King and Jester jokes/stories are also a common theme in Turkish caricatures. In this example, the jester’s provoking/fooling the king by saying: “you can defeat your enemies blindfolded”.
Turkish sense of humour – just as with most cultures – has been shaped by past events and influential figures. However we Turks do not like to make fun of ourselves (e.g. like the English), therefore we create (semi*)fictional characters and make fun of them. We take ourselves too seriously…
However we still managed to obtain a great sense of humour with all sorts of jokes/funny stories. They include stories/jokes from religious figures such as Nasreddin Hodja, naive and funny figures such as Temel and Dursun, and stingy but funny figures (e.g. People of Kayseri are famous for being successful businessmen but also for being tight with money, therefore these types of jokes are attributed to them).
We also generally – for some reason – hold this belief that a joke should make you think as well as make you laugh, therefore a lot of our jokes have a moral story behind it. Although I am not against the ‘make you think’ part, I believe that the primary aim of a joke is to make you laugh and relax the mind, therefore the focus should be on being funny. Sometimes the primary goal has been forgotten, therefore we have many jokes which do not even make you smile, let alone make you laugh 🙂
You can find English translations of Temel and Dursun jokes, and Nasreddin Hodja stories all over the internet. Google them, or you may wish to click the hyperlinks for some chosen examples…
Less known (in English) are the ‘People of Kayseri’ jokes. A couple of examples are below:
Father and Son
Son asks his father: “Could you lend me 50 lire dad?”
Father replies: “40 lire? What do you need 30 lire for? Isn’t 20 enough? Here’s 10.”
And he takes out a 5 lira note and gives it to his son.
The son goes: “I needed 5 lira anyway…”
Father: “You naughty boy! Nearly had me if I hadn’t given you fake money”
On his death bed
A man from Kayseri is on his death bed. He asks: “My dear wife, are you here?”
Wife: “Yes, right next to you”
Man: “My sons Mehmet and Ahmet, are you here?”
Mehmet and Ahmet: “Yes, father”
Man: “My beautiful daughter Fatma?”
Fatma: “Yes, my dear father”
The man gets up rapidly and shouts furiously: “If you’re all here, who’s looking after the shop!?”
* I say “semi” because it is not hard to see that we have living Temels and Dursuns scattered around the streets. Turkey is a fun place with a plethora of funny (or tragicomic) characters which you can easily observe in daily life. Sometimes as you’re walking to work, you yourself are involved in or come across a few jokes/funny events 🙂
An example would be: You might ask where “so and so café” is. You shouldn’t surprised if you get a reply like: “I don’t know, where is it?”; or “Are you blind? Can’t you see it’s right there!” (I wouldn’t have asked if I’d seen it!)
An ordinary blog by an ordinary bloke 