per se. Much as it’s disappointing when Christians check their brains in at the church door, it’s equally disappointing when agnostic or atheist critics do the same (Mr Dawkins being a case in point, Mr Hitchens is another).
It’s a bit like your T-shirt situation really: so busy being egocentrically clever, they fail to see the bigger picture.
Would you p’haps like my once-worn Oom Eugene t-shirt? It’s like an invisible forcefield around you. You’ll never have to again cough up a cigarette to one of those pesky construction workers.
Gees people, you all really take this stuff way too seriously. get a grip.
There was a guitarist with a band in the 90′s who never spoke. Never really gave interviews and never said a word during concerts. At one very big gig there were helium balloons near the stage. As he was about to walk out, he took one of the balloon and inhaled the gas and strode up to the mic to speak…suddenly he realised that he couldn’t do it. The majority of the people there had never heard him speak and he realised that if he did now, voice high with helium they’d leave thinking that’s how he always spoke. So he walked back to stage left and got on with playing his guitar.
You can’t expect everyone to be in on the joke. Now if you’d been trying to explain the concept of irony to Zille supporters as they beat you to the ground, that would have been funny.