Anyone who has ever been to Iran is always struck by the Persian language. Imaginative, lively, full of wit, it is admired by foreigners. And if you happen to visit Iran, then no matter who you talk to from the locals, you will certainly hear a figurative speech in response, interspersed with proverbs, sayings, apt comparisons, jokes, anecdotes.

E. A. Schwartz

The concept of "folk laughter culture" was first introduced into scientific usage by M. M. Bakhtin [Bakhtin, 1965] and covered three main types of forms: ritual and entertainment, verbal oral and laughter written works in the native language, as well as various forms and genres of familiar-area speech. The future fate of the term did not develop in the best way, especially in linguistics. The phenomenon of folk laughter was given the status of a cultural vestige or exotic, and its linguistic manifestations were recognized as marginal. It was exclusively about the emotional and expressive coloring of texts, their "special" modality. However, the problem of laughter culture as a different semiotic and linguistic reality has not been independently considered.1

The study of Persian laughter culture is carried out by Iranian studies as a set of complementary scientific branches designed to give a complete picture of various aspects of the life of the Iranian peoples, including the Persians. Iranian studies has accumulated a huge amount of theoretical knowledge and practical information about the Persian folk comic. This is primarily due to the tireless and dedicated work of such scientists as V. A. Zhukovsky, Yu. N. Marr, R. A. Galunov, E. E. Bertels, G. K. Kryzhitsky, E. A. Schwartz, J. H. Dorry, and others. However, most of the works on the Iranian folk-laughter culture are in the mainstream of folklore studies and literary studies, but to a much lesser extent they deal with the issues of the Persian language that "serves" the laughter culture, genres and genre-speech forms of everyday everyday communication of Iranians. The article attempts to fill this gap in part2.

The first thing that catches your eye in dealing with Iranians is their natural optimism, the unfading hope for a better life. But the soul of a Persian is revealed only if there is trust, if he feels that he is being spoken in the same language, Sec.-

1 An exception can be considered the already mentioned work of M. M. Bakhtin, as well as the works of D. S. Likhachev devoted to Russian folk laughter culture.

2 For more complete information about the linguistic features of Persian folk comics, see our monograph [Bondarenko, 2008].

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they determine its values. That's when the speech comfort comes, which the Iranians themselves habitually call khodemuni. Russian Iranist E. E. Bertels describes the character of Iranians as follows: "The same inquisitiveness of mind, bold, unbridled flight of imagination, inclination to solve the deepest problems of the universe - in short, all the qualities that the cultural peoples of Europe are proud of are also inherent in Iranians. Someone called the Persians the "Frenchmen" of the East... but, no offense will be taken to the "oldest" cultural nation, the Persians have many advantages that the French have never been distinguished by... " [Bertels, 1988, p. 472]. The peculiarity of the national character of Iranians was noted not only by professional orientalists-Iranists. Travel notes of travelers, observations of foreigners who visited Persia, are not inferior in information content to the most serious scientific studies on ethnic psychology. James Morier's book "The Adventures of Haji Baba of Isfahan"is a textbook on the Iranian national character. The Englishman admires Iran and the Iranians, calling this country "a fabulous place of the Middle East", "the parent of sweet-sounding poets", "the cradle of nobility and humanity", "a beneficial source of traditions of the peoples of the East". At the same time, Morier, while remaining completely objective, also notices the negative features of the national character of Iranians (Morier, 1989). Having penetrated into the holy of holies-the people's soul, highlighting its background without embellishment, the author forced the Iranians to admit that the European "saw through" them:It is noteworthy that Iranians themselves recognize negative traits of character, such as self-love, criticism of foreigners, cunning, hypocrisy, ostentatious piety. Evidence of this can be found in the works of classics of Persian literature, for example, "Our Iranian character" [1992 ' 1966 ] and "Someone was, someone was not" [1941 ] by Mohammad-Ali Jamal-Zade. But we will return to the Persian laughter literature later.

We will start by clarifying the concept of culture and folk laughter culture in particular. The ontological-essentially existential-view of human existence gives reason to believe that any life-affirming act and purposeful activity of consciousness is a cultural act. The boundaries between Nature and Culture are permeable. A person, coming from the state of pure biological cash, passes into the state of an awakening, active, creative being. The phenomenon of culture manifests itself in this sudden indifference to one's own existence.

