A SHIFT IN THE TRADITION OF HUMOUR MAGAZINES IN TURKEY: THE CASE OF L-MANYAK AND LOMBAK A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY CAN TURHAN YALÇINKAYA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN MEDIA AND CULTURAL STUDIES DECEMBER 2006 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences _________________________ Prof. Dr. Sencer Ayata Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. ________________________ Prof. Dr. Ra şit Kaya Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. ________________________ Instructor Dr. Barı ş Çakmur Supervisor Examining Committee Members Assist. Prof Dr. Necmi Erdo ğan (METU, ADM) _______________________ Instructor Dr. Barı ş Çakmur (METU, ADM) _______________________ Dr. Levent Cantek (GAZI Un., COM) _______________________ I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name : Signature : iii ABSTRACT A SHIFT IN THE TRADITION OF HUMOUR MAGAZINES IN TURKEY: THE CASE OF L-MANYAK AND LOMBAK Yalçınkaya, Can Turhan M.S., Department of Media and Cultural Studies Supervisor : Instructor Dr. Barı ş Çakmur December 2006, 135 pages This thesis aims to analyze the humour magazines L-Manyak and Lombak as constituting a shift in the tradition of humour magazines in Turkey. It evaluates these magazines in their historical, political and cultural contexts. It argues that regardless of their apolitical stance, these magazines have an attitude of symbolic resistance to the the signifying practices of the dominant culture, like a youth subculture. It discusses the humour style of these magazines in terms of their relationship with the neighbourhood of Cihangir; American underground comix, Punk subculture and Bakhtin’s concept of grotesque realism. The study also analyzes the position of these magazines in the culture industry of Turkey and claims that their content have been gradually appropriated by the market and turned into convenient products for reconsumption. Keywords: humour magazines, symbolic resistance, shift, subculture, grotesque. iv ÖZ TÜRK M İZAH DERG İLER İ GELENE Ğİ NDE BİR DE ĞİŞİ M: L-MANYAK VE LOMBAK ÖRNE Ğİ Yalçınkaya, Can Turhan Yüksek Lisans, Medya ve Kültürel Çalı şmalar Programı Tez Yöneticisi : Ö ğretim Görevlisi Dr. Barı ş Çakmur Aralık 2006, 135 sayfa Bu çalı şma mizah dergileri L-Manyak ve Lombak ’ı, Türkiye’deki mizah dergicili ği gelene ği içinde bir de ğişim te şkil eden yayınlar olarak incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Burada, söz konusu dergiler tarihsel, siyasi ve kültürel ba ğlamları içinde de ğerlendirilmi ştir. Çalı şmanın iddiası, bu dergilerin, apolitik duru şlarına ra ğmen, bir gençlik altkültürü gibi, baskın kültüre kar şı sembolik bir direni ş sergiledikleri yönündedir. Çalı şma, bu dergilerin mizah tarzlarını Cihangir semti, Amerikan underground çizgi romanları, Punk alt kültürü ve Bakhtin’in grotesk gerçekçilik kavramı ile olan ili şkileri çerçevesinde ele almaktadır. Ayrıca, bu dergilerin Türkiye’deki kültür endüstrileri içindeki konumu analiz edilmi ş ve içeriklerinin aşamalı bir şekilde pazar tarafından temellük edildi ği ve yeniden tüketime elveri şli ürünler haline getirildikleri öne sürülmü ştür. Anahtar Kelimeler: mizah dergileri, sembolik direni ş, de ğişim, altkültür, grotesk. v To My Family vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Levent Cantek, who not only inspired me to write a thesis on L-Manyak and Lombak , but also encouraged me in times of desperation, and helped me shape this thesis with his invaluable criticism. I also would like to thank Instructor Dr. Barı ş Çakmur for his support and advice during the writing process, and Assist. Prof. Dr. Necmi Erdo ğan for his enriching contributions. I would like to thank my family for their endless love, for supporting all my decisions in life, and for tolerating my hobbies all through the years, such as collecting comics, humour magazines, and all sorts of other junk. I am deeply indebted to Ahu Paköz for “being there” for me whenever I needed her. Her love and support not only during the writing process of this thesis (through her priceless advice, and help in technical issues, such as scanning images from the magazines), but also during the last nine years of my life were what kept me going. Finally, my thanks also go to my friends, who pushed me by continuously asking how the thesis is going, and for “being my friends” for I do not know how long, particularly Emrah Yılmaz, Utku Usta, Mutlu Yetkin, Erol Opal, Tuna Ye şil, Murat Altun (and all the other members of the notorious “Adamsendeciler”), Zeynep Simavi, Ba şak Önsal, U ğur Engin Deniz and numerous others whom I cannot name. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM..............................................................................................................iii ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................iv ÖZ..................................................................................................................................v DEDICATION..............................................................................................................vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...........................................................................................vii TABLE OF CONTENTS...........................................................................................viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................1 2. L-MANYAK AND LOMBAK IN CONTEXT.......................................................8 2.1 The History of Humour Magazines in Turkey..............................................8 2.1.1 Pre-Gırgır Period of Humour Magazines..........................................9 2.1.2 The Style of Gırgır ...........................................................................13 2.1.3 “Post-Gırgır ”....................................................................................19 2.1.3.1 Pi şmi ş Kelle ..........................................................................20 2.1.3.2 Hıbır and H. B. R. Maymun ................................................22 2.1.3.3 Leman ...................................................................................24 2.2 A General Outlook on L-Manyak and Lombak ...........................................26 2.3 L-Manyak and Lombak in Political and Cultural Context...........................34 2.4 The Political Economy of Humour Magzines.............................................45 viii 3. L-MANYAK AND LOMBAK ’S STYLE IN THE TRADITION OF HUMOUR MAGAZINES..................................................................................57 3.1 The Representations of Cihangir in L-Manyak and Lombak .......................59 3.2 The Parallelisms between Underground Comix and L-Manyak and Lombak ........................................................................................................74 3.3 The Influence of Punk on L-Manyak and Lombak ......................................82 3.4 Sexuality, Obscenity, and the Grotesque in L-Manyak and Lombak ..........97 4. CONCLUSION................................................................................................114 REFERENCES..........................................................................................................125 APPENDICES...........................................................................................................130 A. Figures................................................................................................................130 ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Humour has been a subject for study since antiquity. Plato and Aristotle, for example, lay connotations of lowliness on laughter and comedy. Plato (1971) would not allow depiction of famous characters and/or gods in laughter or representations of sex, childbirth and madness in literature in his Republic . Aristotle (1997), on the other hand, defined comedy in terms of the theory of mimesis, saying that comedy is an imitation of low characters. Aristotle placed comedy in a lower position than tragedy in a hierarchical order. On the other hand, according to Bakhtin (1984), antique culture did not discriminate between tragedy and laughter. Seriousness and laughter were not binary oppositions but they were in an organic unity. However, during the Middle Ages, dogmatism and intolerance became dominant in the public sphere. Anything which can cause people to lose control on their feelings was deemed forbidden by the church ideology, except on a few occasions, like carnivals. Bakhtin claims that popular laughter of the folk culture undermined the seriousness of the church and turned the hierarchy of things upside down in people’s own sphere through the grotesque and carnivalesque. Vološinov (1996) claims that language may be perceived as an arena for battling ideologies. According to Vološinov, everything ideological can be associated with a sign and vice versa. Signs which threaten the seriousness, the uniformity, and