Few things are left of center as proud of as their sensitivity towards minorities. If the image of the enemy is right, everything is allowed: As a leftist, you can let your resentments run free.
What does a good migrant look like? From the point of view of people left of center something like this: He suffers from Germany and can explain exactly what problems he has with the word home. Complicated words like “microaggression” and “cultural appropriation” roll off his lips as fluently as others say “tank discount” or “Black Friday”. If someone asks him where he comes from because of his looks or his name, he knows how structurally racist this society is to this day.
Mohammad Faisal Kawusi is not a good migrant child. He prefers to make fun of people, preferably from his own milieu. He refuses to see himself as persecuted innocence. If someone says that Kawusi has hurt his feelings, he gets the answer: “Then cry, you pussy.” Posing as a victim? Then he just laughs.
Due to his origin, Kawusi brings everything with him to take him to your heart. He has a first-rate migration story: born as the son of Afghan refugees, comprehensive school in Hesse, breakthrough as a TV celebrity on Sat.1. He even looks like what people imagine a German-Afghan man to look like: tall, bearded, tattooed. If he had wanted to, he could easily have chaired the “New German Media Makers” or another integration association.
But no, he really wanted to be a comedian, and at his worst, as a kind of Mario Mohammad Barth. “Politically incorrect” is the name of the current stage show. In the picture Kawusi uses to promote the show, he is lying with his head on the street, a police officer’s knee on his neck, a satire of the “Black Lives Matter” movement. That definitely doesn’t get you to the Grimme Prize in Germany.
A few days ago, Kawusi was a guest with Kurt Krömer, the moderator of the RBB program of the same name, “Chez Krömer”. Because Krömer then announced the end of his series on the grounds that his need for assholes was now covered for the time being, the performance attracted some attention. Krömer has significantly more fans in the media world than Kawusi. Especially in the feuilleton, where sentiment has always come before wit, the RBB moderator is considered a big number.
I watched the episode. I wouldn’t bother you with that if I didn’t think you were informative about where the boundaries of humor are in Germany. I think many of the people crying for Krömer didn’t see his confrontation with Kawusi. If you had seen these, you would know that there can be left-wing racists as well as right-wing ones.
Kawusi made a bad joke in April when he called out to a YouTuber, who was indignantly asking how one could mock knockout drops, that in her case he would increase the amount of drops. Not pretty, not particularly fun either, but unlike what otherwise passes for gangsta rap or ghetto culture, it’s not really exciting. Especially not in a show that already hosted Bushido and Sido. If you think so. But we are at “Chez Krömer”, so 23 minutes the joke is harped on.
Energy has never been as expensive as it is now. But instead of panicking, you should calmly check potential savings at home. As our guide shows, there are many of them.
Why is Sido okay and Kawusi not? Because Kawusi is a cheeky Afghan who doesn’t care where someone comes from. “Wouldn’t it have made more sense to make fun of some Nazis, that you could somehow choke them and then say at the end, I’ve even done something good?” asks Krömer at one point. Which sums up the humor program of people like him perfectly.
As long as the image of the enemy is correct, everything is allowed, including the ubiquitous use of insults such as “asshole” and “ass fiddle”. Then you can even accuse the other person that he probably has a “gene defect” because he cracks jokes that you find tasteless, or call him “Diggi”, which is not far from the N-word. Just jokes about knockout drops are definitely not acceptable. It stays that way, even with Krömer.
The farewell episode of “Chez Krömer” has its best moment shortly before the end. “Why do you always step down?” Krömer asks. To which Kawusi is quick-witted enough to answer: “Where do you see me, the Afghan refugee child? Where am I stepping down? I’m a poo myself. That would mean that the black community in Germany is under the Afghan community. Who created this table?” That is an irrefutable argument, to which the moderator can think of nothing except the lame reply that this is still no reason to make racist remarks.
To sum up: the good migrant sees blacks as a kind of dregs on the minority scale, so it is forbidden to mock them as one would mock others. Because: That would be stepping down. Not only is that pretty crazy, it’s actually pretty racist when you think about it. Especially when it comes as a default from a moderator who is as white as a handkerchief. A privileged white dude lecturing bully victims on what they can and can’t say about minorities: “Cringe, Digga,” as the scene would say.
The left prides itself on its consideration for minorities. But even the best leftist cannot do without resentment. The good news is: Even as an average left-wing man, you can let your prejudices run free. You just have to make sure that those about whom you make racist or homophobic or misogynistic comments are politically on the other side. Then everything is okay. Then you are still a welcome guest even in the fine floors of the “Süddeutsche” or the “Zeit”.
We are used to the fact that left-wing convictions and anti-Semitism go hand in hand. This has been common knowledge since the Documenta at the latest. But leftism and racism? Or leftism and misogyny?
Jan Böhmermann, another driving man of the public humor business, described women in the “ZDF Magazin Royal” as “shit heaps” who he disliked politically. He also showed pictures of publicists like Alice Schwarzer or Birgit Kelle. your offense? They are of the opinion that in order to be considered a woman, there has to be more to it than declaring oneself a woman.
It doesn’t stop at bullshit either. At the weekend, several women were attacked after attending a panel discussion in the left event center “Conne Island” in Leipzig. Ironically, the event was about the aggressive methods of a “newer pseudo-left” – that was the title of the discussion.
The attackers: black hooded men from the Antifa scene who did not want to accept that so-called Terfs were in their neighborhood. All Böhmermann fans have known the abbreviation since his last appearance. “Terf” stands for Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism. This is what trans activists call women who insist on gender segregation. “Terf” was the most popular swear word in the current issue of “ZDF Magazin Royal” alongside “Turd” (“shit pile”).
I still have a gag for you. In a text about humor and language, as a columnist, you want to end on a cheerful note.
Kurt Krömer published a book in March. It’s called “You Mustn’t Believe Everything You Think” and was on the bestseller list for several weeks. However, the title already existed. “Don’t believe everything you think” – that was Kawusi’s first solo program. It’s been a few years since he’s toured with it, but you can download the recording from Amazon for $2.99.
Being guilty of “cultural appropriation” is considered a particularly reprehensible offense in the left-wing world. It probably also depends on who is using whom. If that isn’t a punchline!
• Read all of Jan Fleischhauer’s columns here.
The readers love him or hate him, Jan Fleischhauer is indifferent to the least. You only have to look at the comments on his columns to get an idea of how much people are moved by what he writes. He was at SPIEGEL for 30 years, and at the beginning of August 2019 he switched to FOCUS as a columnist.
Fleischhauer himself sees his task as giving voice to a world view that he believes is underrepresented in the German media. So when in doubt, against the herd instinct, commonplaces and stereotypes. His texts are always amusing – perhaps it is this fact that provokes his opponents the most.
You can write to our author: By email to j.fleischhauer@focus-magazin.de or on Twitter @janfleischhauer.