Extrapolation of the concept of culture to diverse and heterogeneous laughter manifestations leads us to the following conclusion. Folk laughter culture is a variety of human behavioral manifestations, the constitutive element of which is hedonism of various shades, intensity, external expression and motivation. The very states of experiencing one or another shade of hedonism in relation to a specific situation of being are conventionally designated by the mode [Bondarenko, 2008, p.77]. The laughter mode is the marker that allows us to attribute a particular text to a specific laughter culture. The concept of the laughter mode seems to us to be fundamental in the analysis of psychotechnics and linguistic means of expressing various states of hedonism. But this will be discussed a little later. First, you need to structure all the products of folk laughter culture. In the operating system-

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The classification is based on the genre principle proposed by M. M. Bakhtin [Bakhtin, 2000, p. 249-298], meaning that life itself is "woven" from diverse, but largely typical situations of speech behavior. Such typical situations, which organically involve the experience of one or another shade of pleasure, form the genres of laughter culture. Genres, in turn, dictate the production of relevant texts, speech forms, and typical utterances.

We have reduced all the variety of manifestations of folk comics of Iranians to two large genre groups, namely, the genres of everyday communication and the genres of mass aesthetic creativity. These groups correspond to two modes of operation of consciousness. In everyday life, a person is trapped in a communicative situation, in a state of ethical inclusion. On the contrary, aesthetic activity implies overcoming the utilitarianism of life, looking at things as if from the outside, awakening creative potentials, creativity.

Let's move on to a closer look at the Iranian folk laughter culture. Empirical observations suggest a well-defined hierarchy of units of analysis: word level → laughing idioms (bozhba, comic pawns, oaths, curses) → Persian slang, parodies, travesties → word game → genre transpositions → tongue twisters, riddles and logogriffs → funny proverbs and sayings → jokes → coherent humorous story → Persian folk theater. The atmosphere of familiar communication, the absence of restraining limits of decency and etiquette and, as a result, internal censorship of expression are conditions that create favorable conditions for the unhindered and complete self-expression of Iranians and the disclosure of their creative abilities. The consciousness that experiences such an attitude is attuned to the free enjoyment of all possible sources. This genre group is characterized by vulgarization and coarsening of communication, violation of taboos on expressions about sex, natural functions, and the material and physical bottom of a person. A familiar, relaxed communication environment leads to vulgarization of speech. Vulgarisms, curses and curses, oaths and mortgages, obscene language, etc. are used. All of these are the individual's own, familiar means of expression, borrowed by him in the collective and serving this individual's worldview.

Ritual curses, blasphemy, spoiling, and laughing idioms are widely used in the speech of Iranians. Here are just a few examples: "Yes will carry away (erase) God will remove you from the face of the earth!"; syn.: or " may God kill you!"," may God grant that you may die!"," May God kill you!", " May you die!; Shut up!; Disappear! "(dosl. "pass out!")

"A greedy man, the son of a father who burned in hell! God damn you! May the leprosy strike your tongue! May you be tongue-tied for the rest of your life! Are you sick?"! "; "Go to hell with someone! "(add. " to be taken away by the person washing the deceased!");

"Eating dog food! Into the black hell! To the black grave! At night, so that your eyes do not close! I'll sleep barefoot at night! Crows all dress in mourning (black) out of grief! It was as if the wind had blown him away! On so-and-so! On one side of it!"

An example of a funny nomination is Persian slang. Slang, argot, or jargon are terms that cover thesauri of a particular social, age, or professional group. Slang in its ontological specifics is like a secret language, and those who speak it are like a collective of "initiates". This subculture is widely used in the youth environment of Iran, in the speech usage of prisoners, workers, etc.

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employees. Such an area of distribution allows us to draw a conclusion about the topics that slang serves. Argotization of Persian speech obeys the universal laws of slang origin in the speech culture of any nation-objects and phenomena are given second, "funny" names-finding a laugh feature with subsequent euphemization based on external similarity: bedside lamp "witness of the incident" ; finding a laugh function: indoor slippers "armored personnel carrier"; detection in one form of sound other: the ship " discernment "[tash-his → tһesh (its bottom) his ast (raw; wet)]; detection of a significant part in the word structure: Afghanistan "mourning ceremony" [фfgan (moan, cry)]; meaningful consonance: the toiletis"a restless place", not "a place to rest".

