Wednesday, August 12, 2009

The Cargo-Bike Imam on Education

Readers were introduced yesterday to the Cargo-Bike Imam, a comic character played by Najib Amhali, from a purportedly humorous Dutch television series.

Like the previous video on Religion, the following sketch uses a faux-pedagogical setting with a group of children. Also like the previous video, the Cargo-Bike Imam’s little lesson on Education doesn’t seem particularly humorous to a non-Dutch audience. The little dig at Montessori is mildly amusing, but on the whole this sequence seems more bizarre than funny.

Thanks once again to our Flemish correspondent VH for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for subtitling:


If I had to characterize the first video, I would describe it as pro-Islamic. But what about this one?
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Given the choice of instructional material, I’d have to say that “Education” is somewhat anti-Islamic. But the overall effect is grotesque — this is disturbing stuff, especially when little children are used as props for the sick jokes.

One gets the impression that the scriptwriters couldn’t make up their minds whether to promote Islam or poke fun at it, so they settled instead on delivering a dumpster load of bad taste to their audience.

There’s a whole series of these Cargo-Bike Imam sketches, and we’ll present more of them in future posts.


Hat tip: Paul Weston.

8 comments:

ɱØяñιηg$ʇðя ©™ said...

More humor-free humor. Great!

Caroline Macafee said...

Guys - it's called i-ron-y. I actually find it very funny. Though they do seem insanely confident that the target won't be able to process humour ...

WAKE UP said...

Fog-braider: children are involved, which makes it doubly NOT funny. Get a grip.

Orlando said...

For a sick mind like mine, this was insanely funny and absolutely not pro-Islamic. I don't see how this is even debatable.

"But but, the children..."

Give me a break.

WAKE UP said...

"FOR A SICK MIND LIKE MINE..."

Well, there's a clue - Orlando, get a grip; have you no idea what's actually going on here?

Félicie said...

I don't know if I'm over-reading this, but my interpretation is that they are poking fun at "ignorant stereotypes" Western people have about Islam, and therefore the video is pro-islamic.

Caroline Macafee said...

Seems to me the children are actors. It wouldn't be funny if the imam was - say - a drug dealer peddling a positive view of drugs to children, because it's inconceivable that such a person would not know he was peddling evil. But this sweet guy is presented as somebody who sincerely believes that Islam is peaceful, etc. It's made clear to the audience that he's deluded - that's the joke.

Caroline Macafee said...

At the same time it's not necessarily anti-Islamic - jeez, I hope the international publicity isn't going to get Amhali beheaded - it could be seen as a challenge to Islam: "What do we have to offer that the Dutch could remotely want? Is this it?"