The Normality of the Crazy Family: Political Humor in the Old Order

Oleh Seno Gumira Ajidarma*

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Makalah diskusi panel ‘Humour as Politics: Parody, Irony, and Satire in Southeast Asia’, dalam konferensi European Association for Southeast Asian Studies (EuroSEAS) ke-12, di Kampus Condorcet, Paris-Aubervilliers, Prancis, 28 Juni –1 Juli 2022 secara daring. https://euroseas2022.org/panels/humour-as-politics-parody-irony-and-satire-in-southeast-asia. Terjemahannya akan termuat dalam Dari Spider-Man sampai Kian Santang: Komik dalam Kajian Budaya (2025).

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Abstract

Semar, Gareng, Petruk, Bagong are the local clowns from Java, which negotiate the superiority of characters in the Mahabharata and Ramayana mythologies that dominate the Hindu-Buddhist narratives in the 9-10^th century. Started as the entertaining entourage called “panakawan”, in the 19^th century these panakawan characters take place as the dominant attraction in the contradictory sophisticated dance-theatre. Firstly, because they were funny, with the acrobatic logic of humor; secondly, as the catharsis of criticism for the ordinary people in the feudal culture environment. Politically their position also changed, from the status of servant to a double role as the advisor-gods inside the human body that will act in the time of power crisis. 

          In the 20^th century these panakawan became independent from the mythologies, and with the rise of mass media and popular culture as part of the urban phenomena, the panakawan continue their role, as clown and critics, with an actual context. It is only about time when these panakawan are then being exploited or manipulated, in the ideological struggle of the real world from various interest groups. The popularity of the panakawan figures invite the organic intellectuals to signify them for particular ideals, values, and politics, which is what happened with them in the comic-strips series of The Crazy Family in the pre-1965 time in Indonesia, which by the New Order was called the Old Order.

          The craziness of the family inside the comic-strip world of is a strategy to open the way to set-up the normality standard. Examining all the strips systematically, employing humor theories and Cultural Studies, not only give the opportunities to understand how the political-signification work, but also to deconstruct the discourse—and find the specific literary and visual language of the time, as a force of power.

Keywords: humor strategy, representation, ideological struggle.

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1. Characters that Represent the People: Background

           The “panakawan” or the entourage group of a noble-warrior, especially Arjuna, the man among men that is very feminine, in the Javanese adaptation of Mahabharata, constitutes of four characters: Semar, the father, actually a respected god; Gareng and Petruk, whom the origin were a pair of mighty kings that after being defeated by Semar, devoted themselves as his sons; Bagong, created by Semar from his shadow, because Gareng and Petruk asked for one more brother for them (Ardisoma & Sudarma, 1956: 22).

           Even if the narratives like Ramayana came earlier with the adaptation of Hindu culture from India in the 9^th century, the panakawan were only known later in the kakawin (a form of an Old Javanese text) Ghatotkacasraya by Mpu Panuluh in the 12^th century. In the text, the only one panakawan, Jurudyah Prasanta, functioned as an advisor (Wirjosuparto, 1960: 13). It does not act as a clown or entertainer. The first detection of panakawan as a funny character that is full of humor is Semar in the kidung (another style of an Old Javanese text) Sudamala from the 15^th century (Zoetmulder, 1983: 541).

           The kind of panakawan which exist today can be traced back to 18^th century in Java, when palaces in Java like Surakarta and Yogyakarta forbid the critical humor and funny figures of panakawan, as part of the dominant class ethics and aesthetics (Ajidarma, 2012: 352-4); and this still happened in Yogyakarta in the year of 1981 (Lindsay, 1991: 169-186). This political rule actually is a setback, compared to the ideological struggle, which made the panakawan a local subversion for the original Hinduism narrative as Mahabharata.

            Apparently panakawan won the heart of the people outside these palaces. In the form of dance-theatre of the Mahabharata and also the carangan (spin off) from the original version, panakawan became the important and favorite part when the dramaturgy put them as a special show in the middle, which is called gara-gara (making trouble), where they can turn the rules of behavior and logic up and down with their humor. This is the function of social and political criticism in the feudal culture, and also it is why the rulers seem allergic to the presentation of these critical clowns inside the palace (Sastroamidjojo, 1968: 57-60).

             As a classical tradition, it still works today in Surakarta and Yogyakarta, but the palace as a symbol of power does not have the power to dictate their ethics and aesthetics anymore in the modern time, especially after the independence of Indonesia as a republic state in 1945. The popularity of panakawan also means that their existence is a representation of the people, from the critical humor of every topic in their gara-gara time and space. It is needed to say that outside gara-gara, it is common for the public to see a plot, which made the panakawan themselves had to take the power from their employers in a time of crisis, before giving it back after the crisis is over.

This short introduction showed how political is the role of panakawan, while they were liberated themselves from the wayang (the generic name for all narratives that came from Mahabharata and Ramayana), and they continue to exist through the ages in many forms and mediums. One of them is the form of the very political slapstick humor in the medium of comic strip as the series of Keluarga Miring (Crazy Family, 1963/1964) in the “Old Order” (named by the New Order regime) period in Indonesia before the bloodshed after 1965.

