Abstract

The 26-year-old Tunisian street vendor, Mohammad Bouazizi set himself ablaze, sparking demonstrations and revolutions in more than one country in the Arab world. Protestors utilized all possible forms of expression to give an outlet for the long suppressed feelings, attitudes and thoughts. A new social discourse emerged where freedom of expression was imposed. Tunisia led the move and was followed by Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria. Though these revolting countries have many things in common, each has its own touch to the mosaic portrait of the new social discourse. Political satire has its place in this discourse where political humor has witnessed a tremendous boom. The present study was based on data obtained from cartoons, slogans, digital discourse and jokes. It investigated the use of humor by protesters in the Arab Spring countries, the linguistic devices employed and the role of intertextuality. The study revealed that humor was used in the Arab Spring countries to denigrate the presidents. Sources for intertextuality included proverbs, songs, poetry and commercials. Humor made use of some linguistic devices such as puns, synonyms, antonyms, lexical ambiguity and rhyme.

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