In some cases, slang, ceasing to be exclusively an attribute of a subculture, expands the boundaries of use and becomes part of the national thesaurus. There is a kind of laughing aspectification of the world. Creative consciousness notices precisely the funny aspects of the existence of a particular cultural phenomenon, i.e. it looks at the subject from a playful point of view. The arsenal of technical means of expression is noticeably diverse. Here is an example of how Iranians give their brothers nicknames and nicknames. A ludicrous effect in the nomination is achieved by comparing or likening an object to animals, and assigning derogatory characteristics to the object:

Modern Iran is a multinational country. Each ethnic group that inhabits it differs not only in its way of life, but also in its language practice. Since the metropolitan dialect is taken as a role model, all provincial dialects are evaluated a priori for compliance with the colloquial norm. Funny, from the point of view of Teherans, is the speech of the Isfagans with their "tsekanem", Ardebiltsy with their rough notes, Lurs, who are content with simplified forms: "Znam, what soul is your master, I want to know what is your job!": Lur once asked a policeman: "Who are you? professions?" - Answered: "Police officer (ajan-am)". Lur, losing patience and pointing to the uniform of a policeman: "Yes, I know that you are a soul-master (ajan-screed from agajan, addresses in the Lur dialect)."

As we can see, the mockery targets not only the character traits and behavior of various ethnic groups in Iran, but also parodies the features of their provincial dialect: "Some Shiraz people have an unusual habit of expressing themselves during the war.

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a conversation. Sometimes they repeat words, while slightly modifying the second member of the pair. For example, when they want to ask :" Have you read this book?", they say: "Have you read this migu book?". They say that once a Shiraz man went to Tehran. The Teheran asked him why, for example, in Shiraz luk-luk-muk, taxi-taxi-maxi. The Shirazian laughed and replied: "Buddy, that's what only the stupid-stupid and hooligans-hooligans say!" The game interpretation of being consists in overcoming the utilitarianism of life and is expressed in the manifestation of the creative abilities of the participants in communication. Game creativity closely borders on aesthetic creativity, but it does not pass into it, since the interlocutors are still within the framework of a specific communicative situation. Their playfulness is objective and does not reach the level of detached contemplation.

Less ritualistic and stereotypical are the genres of familiar communication, which presuppose freedom in choosing the means of expression. As we noted earlier, Iranians are naturally witty and resourceful. Philosophers and poets in life, they are extremely observant and, as a result, are able to perceive the manifestations of reality in a multidimensional way, with a rich palette of associations. The word game is based on various kinds of consonances, deliberate misunderstanding, and turning out words. In this sense, the matchmaking scene clearly illustrated by Ahmad Shamlu in the Street Book [405 '1998'] is significant. The ritual and festive event is known as the "games of Mother Gholam Hosseini". This example is of considerable interest from both a linguistic and cultural point of view: "The door opens wide with a bang, and Gholam Hosseini limps inside (drool seeps through the corners of his mouth, "goods" hang on his head and shoulders) and in a rough, uncouth voice begins to advertise his products to the tune of street music. merchants: "Sipichki, kirzinka, mousetrap... kaltushka, tripod, kirzinka, mouse. Creativity sometimes reaches a deliberate playing out, words, phrases and whole expressions are traversed. We are talking about puns. Puns form a significant layer of the laughing thesaurus of Iranians: consonance with foreign words "Mr. Jimi Carter", i.e. constantly running away from work ("Jim Shodan" - to get away) and dodging work ("ter zadan"); breaking words into parts that receive independent meanings, as well as intra-phraseological travesties " raise the smell of stink"- travesty from "bring the smell of ambergris"; an appeal to one or another significant part of the word - "The ostrich was told to "fly". "I said,' I am a camel.' - They said "then pull the load". "I said,' I'm a chicken.' Ostrich in Farsi literally means "camelkuritsa"."

Sometimes wordplay becomes the product of individual creativity, ingenuity, and natural ingenuity: "We once asked the late Rashed (may the mercy of Allah be upon him) whether he or some other wise man spoke better. The deceased deigned to say, ' He speaks well, and I speak well (correctly).'" Another example:

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- "Once upon a time, the Commander of the faithful (peace be upon him!) he was walking along the road with the tall Omar and Abubakr walking to his right and left. One of the righteous caliphs jokingly said (in Arabic): "You are between us like the letter Nun in the word lana "(translated from Arabic - "with us, for us"). Imam Ali replied (in Arabic): "If I were not among you, then you would also not be!"" The word consists of three letters, whose mutual arrangement resembles a short man surrounded by giants. Therefore, the reference to the middle letter is a hidden hint of the humble place of a person in comparison with his interlocutors. Witty parry is achieved by removing the letter, which leaves the word " no " - a hint of the non-existence of wits.