2. The Construction of Normality for the Crazy Family: The Case

           As what usually happens in the case of humor, there is a need of the dominant construct of normality to be played by the “humor-logic” to find the victims to be laughed at. In the pure humor just for laugh, the construct came first, even taken for granted, before the punch line in play with the bisociation, so that the expectation of the readers, listeners, or spectators resulted in a wrong way that made them surprised and laugh. 

           However, for the politically intended humor, the plot to make people laugh, with or without the construction of normality first, should be ended with the normal construction of the authority. It is clear that the values at stake are not going to be played by any humor. 

           That is what happened with the humor of panakawan in wayang from the feudal time, as well as with the comic strip of The Crazy Family (Keluarga Miring, 1963/1964). Influenced by the propaganda from the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) before 1965, besides the stereotype humor, the specific victims are the Western life style and fashion, because this culture signified the face of Western-bloc, as the enemy of the dominant power at the time, which was the political orientation that was inclining to communist countries. 

           What is considered as the normality in the life inside The Crazy Family will represent the authority. Therefore, this survey is interested to find the strategy to construct what is politically normal in the crazy world, which legitimize the ideology of the dominant group in power.

3. The Profile of The Crazy Family as a Survey Materials

          There are twelve numbers of comic-strip books of the Crazy Family series, and each one contained from 8 to 16 strips, which made an average of 13 strips from a total 160 strips with various jokes. In these Crazy Family strips, lived the panakawan from wayang, who now stayed in a modern world like ordinary people, where they experienced a sensational life which is full of conflict. From this conflict rises the final say to decide which values the people should follow.

          Readers will meet again with Semar, Gareng, Petruk, and Bagong, but now it seems that there is a wife for Bagong, and there are also their sons, who is going to take part in the sequel: The Crazy Descendants (Turunan Miring). Unlike in the wayang, Semar now only had a limited presence. 

          All the strips published as a comic book from 1963 to 1964. One of them also contained the musical score of “Gènjèr-Gènjèr”, which was widely known as the folksong used by the mass organizations affiliated to the PKI, that is manipulated to discredit their opponents in the political game. Later, after the ban of the PKI, nobody dared to sing the song which is socially forbidden. 

          Besides (1) humor with the specific victims, like whoever wears the latest fashion from the West, there are also (2) stereotypical jokes with slapsticks, which make fun of the physical aspects and violence, and (3) jokes that are constructed from poverty, such as making fun of the opportunity to eat as much as possible. 

             As nobody signed these strips, it is only possible to guess who is the creator behind The Crazy Family. From the comparison with another collection of comic strips titled Sweepstake (1955), which have the same specific line, style, and mise-en-scène on the drawing, as well as the subgenre of slapstick humor, it is just logical to have a thought that the illustrator is Lie Ay Poen, which also could be detected from his other titles, while Kam Seng Kioe which is the name written on Sweepstake is the writer.

It’s likely that the political climate made the creators choose not to use their name, although the publisher, Loka Dhi Sastra Company from the city of Semarang, already had the obligatory permit from the authority (S.I.T Djapen Djateng No. 902/Sk./uppg/Sit/64 tg. 14-8-1964). At the time, anybody could be arrested only because being loosely affiliated to a troubled political organization, a behavior of power that is going to be continued in the New Order era post-1965.

4. Humor, Politics, Sign and Code: The Concepts

         Even there are some classic theories of humor that still work for the strips in The Crazy Family, the surveyor prefers to use the concepts of subversive humor, as it is obvious enough the kind of conflicts and challenges explored as the source for the jokes; while to examine the strips as a cultural and political phenomenon, the Neo-Gramscian hegemony theory is considered to work.

4.1. Subversive Humor.

Humor is duplicitous and has the ability to serve other less positive functions. Subversive humor is the label for humor that aims to resist and challenge while implying that any critical content is intended in jest. Humor can be used to unsettle power asymmetries at work as big as political world. Political resistance is another area which subversive humor is highly relevant due to its ability to create a safe place for dissenters. Here subversive humor (cartoons critiquing a regime included) operates as a challenge to the status quo.

                 While powerful leaders may use humor to maintain control and repress subordinates, it is also available to those in less powerful positions as a socially acceptable means to subvert authority. The ambiguity of humor offers the opportunity to express dissatisfaction and undermine existing power relationships in a form that is indirect and less likely to result in rebuke.

                  Humor creates the opportunity for protests and criticisms to be made in a form that reduces the risk of recrimination. Political cartoon had long traditions of making use of this form of subversive humor to resist oppression and extreme political regimes. The comic veil of a cartoon that uses a caricature of a tyrannical leader or regime to reveal cruel and unjust behavior makes use of a safe space created by humor in the public domain. 

                 This form of confrontation again uses the distancing effect of humor to provide a socially acceptable and recognized means of encoding critical intent. Subversive humor becomes a political tactic or tool for expressing dissidence and a culturally licensed way to reject repression.

