dehumour1-6, Exercise 2: "Political jokes brought down the East German regime"

Model answer (check the sources named):

1. Who says it? Popular accounts and some commentators who like the idea that laughter defeated tyranny.
2. Record? Joke collections, memoirs and Stasi reports show that political jokes were widespread. Historical accounts of 1989 point to a mix of causes: economic decline, the opening of the Hungarian border, mass emigration, the Monday demonstrations in Leipzig and elsewhere, the weakening of Soviet support and the failures of the leadership (check).
3. When? The claim is made after 1990; the jokes ran for forty years while the regime survived for the whole period.
4. Definition? "Brought down" implies cause. Jokes could be a sign of discontent or a way of coping, which is different from a cause of collapse.
5. Who gains? Authors and speakers who like a neat story about the power of humour.
6. What would change my mind? Evidence that jokes organised or triggered action, for example a record of a joke or a cabaret event leading directly to the demonstrations, which I know of no standard source for.

Careful sentence: "Political jokes were common in the GDR and show widespread discontent and some small defiance, but historians attribute the collapse of 1989 to economic, political and international causes and mass action, not to jokes."