It is a few weeks before provincial and national elections in South Africa; and as if to highlight the cynicism that is politics, the campaign by Kenny Kunene, the secretary general of the newly formed Patriotic Alliance (PA) Party takes the form of a live Digital Satellite Television (DSTV) recording of a comedy in which he plays the leading role.
The show is titled “The Roast of Kenny Kunene” and the host is none other than British Comedian, Jimmy Carr and features “local celebrities” Somizi Mhlongo, Khanyi Mbau, Dineo Ranaka, Rian van Heerden, Jack Parow, John Vlismas, Tumi Morake and PJ Powers.
Kunene, also known for his appetite for sushi, has been referred to in South Africa as “The Sushi King” or “Mr. Sushi”. With this comedy act, Kenny is gunning for the souls of the ‘decadent’. No other political leader or party has pulled a similar stunt; nor possess the kind of appeal, particularly among the upwardly mobile urbanites from all races and creed.
The jam packed luxuriously styled 1100-seat theatre, with its bold fittings and opulent atmosphere is the selected venue. It is a place reminiscent of the lavishness of the world’s great opera houses.
In spite of the nearly one hour delay – when the stage curtain is raised, lo and behold, a thunderous approval from the audience fills the entire theatre. The no-holds barred content is brutal and the language vile. I exclude details here except to say the jokes are ‘decadent’ to the core as the cast deride and shred each other apart. The audience is not spared either. A visible majority screams in laughter and very few are horrified.
One minute I am laughing and the next am astounded. Why would anyone consummate in the laughter on jokes that show him or her to be avaricious, and without public spirit? Why in particularly, the cast, do they delight in demonstrating their ability to view their failings with irony?
I reflect on Peggy Noonan’s critique of the US elites and their affinity to the series ‘House of Cards. Like, Peggy, I am concerned that both cast and audience seem not to care about the portrayal of debauchery and even take joy in disclosures about it – as if a load has been lifted from them; that we all in the outside world can now know what has been for long kept private. With the secret out, a feeling of guilt would no longer rest in anyone’s conscience.
With this irony, is the notion that Johannesburg, South Africa’s city of gold, like Washington DC, has no room for clean people. The only place available here is for the frivolous, the unreliable, and unprincipled. This is false of course but not entirely.
But hey, I and a colleague decide we would suspend morality and put up with the charade – at least for the evening. Much like a lawyer, who opts to be amoral with regard to his or her client in order to avoid judging the client’s guilt or innocence before the trial is concluded. This is different from a complete rejection of morality if the lawyer continues to abide by moral laws and take into account moral considerations when he is out of the courtroom.
In this case, ours is amoral journalism. The media must perform its duty to accommodate in their publications and broadcasts, even the most dissident of voices in the period leading to a national election. This they must do and they do.
And then again, it is perhaps understandable why Nandos and DSTV are happy campers here. Their eyes are obviously focused on the money to be made by being hip to the culture. So – more buyers for the Nandos roasted chicken and loads of viewers and advertising revenue for the DSTV’s Central Comedy Series.
With the latter, is this not a case of television dumbing itself – described by eminent French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in his 1996 scathing book titled ‘on television’? Bourdieu, was concerned that ‘television poses a serious danger for all aspects of cultural production – for art, literature, science, philosophy, law; and no less a threat to political life and democracy’.
In his view, Bourdieu asserts that the market – the hunt for higher ratings and so more advertising revenue- imposes more than uniformity and banality. It imposes, as effectively as a central authority would by direct political intervention, a form of ‘invisible censorship’. When in his example, the search for viewers leads to an emphasis on ‘the sensational and spectacular’ and the exclusion of people with ‘complex or nuanced views’….’This act of putting something on record, implies’, according to Bourdieu, ’a kind of social construction of reality that can mobilise or demobilise people’.
The ‘Roast of Kenny Kunene’ is set for broadcast on the DSTV channels on 28 April – i.e. a week before the election. It is scathing of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) – a party derided throughout the act as ruinous and led by a bunch of wealth looters. It remains to be seen how both the South African Independent Communications Authority (ICASA), the body that has issued regulations governing the election period and the Film and Publications Board which regulates content, view this planned broadcast.