                Subversive humor is thus a potent tool for challenging social inequalities, whether hierarchical differences at work, an unjust political status quo, or powerful societal stereotypes. Subversive humor affords the opportunity to express dissatisfaction with power imbalances and prevailing attitudes and ideologies by making use of its distancing effect. Because humor inherently carries a sense of entertainment, the ambiguity protects the speaker from the need to accept full responsibility for the critical content of his or her actions (Marra in Attardo, 2014: 742-4).

4.2. Hegemony Theory.

Hegemony theory sees popular culture as a site of struggle between the forces of ‘resistance’ of subordinate groups in society, and the forces of ‘incorporation’ of dominant groups in society, which makes popular culture as a terrain of exchange between the two, a terrain marked by resistance and incorporation. 

           It consists not simply of an imposed mass culture that is coincident with dominant ideology, nor simply of spontaneously oppositional cultures, but rather an area of negotiation between the two within which dominant, subordinated, and oppositional cultural and ideological values and elements are ‘mixed’ in different permutations. 

            Hegemony is ‘organized’ by ‘organic intellectuals’: intellectuals are distinguished by their social function. Only certain men and women have in society the function of intellectuals, and each class creates ‘organically’ its own intellectuals, which give it homogeneity and awareness of its own function not only in the economic sphere but also in the social and political fields. 

            Hegemony is also a condition in process in which a dominant class does not merely rule a society but leads it through the exercise of moral and intellectual leadership. There is a high degree of consensus, a large measure of social stability; a society in which sub-ordinate groups and classes appear to support and subscribe to values, ideals, objectives, cultural and political meaning, which bind them to, and ‘incorporate’ them into the prevailing structures of power (Storey, 1993: 123-4).

4.3. Code and Sign.

Borrowed from semiotics, (1) codes are the system of signs governed by rules agreed (explicitly or implicitly) between the members of the using culture. A code consists of signs—word or images—and the rules that govern how they can be used; (2) sign system governed by similar basic rules and conventions which have a cultural meaning. All social and cultural activities or products are encoded with many kinds of codes. The responder, reader, or consumer will have to decode as a way of understanding (O’ Sullivan, et.al., 2006: 43, 284-5)

5. Description and Interpretation: The Method.

The case of the survey is how the humor in The Crazy Family strips shows the construction of an ideological interest, according to the sign and codes in the narrative, that will be displayed as part of the analysis. However, as there are three categories already mentioned, the selection of samples for the analysis will based on the sign and codes, imaginary or literary, which reveal the specifics of the case.

        For each sample, there will be a chronology of description, interpretation, and finding. All the findings will be evaluated to look for a phenomenon, before a discussion and closure at the end.

6. Representation of Ideology: Analysis. 

6.1. Pathetic (Sakarat)

Description:

Petruk and Gareng meet Bagong and his wife. They all wear the latest Western fashion: jèngki (a kind of pants used by cowboys), sepan (tight fitting skirt), gondrong (long-haired for male), and sasak (bouffant, woman’s hairdo). They insult each other’s style of fashion that ends in a fight. 

Interpretation: 

The Western style represents the ideological enemy, that is capitalism from the stereotypical “Western culture”, which can detected by the verbal-literal play of words used in the balloon: Ju Texas (You Texas = directed to ‘cowboy’ as ‘America’), Ju Donkey (You Donkey = a play with Yankee), Lu Wewe (You Wewe = a kind of ugly female ghost with sagging breast, directed to the bouffant hairdo), Beetle (= directed to The Beatles, number one popular long-haired enemy which the music possess young generation), bedbug (= to insult the long-hair), monkey (another play of donkey = yankee).

Finding: 

Insulting the fashion style from the West is the way to humiliate the ideology behind it. Fighting each other is the evidence that there is no use of the ideology.

6.2. Jangling and Clanking Music (Ngak-Ngik-Ngok)

Description:

Semar cannot sleep because downstairs Petruk, Gareng, and Bagong are playing the jangling and clanking music. When Semar tries to warn them with his walking stick, Petruk comments that Semar played the bass instrument, until they realize it is because of the repeating thrust from Semar foot, which then makes the floor broke.

Interpretation: 

The term ngak-ngik-ngok (an onomatopoeia of jangling and clanking music) come from one of Soekarno’s (president at the time) speech, to insult rock ‘n roll music that was popular among young generation in the big cities (Soekarno, 17/08/1959). This strip positioned and showed young generation as a subordinate group with their sub-culture, which was opposed and not agreed by the old generation who lead the country.

Finding:

This strip exactly showed a political standing to show that the Western culture is a bad influence for young generation. 

6.3. GANEFO Funding (Dana GANEFO)

Description:

Petruk asks the students to bring money for GANEFO (the future big event of international sport), which is misheard as Camelpo (brand of a popular soap) by the students, who then tell their mothers. These mothers are then disappointed and angry at Petruk when he says that he does not sell Camelpo. They throw anything in to reach him. After they know that the money is needed for the funding of GANEFO, these mothers voluntarily give the money to Petruk.