Genre transpositions in both verse and prose form are of particular interest to laughter poetics. Moreover, transposition can occur both within one genre (semantic transposition, or deception of expectations), and between two or more genres (intergenre interference). An example of the vulgarization of the theological genre of prayer: An Arab was once asked: "Recite Surah" Never happened." "How can I recite a surah that never happened?!""Of course, the poetic form increases the expressiveness of the statement: - No, just look at this world! "Every horsefly thinks he's an emir!"

Recognized masterpieces of humorous poetry in Iran are the poems of Obeid Zakani, Rouhani, Iraj Mirza and others. Example: - " You don't have time to say that you are not a donkey, as you will be loaded to the most I don't want!". A wit might quote Rouhani for emphasis: "As the city's faqih famously said when he admonished the donkey that anyone who becomes an ass will immediately be saddled!" The moral of this fable is that you have only to give slack in character - so immediately you will be known at everyone's beck and call. For comparison, the popular image of the donkey, the personification of submission and ungrateful work, is used. Traditional endings of fairy tales are also played out: - instead of the usual ending "we went up - there was yogurt, we went down-and there was doug (a soft drink made from downed sour milk mixed with water or whey), and our fairy tale was a lie" children are told: "the fairy tale came to its end, but the crow did not reach the end of the story. your nest", or adults to make them laugh: "our fairy tale is over, my uncle and the cat got married." Proverbs and sayings are also played out, for example, instead of "a good year is judged by spring "they say '"a good month is judged by salary". Instead of "if you want to die, go to Gilan", they say "if you want to die, go to a doctor's appointment". Unlike everyday communication, which pursues exclusively utilitarian goals, aesthetic activity involves a distraction from the routine of life, a way out

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beyond the scope of the subject situation and a detached assessment (scientific, philosophical, game) of various moments of communication. Nameless folk aesthetic art shows a lot of examples of such aesthetic activities: proverbs, sayings, riddles, lullabies, beliefs, interpretation of dreams, predictions of the future, fairy tales, poetry competitions, magic tricks, theatrical performances, folk romances. Joking tasks that Iranians ask each other during their leisure hours are widely used in the speech of Iranians. In Persian, they are called logz , moamma chistan , with the only difference that logz most often refers to logogriffs, i.e. riddles on names, riddles based on a literal understanding of the idiom: "Someone in the company asked: "Tell me, what breaks down when you mention it?" (They all looked thoughtful.) "It's' silence.' And here is an example of a logogriff: - " If you remove the eye from the candle of your beauty and insert the beginning of the spear tip instead of the eye, we get?.. - Sun (female name)": Eye in Arabic (in this case the letter "ein"). If you remove it from the word candle and add " sin " (the first letter of the word "spear point" senan), then we get " sun " and mars. As we can see, the logogriff technique is reduced to activating the imagination, verbal transformation and letter permutation.

Exercises for diction and articulation training, i.e. for overcoming psychophysiological difficulties, also include an element of the game: [chai dag ' dai chag] (tea is hot, uncle fat); [koshtam shepesh-e shepeshkosh-e sheshpa-ra] (I nailed a nasty louse with six legs); [a-Sheikh Shamsoddin Shams abadi tu shamsabad se sob-e seshambe se shishe sharab sar keshid] (Mr. Sheikh Shamsoddin named Shams Abadi in the city of Shamsabad emptied three bottles of wine in three Tuesday mornings); [sarbaz-i sar-e bazi-e sorsorebazi sar-e sarbaz-ira shekast] (a soldier smashed another soldier's head on an ice slide.)

The latife genre is not exactly what we used to call a joke. Latife is located somewhere between a fairy tale by kesse and a joke (anecdote). Latife, as a rule, is a short funny and moralizing story with its own moral, summarized in the end. Thus, the Persian anecdote is more like a fable. Persian latifs often ridicule people's negative character traits, such as lust, gluttony, greed, stupidity, nationality, and religion. A special case of ridicule can be definitely considered ridiculing the features of numerous nationalities inhabiting Iran. The most powerful incentive to ridicule human shortcomings is its "otherness", belonging to a different ethnic group, dissimilarity in appearance, demeanor, language, etc.Iran is a multi - ethnic state where the peoples inhabiting it, as well as the inhabitants of the provinces, have largely preserved their identity, in other words, all the same dissimilarity. The motives of ridicule can be either tendentious, i.e. deliberate humiliation, or purely recreational-another source of pleasure: "Kazvinets lost his ring at home, and was looking for it on the street - the house is dark!". - "A Qazvin resident brought home meat and said to his wife:"If you want to name it (meat), say eggplant, so that the cat does not guess." - :

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Unfortunately, the volume of the article does not allow us to list all the popular topics of jokes, among which specific to the Persians are jokes about the prophets, Shahs (Anushirvan), wazirs, imams, kings (Alexander the Great, Solomon), sages (Ibn Sina), truth-tellers and court jesters (Mullah Nasrudin, Daho, Juha, Bohlul, Kyarime Shirey) [Dorry, 1971, p. 71], anecdotes about animals endowed with human traits, etc.

