The Role of Humor in Ludruk Performance Art
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Journal of Critical Reviews ISSN- 2394-5125 Vol 7, Issue 7, 2020 TRADITIONAL STAGE AS A MEDIUM OF SOCIAL CRITICISM: THE ROLE OF HUMOR IN LUDRUK PERFORMANCE ART 1Naily Nur Kholidah*,2 Sahid Teguh Widodo ,3Kundharu Saddhono Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta, Indonesia Corresponding E-mail: [email protected] Received: 01.02.2020 Revised: 03.03.2020 Accepted: 05.04.2020 Abstract This article focuses on describing the role of humor in Ludruk as educated performance which is containing social protest to state of society and generating the spirit of the nation's struggle. Ludruk is traditional theater performance that be able to exist in globalization era right now. Humor as the main characteristic of performance art is used as means to reveal social critic. In community of East Java, humor is humor is an expression of a long-depressed condition. Humor in Ludruk performance is a protest and resistance in colonial era as well as a medium to connect the past and the present. The data source used in this study is the humor of the monologue in the form of poem which is sung in traditional ludruk performances, it is usually called by kidungan jula juli. This study used qualitative approach to analyze data by exploration, although it can be gotten the understanding about the form and role of ludruk humor as educated entertainment containing social protest. The scientific novelty of this work lies on the study used to analyze the role of humor in traditional performances as part of a conditional reflection in a nation during the colonial period. Keywords-- protest culture, traditional stage humor, Ludruk, History of nation, social criticism © 2019 by Advance Scientific Research. This is an open-access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31838/jcr.07.07.01 INTRODUCTION Waluyo, H. J., Harjoprawiro, K., Saddhono, K., & Anitah, 2007). It In ludruk performance art, humor becomes a dominant part of makes ludruk has a great communication power to the the performance. It can be seen from the enthusiastic fans in community. Even though, the existence of traditional ludruk art every performance (Setiawan, 2014). Ludruk in every experiences ups and downs following the development of performance always displays his trademark humor. The typical changes from fans and times humor of ludruk does not originate from all the elements that accompany it, from the script to the players. One of the ludruk Ludruk art grows and develops rapidly in the East Java region, figures who has a specificity in presenting his ludruk humor is specifically in Jombang, Surabaya, Malang, and surrounding Cak Kirun and Cak Kartolo. Where the two figures still exist to areas. Another distinctive feature of this performance is on jula- maintain the ludruk performance. The packaging of humor juli chants of every element, that is on the remo dance, bedayan containing criticism and advice in ludruk performances is a dance, dagelan (slapstick), and story. Jula juli is ballad that shape special attraction for fans. Humor in ludruk performances is a poem which is sung and accompanied by gamelan music of east packed up in verbal and non verbal forms. Verbal humor consists java (Kumuda and Wrihatni, 2018; Teguh, Suwandi and Eko, of two namely monologue and dialogue. Monologue verbal 2020). humor is in the form of Jula Juli and verbal dialogue humor is in Humor refers to the tendency to experience or express what is the form of conversations between ludruk players. Non verbal fun and funny, accompanied by emotional responses and humor is a physical movement performed by the players. expressions of vocal behavior, such as laughter and smile (Chen, The one role of humor is as an great communication instrument Guo-Hai, 2007; Rod A. Martin, 2018). Humor presents in all and it can be used to delivery massages indeed the social protest human culture (Fry, 1994; Lynch, 2002) and appears in various (Saddhono, 2016; Sumadi, 2017; Hart, 2019). This is the forms in every element of human life. However, people who are interested thing of ludruk performance. Humor becomes the from the different cultural backgrounds see humor in a different interested one of ludruk performance use to delivery critical way. Based on Martin dan Rod’s stated, humor is universal but it massages from condition community which is happen in their can be culturally specific (B. W. Setyawan and K. Saddhono, 2017; era. Because of that, in this article will try to focus on analysis Rod A. Martin, 2018). Humor coming from different cultural form and role of jula juli Ludruk as the educated entertainment backgrounds has different forms and functions (Sahin, 2016). containing the social protest for its community condition and Humor in the traditional stage arises because of the cultural generating the spirit of the nation's struggle. influence inherent in society. As in theater or drama, humor