Interpretation: 

Games of the New Emerging Forces (GANEFO) is Soekarno’s idea to contest or even eliminate the Olympics, as part of the Non-Block Movement of Asian and African countries, which already happened in Jakarta in the year of 1963. Because of the limited budget, there is a consolidation to collect the funding. However. as the word ‘Ganefo’ is still foreign for the people, the cartoonist could play the verbal jokes, while politically stand with the government in agreement of the big games. In the opposite, it could also be imagined if there is the criticism of this policy.

Finding:

This is one sample of how the political situation can be read from a joke, which make use of the specific social-historical words in play.

6.4. B.B. Twist (The Twist Dance of B.B.)

Description:

Bagong and his wife, who tries to be as fashionable as Brigitte Bardot (B.B.), walk in the street near an opened window. The wife asks Bagong if the sleeveless style is attractive, and Bagong say yes but for pervert, like Petruk. The wife says that Petruk is moldy and very much behind—but this sentence is not finished yet, when a mouse which was pursuit by a cat jump from the window to her stylized hair. The cat stays there with a mouse in the mouth, so Bagong grab the cat’s tail that makes the cat pulled and jump to his head, meanwhile the loose mouse goes inside his wife’s skirt. The mouse runs everywhere inside the skirt, which make her “dance”. From far away Petruk and Gareng laugh and make fun of this “B.B. twist dance”. 

Interpretation:

Except Bagong’s rimless cap, everything worn by the pair is an elitist Western style: from the tie, pants, shirt, walking stick, sleeveless skirt, stylist hair, hand-bag, and the shoes. The accident with the cat and mouse functioned as a way to humiliate not just everything from Western culture, like the popular twist dance among the middleclass youngsters at the time, but to insult the elites as well. The verbal comparison of B.B. and bolang baling (fried-snack which is round) also an insult to the ambition of being fashionable as in the Western style.

Finding: 

The contrast of the well-prepared outfit with the disaster caused by the cat and mouse, really looked like a fit tactic of humiliation.

6.5. Commandant (“Kumendang”)

Description:

Petruk leads the women march exercise, but from behind the fence there is another exercise, which the command order, that is the order to face downward, is misheard by these women. While Petruk still doesn’t know why everybody suddenly face downward, which made these women’s face dirty, they already express their anger to Petruk.

Interpretation:

The strip was created in 1964, at the peak of “Konfrontasi” (“Confrontation”) campaign aimed to Malaysia, when the sporadic conflict erupted in North Borneo, that looks like the policy to shift the focus of Indonesian people from the acute economical problem. At the same time, while Malaysia backed up by United Kingdom (UK) military instructors, and Indonesia received the arms from communist country like Soviet Union, and then later People’s Republic of China, actually there is a competition of power between the Army and PKI to influence Soekarno. This hidden competition sometime published openly, especially when PKI response positively to Soekarno’s idea of The Fifth Force which constituted of peasants and workers (Sundhaussen, 1988: 339). The possibility that this kind of idea actually come from PKI is a logical consideration because the identical rhetoric from them (ibid., 295). With this kind of background, this “Commandant” strip showed the minor view of the Army. The choice of “Kumendang” as the title, as a playful sound effect to disparage the formal term that is “Komandan” (“Commandant”), could be interpreted as part of the interest to humiliate the Army—just like how the women did in the strip.

Finding: 

The open insults to the man in military-like uniform showed a political situation, which represented with a clear one-sided-ness view in the humor, to bring the readers agreeing to the point of view on the military, especially the Army.

6.6. Jeans (“Djengki”)

Description:

Petruk and his wife wear the traditional Javanese outfit, Bagong and his wife wear the latest Western fashion. Looking at each other, before they meet, Petruk says his wonder (“Why it’s like that.”) when he sees the other pair, while his wife says, “Match with a coupled truck.” In reverse, Bagong says, “Antique, ancient.”, and his wife says, “Provincial people.” 

               When they meet, Petruk and his wife continue their insults. “Bagong, your pants going down,” says Petruk. “Is that wewe (ugly female ghost) fashion?” asks his wife. “This model insulted, it’s Diana Dors’,” Bagong’s wife answers. “B.B., D.D.,” said Bagong referring to Brigitte Bardot (B.B.) and Diana Dors (D.D.), two popular movie stars at the time.

Then Petruk uses his stick to point on Bagong’s belly, and questions why he should be proud with that. His wife comments on bloated form of the belly and the position of the pants which is going down. Bagong and his wife become emotional and use violence to express their response, which makes a slapstick kind of fight, until Gareng the police man comes. The two pairs are then arrested. Gareng says, “Hold yourself a little, there is a proper place if you want to tackle each other.”