But that is not the point. What is most sobering is the possibility that the urban South African electorate may have regressed with respect to societal values. Picture Kenny – waxing lyrically about his material trappings in the face of dire social wealth inequalities; Kanyi Mbau bragging about her private parts and explicit sexual innuendos – seemingly oblivious of South Africa’s disturbing rates of HIV/AIDS infections; and from the rest of the cast, the excesses are daunting.
Kenny Kunene is also known for his appetite for sushi and has been referred to in South Africa as “The Sushi King” or “Mr. Sushi”
The picture is reminiscent of late 19th century artistic and literary movement of Western Europe – then dubbed the “The Decadent Movement”. It thrived in France, but also had enthusiasts in England and throughout Europe, as well as in the United States. Prominent British figures associated with the Decadent movement included the much famed Oscar Wilde and a wide range of artists and writers who wrote decadent fiction and poetry.
If you have not read a book by Max Nordau titled Degeneration (Entartung, 1892), go find a copy. He attacks so-called degenerate art and comments on the effects of a range of social phenomena of the period and perceived effects on the human body. With his contention – one is left but wondering what to make of the ‘The Roast of Kenny Kunene’.
Nordau views ‘degenerate art’ as constituting ‘contempt for the traditional views of custom and morality.’ He sees it as a sort of decadence, and wilful rejection of the moral boundaries governing the world. He uses examples from French periodicals and books in French to show how this degenerate art had affected all elements of society and accuses society of becoming more and more inclined to imitate what they see in art. He concludes that each member of this class of people seeks to create a strong nervous excitement, no matter whether agreeably or disagreeably.
Well, perhaps the pungent odour of the ‘Roast of Kenny Kunene’ signals conditions necessary for society to re-think social values and cohesion – a re-think much like one described in Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s novel “Devil on the Cross”. The devil’s character is meant as an allegory of the life and times of Kenyan society, which faced extreme poverty in the face of increased primitive accumulation of material riches. The main characters are not overwhelmingly good, but instead serve to detail, even embody, the various problems of Kenya, including feigned independence, education, exploitation, sexual harassment, education, and hypocrisy. The most hilarious part of the book is the sub-text in which serious criminals of the world gather to elect the Presiding Officer for their proposed global criminal network. The only qualification, the incumbent must be the worst and most successful ‘robber and thief’ of them all.
Suffice to say, both Ngugi’s classic novel and the night of the ‘Roast’ at the Lyric Theatre resemble that of Weimar Germany, and especially the reception of Berthold Brecht’s classic satire the “Three-penny Opera.” Here is how Hannah Arendt describes the arrival and reception of Brecht’s play:
The show presents gangsters as respectable businessmen and respectable businessmen as gangsters. The irony was somewhat lost when respectable businessmen in the audience considered this a deep insight into the ways of the world and when the mob welcomed it as an artistic sanction of gangsters. The theme song in the play, “First comes the animal-like satisfaction of one’s hungers, before morality”, was greeted with frantic applause by exactly everybody, though for different reasons. The mob applauded because it took the statement literally; the bourgeoisie applauded because it had been fooled by its own hypocrisy for so long that it had grown tired of the tension and found deep wisdom in the expression of the banality by which it lived; the elite applauded because the unveiling of hypocrisy was such superior, wonderful fun.
According to Arendt, ‘Brecht hoped to shock not only with his portrayal of corruption and the breakdown of morality, but by his gleeful presentation of Weimar decadence. But the effect of “Three-penny Opera” was exactly the opposite. All groups in society reacted to Brecht’s satire with joy instead of repulsion’.
But are we back in the 19th century Europe or Kenya of the 1960s really? My lips are sealed but so it seemed at the Lyric Theatre. Was the ‘Roast of Kenny Kunene’ a stroke of artistic genius designed to lure people to laugh and vote in the upcoming elections; or was it societal ‘degeneration and hysteria’? Perhaps the answer lies in between. The verdict is yours. Tula Dlamini is the Planning Editor for SABC News Research and Policy Analysis
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