that emerges has a function and special characteristics in each of its METHODOLOGY appearance. There are some functions of humor namely as Ludruk is one form of art that was born from the wombs of entertainment, advice, and even as a medium to convey social commoner’s culture. In the historical record it is mentioned that criticism or new perspectives in democracy (Muhammad Jazuli, through traditional ludruk art, small communities, and lower 2011; Rawski, 2016; Robert and Wall, 2019). Countries with levels entered the era of art modernization (Peacock, 1968). strong and diverse cultural traditions such as China, Japan, India Ludruk performance is one of the excellent arts that presents the and Indonesia have traditional performances that specifically traditional art which has been long waited by community of East contain humor with specific goals, such as Manzai and Rakugo Java (Supriyanto, 2001). The use of simple and egalitarian from Japan, Jamoora from India, Shuochang and Xiangsheng from regional languages containing sarcasm and sharp criticism that is China, Ludruk and Ketoprak from Indonesia. (Davis, 2006; packed up in the form of monologues and dialogues, as well as an Haven, 2013; Attardo, 2014; Kumar, 2014; Moser, 2018; Ping infinite choice of stories is the characteristic of this show Zhu, Zhuoyi Wang, 2019) (Waluyo, H. J., Harjoprawiro, K., Saddhono, K., & Anitah, S. Journal of critical reviews 1 TRADITIONAL STAGE AS A MEDIUM OF SOCIAL CRITICISM: THE ROLE OF HUMOR IN LUDRUK PERFORMANCE ART This study uses textual analysis that is supplemented by experience of language owned by someone by exploiting general formalist analysis with knowledge of specific details of history, truths that are already known to people; changing constituents language and literature to examine and interpret jula juli poem with language experience; intentionally put wrong pronouns; related to Indonesian history. The source of the data used in this convey something incomplete; switch various languages; giving study is the humor of the monologue in the form of parikan responses that are not related at all; exploiting language (poem) which is sung in traditional ludruk performances, loopholes to distort their meaning; convey something that is commonly called kidungan jula juli. unnatural, absurd, even seemingly controversial (Saddhono, 2017; Yuwana, 2019; Yuwana, Santosa and Sumarlam, 2019). The poem used came from a collection of Javanese poetry books compiled by Koesalah Soebagyo Toer, the younger brother of a This form of humor is more commonly found in verbal humor. famous writer, Pramoedya Ananta Toer. He was the founder of Apart from everyday conversation verbal humor can be found in the Indonesian Translation Organization (OPI, 1959-1961). several media both print and direct. Verbal humor in print can be Koesalah explained in his introduction that the parikan (poem) in in the form of magazines, comic books, comedy books, novels, or his book was the result of data collection in 1980. The data naska dramas. Direct verbal humor can be found in traditional or collection was carried out from the results of listening and asking modern performances, either through sound media, or voice and Javanese people living outside Java. Parikan (poem) was given by images directly or indirectly (Suaib et al., 2019; Ulwan Fakhri people who came from Surabaya, Gresik, Mojokerto, Madiun, Noviadhista, 2019). Jember, Banyuwangi, Bojonegara, Ngawi, Blora. Those areas are the right place to flourish in a ludruk show. The book was Traditional verbal humor in Indonesia can be found in parts of published by Felix Book in 2011 is one of the books that traditional theater such as dance, jokes / jokes, music, or print documents the collection of parikan in ludruk shows. media such as magazines, newspapers or books. Traditional verbal humor has different characteristics and functions. Humor RESULTS in traditional performances functions as a medium of criticism or Humor in social life is used as a medium to awaken society by anxiety about the problems of life in the neighborhood where providing a new perspective on reality and sharpening people live. Traditional verbal humor uses more the local understanding about injustice so that it can be used as a dialogue language where the humor was born. provocation and action to humanize all parties in the struggle Traditional and modern verbal humor in Indonesia have the (Sugiarto, 2016; Ramsey and Meyer, 2019; Wandi, 2019). Besides same function of voicing anxiety and problems being experienced humor is used as a social life construction everyday. Because by the people. The difference lies in the language used and the unconsciously, humor is tucked in social life to avoid a tension. form of humor itself. Although it does not rule out the many Humor in history is explained as a form of media to convey similarities of traditional and modern verbal humor (Hermawan, historical events that have been experienced by a nation.