Interpretation:

There are two polarizations of fashion here, the traditional Javanese style to represent feudalism; and the latest popular fashion to represent American life style with the capitalism ideology. It is clear the humor treats feudalism and capitalism as a victim, to underestimate them as a way of life, and a bad choice compare to NASAKOM (Nationalist-Religion-Communist) which was promoted by Soekarno, the president, as the ideology of the nation-state. As the politician from the religion background parties cannot get along with PKI, there was the need for an agitation and propaganda to distribute NASAKOM, at least by humiliation of the representations of the old conservative way of life and the new popular culture that seemed to dominate the youth. However, in this comic-strip there are no representation of the communist ideology, only the state that is represented by Gareng as the police man. This way, as the state should represent the right one, the Communist Party appears quite powerful when untouched by the state.

Finding:

In the crazy world of The Crazy Family, the representation of the state as the police man actually is the representation of normality. Whoever represents normality is the only right one.

6.7. Exhibition (Tontonan)

Description:

Bagong and his wife take pleasure with the latest fashion, when suddenly one of her high-heel shoes is squeezed between a water-channel lid. To save the shoes, Bagong has to take the lid, a state property, which attract the attention of Petruk the official cleaner on duty. “Wear excellent dress only to steal government’s property and make it dangerous,” says Petruk. Then he shouts, “Thief! Thief!”. But when he meets them, he connects his accusation with the fashion they wear, “Already a sensation tight (skirt) bouffant (hair-do), You-can-see (sleeveless dress) the iron thief!”. 

        “Don’t interfere!” says the wife. “Hobo!” says Bagong. Then she hits Petruk with her other high-heel shoe, saying “You-can-tjeplok (onomatopoeia of the sound), and knocks Petruk out. Gareng the police man cannot let them free as the consequence of the action, again he repeats the fashion context, “Sensation tight bouffant, you-can-nonton (see), what else!”. The police man’s final decision brings them with Petruk as their victim, to the Tontonan (Exhibition) section, while he says, “You can ditontonkan (be exhibited to).”

Interpretation:

The fashion of high-heels shoes, bouffant hair-do, and sleeveless dress style, are put in this strip to represent Western ideology as a very bad influence for the people. Petruk represents the people as a loyal worker who tries to make things right, which is challenged by the true believers of the ideology. Then, Gareng as the police man that represents the authority shows what should be right. 

        Taking attention on the connection of fashion and act of crime, which is mentioned as a parallel case; and also, the specific word of Tontonan as the title which shifts the meaning from show or exhibition in the positive connotation, to an exhibition of this worst case as a punishment. They are displayed to the public as a bad example of behavior that influenced by the false ideology. 

         The fact that there is the specific legal-formal section in the office to exhibit them, at least in the strip, makes it possible to guess that there is a policy somewhere, in the party or in the government, to punish ideological sins with humiliation in front of the masses, as a lesson that is not going to be repeated by anyone else. Just as what happened in People’s Republic of China in the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), which already happened in 1963 before that historical date (Dikötter, 2017: 21).
         While that connection is just a speculation, actually in the Indonesian traditional cultures there is a kind of punishment in the form of exhibition of the sinners as a procession. 

Finding:

This strip showed how to bring the readers to a determination of what is right and wrong in everyday life, because the accused ideology behind it, with the figure of police man as the standard of normality.

6.8. Treat (Traktir)

Description: 

Petruk reflects on the economic situation, saying that, “Price of rice is getting higher, one month salary only enough for five days, after a long time could eat san …” (possibly from “sandal”). But someone calls him, it is Gareng who says that now he is the Minister of Food, and now he treats Petruk in a restaurant. He orders so much from the menu, so that Petruk thinks about eating one time for two days. While he eats, he thinks it is so nice to be a Minister of Food, while Gareng eats as much as possible, before telling Petruk that his stomach does not feel well and he has to go to the toilet. After one hour, Petruk thinks Gareng is really sick. Then he asks the restaurant owner, Bagong, who says Gareng already left by taxi with Rp 5.000 of Bagong money, that should be paid by Petruk, which only have Rp 500. So Bagong ask him to strip his clothes to what he and Gareng eats, and Petruk now reflects his unlucky day.

Interpretation:

Petruk’s reflection represents the economic situation of Indonesia at the time, and Gareng tactics to earn the free lunch is a familiar trick which people many times heard of. As the economy gets better, this kind of small swindle is rare enough to hear. The rimless caps worn by Petruk and Gareng ironically are the proud cultural identity of Indonesia, that gives the background of where it is happening, and with it the context of poverty which generated the short plot. The sign and code which related to the tie worn by Gareng, as he is the impostor, represents how the myth of the middle class already worked, that is useful for Gareng’s tactics. In this strip there are no case of ideological conflict, but the strip helps the readers to understand the circumstances of the more political strip from the other titles.

Finding:

The signs and codes from the strip, verbal or non-verbal, as a text, were open for any contextual interpretation. The specificity of the humor came from the specific socio-historical context. 

6.9. Subversive (Subversip)

Description:

Petruk and Gareng are ordered by Bagong to clean up the garden, so they collect the falling leaves on the ground. Bagong comments that they are not capable in cleaning up. So, they interpret that cleaning up means cutting the trees as well. When they cut them, Bagong’s wife asks them why they cut everything, and they answer that Bagong ordered them. But Bagong cannot answer when she asks him about why he ordered P.G (Petruk-Gareng) to cut the trees. 

