Karagiozis

June 10, 2005 8:48 AM

Karagiozis Friday Flash. WTF is Karagiozis? [via]
posted by a_day_late (10 comments total)

Um, I know it's a subtle difference but, I don't think I'd be careful and not mix up Karagoz with Karagiozis. Greeks and Turks are not exactly the on the friendliest terms as two peoples go!
posted by Pollomacho at 9:11 AM on June 10, 2005

Sorry, not to snark, interesting topic, thanks for sharing.
posted by Pollomacho at 9:13 AM on June 10, 2005

Karagiozis is a great, comedic shadow puppet that likely traces back to Javanese shadow puppets for the technique. It came about during the Turkish occupation of Greece. Karagoizis is a crude, earthy buffoon who on the one hand is little more than a creature of his appetites (sex being the greatest), yet on the other hand he manages to show great cunning in making the pashas, overlord Turks and wealthy/corrupt Greeks all come off as fools themselves. I used to love seeing shows of it when I visited Greece as a kid... reminded me of Punch & Judy to some extent. It's hard to find here now, though.
posted by the_savage_mind at 9:14 AM on June 10, 2005

did he just call the other guy "spinach face"?
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 9:19 AM on June 10, 2005

Pollomacho, thanks for the clarification and link. No snark taken.
posted by a_day_late at 9:20 AM on June 10, 2005

Every legend has an arise...
posted by Specklet at 11:12 AM on June 10, 2005

Was he speaking Arabic or Greek? I assumed it was Arabic but then I realized that I don't hear a lot of Greek, so I can't really be sure.
posted by Citizen Premier at 4:05 PM on June 10, 2005

Was he speaking Arabic or Greek?
Definitely not Greek. I assume it's Turkish.
posted by a_day_late at 6:44 PM on June 10, 2005

a_day_late, this is a great great link (I am talking about the first one). The language is turkish. I adore karagiozi in greek and I found the turkish one just as adorable. The characters are very similar to the greek karagiozi characters but not exactly the same. As your second link explains, karagiozi came to us in Greece with the Ottomans and to them from the deepest parts of Anatolia. However, the greeks adopted it to depict their everyday life. A lot of the slang of my parents' time definitely came (or maybe found its way in?) karagiozi verses...
posted by carmina at 8:25 PM on June 10, 2005

carmina, I'm glad you liked it. I did as well, and I think it's a very interesting and clever way of connecting modern technology and phenomena (flash, internet chat rooms, etc.) to an old art form.
posted by a_day_late at 4:44 AM on June 11, 2005