Fighting Islamic State with laughter and a listening ear
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State, finds a parodic counterpart in Bighdaddy
By S.K.
A CARTOON firebrand delivers his Ramadan message: “Ramadan is the month where sins are forgiven and hearts are filled with…love.” This outburst of goodwill is met with confusion from the audience of masked men and veiled women, which only heightens as he continues: “there is no difference between Arabs and Westerners except in piety.” Rescuing the situation, the sidekick hands the preacher a sesame biscuit. “Better?” “Fucking better,” replies the preacher—and with hunger banished, he launches into calls for bombs and destruction. “You’re not you when you’re hungry,” the clip concludes, parodying an American ad for the Snickers candy-bar.
Published on July 7th, the video is the latest attempt to defeat Islamic State (IS) on social media, as soldiers fight it on the battlefield. The Bighdaddy show, a collection of short videos satirising IS, is named after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, IS’s leader. “Don’t forget to like, share and comment or else I swear to God I’ll execute you all” threatens Bighdaddy.
The Bighdaddy show is not the first to fight IS with humour. But the show adeptly paints IS as an organisation of buffoons with guns and a ridiculous approach to religion. It has gained popularity in the Middle East; its Facebook page has garnered more than 200,000 likes and the videos have around 1m views each.
Bighdaddy promises to free Andalusia from bull-fighters, Washington from the White House and Iraq from the Iraqis (“God willing”). The first season contains free-standing skits, including one set in the Caliphate’s recording studio where Bighdaddy directs a whiny Australian jihadi to include the lilting lines “detonate them…destroy them…” in the chorus, to give it a “feminine touch”. In the latest season the episodes are more connected, and tell of Bighdaddy’s origins. In one poignant scene, he is scolded by Osama bin Laden for giving (correct) non-violent answers to a pop-quiz on Islamic punishments.
It is unclear who is behind the project. In an interview with Prospero, the administrator of the project’s Facebook page, who wished to remain anonymous, claims that it is run by a group of volunteer activist lawyers, journalists and graphic designers from across the Arab world (including some in IS-held territories). In response to the well-produced videos in IS’s own social-media campaign, he said that they wanted to fight back with what they knew best.
They are in Arabic, with English subtitles, though some things are lost in translation. The real Mr Baghdadi is from Iraq, but his parody has an accent that drifts across the region, from Syria to Saudi Arabia. The anonymous administrator said that this was to make viewers across the Arab world see that there is a bit of Baghdadi in every country (the most common location of those liking the Facebook page is Iraq).
Taking satire to social media rather than television screens means that the makers can get direct feedback from viewers. Some mistake the videos as laughing at Islam, which is far from the intended effect. The team has a special name for one category of commenters—“the ISIS engagement”—made up of IS sympathisers and supporters. They have a policy to deal with this: rather than fight back with hostile comments, they engage with them, either in private messages or in the public comments beneath the video. IS sympathisers will never admit that you have changed their mind, says the administrator of the Facebook page. But when the conversation starts with threats of rape and murder, and ends with them saying that they will pray for you, you can see that they have been affected.
So far they have released six episodes of the second season, and are planning more. Rumours of the real Mr Baghdadi’s death are unimportant. “Even if you kill Baghdadi, there will be someone else. You have to kill the idea.”