       Bagong and his wife then go to find P.G. “Should be retool,” says the wife. Bagong accuses them of subversion with a non-grammar like pronunciation (sappertjip pertjip) and punches Gareng while shouting the word “retool” again. As Gareng can avoid, the punch lands on his wife, who replies to the three man altogether by shouting, “Rekiaklu!” (abbreviation of retool, bakiak = wooden clog, alu = rice pestle). On the run, Petruk shouts, “Alukeeeet,” referring to rocket (a popular term in the 1960s), while Bagong shouts the sentence, “Long live me!”

Interpretation:

This strip is full of real politics term, or at least, referring to the actual political events, such as ‘subversive’, ‘cleaning up’, and ‘retool’. Therefore, this is not about a garden, but perhaps about parliament or even cabinet. Subversive is about differences, cleaning up means on opposition, and retool is from “retooling” which was often spoken by Soekarno for the idea of changing something to become a new one. Politically, it means to put everything behind Soekarno in the guided-democracy time from 1959. What Soekarno saw was the spirit of egocentrism to win each owned party, ethnic, or group; hollands denken (thinking like a Dutch person), feudalism, imperialism, as against Indonesian revolution, needs the action of retooling (Hartono, 29/07/2021). The term aku (me)—centrism, which is in play on real politics, could be referred to interpret Bagong’s “Long live me!”

Finding:

The strip does not look like it takes sides, except critical to the political climate at the time of publication, which showed the blame game between politician with the people as the victim.

6.10. Infection (Inpeksi)

Description:

Petruk is sick. Bagong, the doctor, says that it is an infection from ngak-ngik-ngok (jangling and clanking music), and if the whining spreads, Petruk could be dead. Bagong then uses Petruk’s tongue to paste the label on the bottle. Petruk who feels insulted does not want to pay. He tries to punch Bagong, but Bagong bites his hand, while the mighty nurse holds Petruk’s other hand and his pigtail. She shouts, “Ow! Already Westernized!”, then drags him to the mental hospital. 

Interpretation:

Petruk became the personification of the sick culture by the domination of the West, the kind of culture which is underestimated as having the nature of whining. Western culture is an infection to Indonesian culture, a very bad influence. It is too bad that ordinary therapy cannot heal the infection, because the infection is not a physical thing, but cultural.

Finding: 

The strip represents the kind of agitation for the supporters of Western culture.

6.11. New Emerging Forces (NEFOS)

Description:

Petruk challenges Gareng to show his muscle, and then they show to each other how strong they are. They laugh when a woman asks to join in this show-off of muscles, but it is proven that she is very strong.

Interpretation:

The title is NEFOS, the abbreviation of New Emerging Forces, which is the new countries that recently liberated themselves from colonialism, that invited by Indonesia to the Games of the New Emerging Forces (GANEFO) in Jakarta as a show of force in 1963. The strip seems to show the readers, that even these countries from Asia and Africa looked weak, they have the potential as the new power from Non-Bloc Movement. But the personification of the woman as the hidden power had nothing to do with the kind of feminism, it is used for the sake of humor only, as the play of bisociation on the idea of weakness.

Finding:

The strip is definitely political and takes side with the group in power, as the government under Soekarno is behind the NEFOS movement. 

7. Representations of The Background: Evaluation.

The narrative of the comic-strip, from written text to pictures, is constituted by social condition and politic constellation at the time of publication, when Indonesia in the year 1964 already suffered from internal conflicts and the impact of Cold War, that positioned Indonesia close to Soviet Union, before finally getting along with People’s Republic of China.

7.1. Political Background.

The year 1962-1964 was called as the year of shaky equilibrium. Besides the achievement of the Army in the liberation of West Irian (Papua now) in 1963 as the most acclaimed among exterminations of resurgence movements in Sumatera, Sulawesi and West Java, before and after, the political result for the Army does not meet their expectation. While the success of the Army in their duty become a reason to abrogate the martial law, it also means that the Army’s role was a little bit weakened, which was a strategic opportunity for PKI, whose Marxism ideology get along with the NASAKOM concept of Soekarno. 

          After the liberation of West Irian, Soekarno had two option to keep him in power; first is to build the economy with the support of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and United States of America (USA); second is to “liberate” North Borneo as part of Malaysia, which in his opinion is a “puppet state” of United Kingdom. In consideration of power position, it looked like the second one would have the faster effect then the first one, with a thought that the anti-neocolonialism spirit worked better than the development project. The image of IMF and USA which could be interpreted as the representation of neocolonialism and imperialism, made the confrontation project on Malaysia, as an anti-neocolonialism (NEKOLIM) struggle, a better option. 

