Description
This paper centres a popular meme in Turkey, “Silivri Must Be Cold Right Now”, to dispel the notion that oppositional laughter in authoritarian contexts are necessarily resistant. Referencing the largest political prison in Turkey, the Silivri meme circulates the Turkish memescape as an ironic acknowledgement of the country’s expansive carceral regime and its repression of oppositional voices. The paper argues that while on the surface the meme seems to be a critique of the government, it in fact works to reproduce the broad affective and ideological conditions of its carcerality. This memetic carcerality works through producing two subjects: 1) a cynical subject who enjoys a safe yet non-threatening position of ironic criticism and 2) a sadistic subject who enjoys reminding others that the threat of incarceration is always around the corner. I argue that both these subjects use pop cultural humour and digital irony to position themselves in relation to a carceral regime that aims to consolidate the state and its reactionary politics. Against the impasse that is produced by a crude attachment to humour’s seemingly oppositional impulse, the paper argues that humourlessness in the face of a debilitating and cynical humour can actually become a more powerful political strategy against state authoritarianism and carcerality.
