To be wetting myself laughing at Kim Jong Il's funeral coverage?

[BaublesandCuntingCarolSingers]

It's hilarious.

That massive framed picture on top of the funeral car. The OTT speeches. Kim-Jong Un's hairdo.

It's like something off Monty Python.

Wow. "Wetting myself laughing"? Not the emotion that I find myself experiencing watching this funeral.

Having grown up under the regime similar to NK I know that soon enough these people will find enough strength and courage to stand up to bloody dictatorship (which is unfortunately supported by China) and then I will rejoice. For now I find the whole spectacle unbelievably sad and a living proof what happens when rights and freedoms are ripped away from generations of people.

I don't think our 'comedians' get satire, LadyBeagle, that's the point. They make jokes about anything and anyone. Satire is too subtle for their peabrains to register.

The funeral and the 'weeping' masses are reminiscent of Stalin's and other East European leaders' funerals at the height of the Cold War. The
people managed to get rid of Communism and the cult of the personality so here's hoping the North Koreans may also have the chance in the not too distant future.

Hmmm.

Obviously I'm not laughing at what happens if you're seen to "not be grieving enough". I'm laughing at the charade put on by the government.

I used to travel to Romania when Nicolae Ceaușescu was still in charge. It was very similar to North Korea. The repression of what people could even think, never mind say, was palpable in every human interaction.

I hated going to the place, being constantly spied on and followed by minders. The dinners we went to with party officials were booze laden extravagent occassions while outside there was starvation and depravation.

I was glad when I stopped going.

"Foreigners are weird aren't they. Would never happen in this country. No, we have thousands of people wailing in the street when a Princess dies and Elton John warbling at her funeral."

Yeah and I found that equally as cringey/weird.

Yes but people did the Diana mourning because they wanted to - not because they were told they had to.

I didn't say in my OP that I was laughing at the forced mourning. I don't know why anyone would think that I would laugh at that. I said the massive picture on the car I found funny, his fat son wailing and the "tears of blood" speech were amusing.

I'm a bit sad and puzzled by all the people who find it impossible to hold more than one reaction in their head at a time. Of course these reactions by mourners are deeply sad and disturbing. But there is also a black humour there in spades -- it wouldn't surprise me at all if there were underground jokes on the subject even within North Korea (especially from countryside dwellers conscious of the better diet and living conditions of those who are handpicked to live in the city in return for their shows of loyalty). It doesn't imply harsh judgement on the mourners, who do what they have to do.

Satire in the face of enforced shows of loyalty was pervasive in the USSR. Black humour is a natural response to something so deeply absurd.

It's very disturbing to me. The 'grief' seems so fake, so forced and I can't help wondering what those people were threatened with, or what they fear would happen if they didn't scream out their 'sorrow'.

I do see where you're coming from OP.
It was very Pythonesque in a sort of way. It deserved ridicule.

I don't much understand why it is particularly distasteful that I find this funny at this time of year, either.

Maybe Python wasn't the best example but it definitely smacks of a political satire comedy. It is amusing in a ridiculous way. I can also laugh about Hitler and his many delusions (the Jewish art school teacher being a favourite) and still feel very sad/shocked by the Holocaust.

"people did the Diana mourning because they wanted to - not because they were told they had to." Even more cringe worthy.

The problem is that in the society where it is illegal to own a radio that tunes freely satire does not exist. Comparison to USSR is only relevant if the comparison is to Stalinist regime pre1953, the NK ruling elite is literally elevated to the status of deity. Literally. The grandfather of the nation is not dead but i n some sort of divine state.

I can understand Koreans doing unpalatable things under duress. Dissent in NK is severely limited by risks not only to the culprit but to their extended family, even those to fled to South Korea are not encouraged to develop their political stance. It is a risky business to be a neighbour of a nuclear state with a fucking nutter leader.

As for symbolism of the funeral events, only the free person would find it funny and in this I agree with you OP. That said, I think that everyone focused on the mourning crowds because this is really what captured everyone's imagination, not the choreographed procession or the laughable heir to the throne...

I agree with you OP. As you say, it's not the people you're laughing at, it's the whole ridiculousness of it.

I found the Diana thing funny for the same reason. Not "ha ha" funny but "jesus christ, get a grip!" type funny. Obviously it wasn't funny that a young woman died in such a horrible accident but people who a) had never met her and b) she probably wouldn't have pissed on if they were on fire - wailing like some goddess had died? ffs.

YANBU

RussellGrant, fortunately Diana's funeral was nothing like Kim Jong Il's because the mourners were free. I found and still find the whole Diana thing completely bizarre. But it didn't have the sinister hand of compulsion and the spectre of prison camps for anyone not crying hard enough. So while I wouldn't say nothing like that could ever happen here- you never know when tyranny might strike- Diana's funeral doesn't qualify.

Nancy, North Korea aren't a formidabe fighting force by any means. They have a massive army, yes, but their weapons are outdated. Their nukes wouldn't get very far, and certainly not far enough to bother us in Britain. Additionally, if there's one thing the Chinese absolutely don't want, it's another Korean war. China are on China's side, nobody else's. They'd (sensibly enough) do everything they could to prevent it, as they understandably wouldn't want a massive military and humanitarian crisis on their borders. Another Korean war would probably be bloody and terrible, and lots of them would fight to the death, but we wouldn't particularly suffer because of it. World war 3 would be most unlikely.

Eh - why is that cringeworthy? I don't recall anyone mourning Diana because if they didn't awful things could have happened to them.

The media certainly did whip up a frenzy after her death - but if people wanted to wail in the streets over her death then that was their choice surely? Whether I agree with what they did or not, it was their right if that is what they wanted to do wasn't it?

Flangelina - you put it all much better than I did

I can understand why it's cringeworthy. We all know why people are wailing and flinging themselves to the floor in N.Korea. They have no choice. People actually had a choice wrt to Diana's funeral. To turn up at, and publicly wail, at a funeral of someone you NEVER MET is sad and a bit desperate.

Flangelina NK can inflict a lot of damage with their outdated weapons, especially fired up iwth nukes. And if you do not understand how much a human resolve can do even in under-resourced, under-trained army you didn't learn any lessons from Nazi experience fighting Soviet army in WWII.

yes their wailing and chest beating at Diana's funeral was cringeworthy - but them having the choice & freedom to do so as they wished was not - that is the point I was trying to make.

seriously?

Thanks for the explanation OP. At first I thought you were laughing at the mourners which would be deplorable. But now I realise you are laughing with them that makes it okay.

Yes and I understand your point, fergoose. Was just explaining why some people do find it cringey because you asked why it was.

Yes, seriously feminine. So you know what you can do with your biscuit.

I didn't infer I was laughing with them, did I? I inferred I was laughing at their ridiculous government.

Meh. Make something out of it that's not there if you like. That's what MN is all about some days.