       The Confrontation campaign started at April 12^th in Sarawak, at least happen to be 34 times small conflicts along the border, before the constitution of Malaysia at September 16^th in 1963. The Army had their own ambiguity in response of the Confrontation. First, this was an act to balance the internal politics; second, it was an opportunity to recover the martial law, that meant there was no cutting of military budget, which would have happened if the government decided to choose economic recovery; three, it was also an opportunity to take over British companies, like what happened with Dutch companies in Irian.

         This international politics development from 1964 to 1965 reinforced the inclinations by PKI’s new militants. This party exploited the situation created by confrontation campaign, to support the taking over of foreign projects as from UK and USA, with the mobilization of poor people in rural areas. New tactics by PKI led them to a more serious conflicts with other political powers, including powerful Islamic parties, which represented in the government, not to throw but to support the recent regime.

          As confrontation on Malaysia made IMF and USA held the promise to support the economic recovery of Indonesia, the political situation changed rapidly from the end of 1964 to the nine months of 1965, which at the same time showed Indonesian’s tendency toward an ambitious movement in the international political stage. That is what happened with Soekarno’s idea of “new emerging forces” (NEFOS) conference in Jakarta, as the contestant of United Nations (UN) which was dominated by two “old forces” like USA and Soviet Union. As this conference never actually happened, it also functioned as a gimmick or tricks to shift the everyday attention from the poor economic performance all over the country.

           The close relation with People’s Republic of China, that Soekarno expressed as Jakarta-Peking axis, also gave way PKI to support the idea of The Fifth Forces by Soekarno, which put them in an indirect dispute with the Army. In this situation, the Navy and Air Force mostly stood behind Soekarno, until the post-aborted September 30^th Movement changed everything (Crouch, 1999: 52-71).

7.2. Codes and Signs in the Comic-Strip

The comic-strip series The Crazy Family (Keluarga Miring) published from the end of 1963 to 1964, when No.12, the last one, noted the permit date on August 1964. The first notation of the obligatory permit is from No.7, and never had before, that could also read as an escalation of the tension in political circumstances. 

        These samples chosen to show how the ideology worked, in a strategy to give public the knowledge, of what was especially wrong from the other ideology in the everyday life. The signs and code, visual and verbal, that are regarded as a representation of an ideology could divided in groups like below:

7.2.1. Fashion as the Cause

Any kind of the latest fashion from the Western world in the 1960s became the source of humiliation: jèngki or tight pants, rok sepan or tight-fitting skirt, “You-can-see” style or sleeveless dress, gondrong or long hair, sasak or bouffant hairdo, off-shoulder skirt, and high heels shoes.

Beside clothes, music like ngak-ngik-ngok (jangling and clanking music = rock ‘n roll), dancing style like the twist, that actually were popular culture, were also placed as the cause to be insulted as harsh as possible. Implicit or explicit, the Western fashion as the representation of ideology (capitalism, liberalism, democracy) is accused as an infection for the society. 

          As the hidden ideology in play came from PKI (Marxism-Leninism), the target of aggression was not only Western fashion style, but also the traditional outfit, which could be regarded to represent feudalism, a regular target of the class struggle. In the strip “Sakarat” (“Pathetic”), the representation of these two “old forces” simply fights each other.

7.2.2. Poetical Dictions from the Street

The language used by the strip is a juxtaposition of words that are often used in the everyday life with the new accentuation, depending on the context of the ideological struggle. The verbal texts in the strips absorb the popular terms that are used in everyday discourses, from fashion to politics, which were poetically twisted to the one side of political interest: to discredit Western culture as taken came from UK and USA, when at the same time there also a popular political slogan:

Inggris kita linggis
Amerika kita seterika

(We crowbarred England
We ironed America)

 What became poetic here was the construction of words from many sources of language and accent, as could be investigated again from “Sakarat” (“Pathetic”):

Although there was more than one language, like English, Betawi, Javanese, Indonesia, Dutch, and one written sound (“wan” for “one”). Combined with the sequential pictures, it flows smoothly for Indonesian ears as a unified parody to disparage Western culture. The kind of play with words like “monkey” and “donkey” to mention “yankee”, or “beetle” for the famous The Beatles, mostly used in the strips, not only to play with similar sound, but to play it thematically. Familiar and also political titles, like “Subversip” (Subversive), “GANEFO Funding”, “NEFOS”, and “Katok Djengkol” (“Katok” = Pants; Djengkol, from Djèngki = sound played of Yankee, tight pants; djéngkol itself is a smelly dish).

In this strip, the important choice of word is “modern”. Bagor who wears the very tight and short pants said that, “The pants are the most modern.” Petruk said, “It’s crazy” and Garing said, “Djengkol”. While leaving the boys, Bagor comments, “So-and-so stupid.” But in school, Petruk the teacher sent Bagor home to change his pants, because when the hidden pants show his thigh, it breaks the ethics. The teacher as the standard of normality has his sayings, to counter the representation of “the most modern” ideology from the West.

