An Analysis of Kahkaha Newspaper (Year: 1875 / Issues: 1-10)

Abstract

Humor, existing since the beginning of human history, is an art that approaches events, individuals, and situations from a different perspective, entertaining people while stimulating thought. It encompasses various fields in contemporary society. One such field is literature, which encompasses every aspect of human life. Humorous writings, which find a place in almost every genre of literature, entered the realm of newspapers with the supplement of the Terakki newspaper in 1868, thus marking the beginning of humor journalism. Humorous newspapers quickly gained popularity as a means of depicting the flaws, distortions, and shortcomings of the era they lived in, and new newspapers were added over time. One of these humorous newspapers in Turkish media is Kahkaha.

Kahkaha, a humor newspaper founded by Ali Efendi, began its publication in Trabzon on March 22, 1291 according to the Rumi calendar, corresponding to April 3, 1875 in the Gregorian calendar. Kahkaha consists of a total of twenty-six issues, with all the writings in the newspaper published anonymously. The content of Kahkaha includes various genres such as cartoons, dialogues, poems, plays, news, telegrams, and advertisements. Ali Efendi frequently included unsigned articles criticizing other newspapers of the era and events in social life in Kahkaha.

This study examines Kahkaha’s content within press-literature relations, touching on humour’s emergence in newspapers. It first discusses the concept of humor, followed by humor journalism, and briefly mentions humorous newspapers observed until the beginning of Kahkaha’s publication. Then, the identity of Kahkaha newspaper is provided, its format, publication process, and content are examined, followed by the classification of texts within the first ten issues of Kahkaha. Social issues criticized by Kahkaha, newspapers, the journalistic understanding of the era, and individuals/institutions are addressed and evaluated.

Evaluation reveals that Kahkaha newspaper contains eighteen prose texts, thirty-two news articles, ten telegrams specific to Kahkaha, five advertisements, one play, three poems, one letter, and thirteen dialogues, with cartoons on the fourth page of each issue. Through these texts, Kahkaha criticized social issues, press-related issues, Güllü Agop and Gedikpaşa Theater. Contextually, Kahkaha newspaper painted a panorama of the political, social, economic, and cultural aspects of the era it was published, highlighting the influential role of Kahkaha, despite its short lifespan, within Turkish literature.