The reflection of Tudeh’s political action in pre-constitutional jokes – Qajar period

The abundance of Iranian jokes, especially about the elite governors of the Qajar era, is important to examine their position in the political life of the mass. Conciseness and irony, as well as the inherent attraction of humor, have fostered the spread of these jokes in society and made them an effective tool in the political struggle of the mass. The question is whether these jokes seek to disrupt one of the official narrative sections of the government and which areas of domination have been denied? Our hypothesis is that among these jokes, the ones that challenged the authority of the state and the inherent nature of its components for the general public have a special place. In the case of jokes denying the authority of the state, there is a clear disobedience of the mass representative to the representative of the government, which leads to the success of representative of the mass, and in the jokes that confront the claims of superior elites, significant personal weaknesses were observed. Simultaneously by this jokes, people challenged the domination of power and dignity, and their efforts were aimed more at neutralizing domination. The theoretical framework of research is based on the theory of "hidden narratives" by James C. Scott, who tried to explain the resistance of the mass to openly criticize power without protest. So far, no research has been done to analyze the political jokes of the pre-constitution period.