7.2.3. The Standard of Normality

In the strip, Petruk and Gareng wear the latest fashion, but people see it as a bad scenery. When these two fashionistas realize this, they blame each other’s look as the cause, until Bagong the police man arrest them, while people on the street laugh and comment, “… that is the payment to wear the pathetic fashion.” Actually, the translation of sakarat is “dying” or “to be in agony”, but the intended meaning is deadly pathetic.

        Therefore, the police, with teacher and doctor, along the way of these comic-strips samples of The Crazy Family, became the profession which is given the sacred role to maintain the standard of morality. It was not important when the roles of each of the panakawan often change each other, what more important is the profession as they symbolically represent the moral values, science, and the state. This kind of representation became a legitimation.

7.2.4. Gender Problem: The Strength and Weakness of Women.

The strip with the title “The Weak Gender” (“Kaum Lemah”) narrates the physical power of a woman when she catches a pickpocket and brings it to the police station. The idea seems like an empowerment of women, but as this is a humor narrative, the victim to make fun is not the pickpocket, because the surprise is between the title and the woman, which from the physical and the action is not weak at all.

       Making fun on the physical, to be strong or to be the weak, happens all the time in The Crazy Family. It can also be examined here in all the comic-strips that involve the character of woman, including this one:

In this title of “Kicked by Knee” (“Didengkul”), Petruk and Gareng are playing halma game, when they see Bagong and his spouse walk with the new fashionable wear. They make a bet, whether the distance between the knee and the lowest line of the skirt is 10 or 15 cm, while Bagong makes a comment that those two were ugly oldies. When they try to measure it with a ruler, the woman kicked them, first with her knee, then with her foot. But her action tore her tight skirt, so the pair had to go home.

        In the times of the “Old Order”, there is a measure regulation on skirt worn by women, that is a limitation of how far the below line from the knee. It is considered that an open thigh is against the manner restriction. This strip is not a direct response, but a humor that is constructed by the existence of that kind of regulation. So, the political context, of course, is about the support to the regulation, but this humor make fun with the strength and weakness of the woman who wear the skirt, and humiliated because of her own action.

        If this kind of humor is taken as common, it can also be taken as the representation of the common ethical discourse at the time. 

8. Humor as the Site of Hegemonic Struggle: Conclusion.

From the concept of subversive humor, the surveyor underlined that while powerful leaders may use humor to maintain control and repress subordinates, it is also available to those in less powerful positions as a socially acceptable means to subvert authority.

       The comic-strip series The Crazy Family was positioned altogether in this two options: first, as the voice of the sub-ordinate group in the real world facing the global capitalism, which made this series a subversive movement to contest the dominant discourse; second, as the world inside the comic-strip, where there is the power to treat the codes and signs of the dominant group outside the strip as sub-ordinate group which being repressed, without explicitly represent the opposite ideology at all. In other words, the codes and signs of the humor should be interpreted with these two-side approach to examine the hegemonic struggle.

        This hidden contesting ideology is only present after an interpretation of what is clearly repressed: Western culture which represents capitalism. That is the way how humor reveals what is hidden behind the narratives. It also means that the position of the hidden oppressor inside the strip is not really stable and established, as in the real politics world of Indonesia outside the strip, the claim of the rise of PKI is only part of reality-effect as the result of the continuous propaganda tactics.

         All the political analysis of the 1962-1965 time in Indonesia always takes attention on Soekarno—Army—PKI triangle contestation of power (Feith, 2001: 135-50), but the real power that weakened and finished PKI after the September 30^th Movement is the “religion” part of NASAKOM (“National-Religion-Communist”), with the support from the Army, that was the Muslim majority people all over the country.

        In the strategy of defining normality, the subversive action targets are the codes and signs of Western culture and traditional feudalism, and never of the representation of religion, especially Islam. This is not what happened outside The Crazy Family, where the agitation of PKI on Muslim community lashed back after September 30^th 1965 with the biggest bloodshed massacre in the history of Indonesia.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ajidarma, Seno Gumira. “Panakawan dalam Komik Indonesia” in Antara Tawa dan Bahaya: Kartun dalam Politik Humor.  2012. Jakarta: Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia.

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Lindsay, Jennifer. Klasik, Kitsch, Kontemporer: Sebuah Studi tentang Seni Pertunjukan Jawa. 1991. Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press.

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Soekarno. “Penemuan Kembali Revolusi Kita”. 1959. http:/primbondonit.blogspot.com/2011/11/arsip-nasional-pidato-bung-karno-hut-ri.html. Diakses 25 November 2012.

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Wirjosuparto, Sutjipto. Kakawin Gatotkacasraya: Tjeritera Lakon dalam Bahasa Kawi. 1960. Jakarta: Fakultas Sastra Universitas Indonesia (unpublished dissertation).

Zoetmulder, P. J. Kalangwan: Sastra Jawa Kuno Selayang Pandang. 1983. Jakarta: Djambatan.

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Keluarga Miring’s facts, most collections courtesy of Iwan Gunawan

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*SENO GUMIRA AJIDARMA, partikelir di Jakarta

All pictures © 1963-1964 LI AY POEN—KAM SENG KIOE / PT LOKA DHI SASTRA—SEMARANG