Iranians in situations of idle, informal speech communication often exchange anecdotes, jokes, invented stories, humorous stories. Often gatherings are held, where the mass entertainer is always in the center of attention, the soul of Majlesar's company.Sometimes one phrase-quote is enough for him-and an instant association leads to a laughing catharsis, general fun. Example: - " But I stepped over the line!": a mockery of a coward who tries to save face with his excuses. The laugh effect is greatly enhanced if the Iranian person is familiar with the joke, the source of this statement: "Once a thief broke into someone else's house and saw there a frightened peasant and his beautiful wife. He dragged the man into a corner and drew a line around him with his dagger and threatened him: "If you step over it, I'll rip your belly open." Then he took the woman's hand and led her into the bedroom. After the thief did his dirty work with the peasant's wife, took all the valuables and retreated, the wife returned to the courtyard and saw her husband still standing in the outlined circle. I shouted in disbelief: "Hey, you coward! Your wife is being dishonored before your eyes - and where is your manhood?" "Who? Am I a coward?! While that guy was in bed with you, I stepped over the line a few times!"

Of course, without knowing the background of the utterance, it is impossible to fully understand its expressive, and therefore semantic load. The source of positive emotions in the story is a scene of sexual aggression against the wife against the background of her husband's complete lack of will. The theme of cuckold husbands is extremely popular in the popular culture of Iranians. In general, folklore sources on Iranian folk laughter are extremely rich. In Persian literature, there is a whole direction - collecting, or as the Iranians themselves call it, motafarrekenevisi or qashqul3 The most popular among ordinary Iranian people avamm is Qashqul Obeid Zakani 4 and the" Book of the Street " by Ahmad Sham-

Kyashkul 3 - a large bowl for collecting alms, hollowed out of coconut or made of wood, or a beggar's bag, knapsack. And since the contents of the kyashkul were very diverse (from coins to meager provisions), collections of nameless anecdotes, quotations from famous poets, philosophical maxims, proverbs and sayings, moral treatises, etc. began to be called kyashkul.

4 Obeid Zakani (R. approx. late 13th century, died between 1366 and 1370), Persian satirist. He came from an Arab noble but impoverished family. For some time he was in the civil service, and later he was engaged exclusively in literary work. Author of the satirical treatise " The Morality of the aristocracy "(1340), in which he criticized the moral foundations of the nobility and nobles, the parody treatise "One Hundred Councils" (1349), the fairy tale in verse "Mouse and Cat", ridiculing the clergy and the nobility, the collection of funny stories-jokes "The book that Pleases the heart".

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lu 5. Specific to the Iranian folk laughter culture can be considered the genre of divination estehare. Iranians read fortune-telling from the Koran, rosary beads, a collection of verses Hafez 6, etc.Divination, as a rule, causes Iranians to feel elated with anticipation of the solution, accompanied by positive emotions. No less popular are all kinds of astrological forecasts of talebini, which often cause lively discussions among family and friends.

The uniqueness of the current stage of development of the Persian language lies in the fact that the language of professional writers is very close to the folk language of Iranians both in terms of topics and means of expression. If we do not take into account the medieval court poetry, as well as the tendencies towards Arabization and epistolarity of the style of that time, then the virtuosos of the pen at all times sought to express themselves in a language that is understandable and, most importantly, close to the common people. It is here that the popularity of works containing folk satire, Ferdowsi's Shahnameh (c. 942 - 1034), Suzani's Divan (unknown - 1167 or 1174), Moulavi's Masnavi (1208 - 1274), Saadi's Golestan and Bustan (unknown - approx. 1292), Hafez's Divan (early 14th century - 1390), Iraj Mirza's Aref-nameh (1874-1924), Dekhkhod's Charand-parand (c. 1880-1955), Neyran-gestan, Alawiye khanum, and Sadegh Hedayat's Vaghwagsahab (1902-1951)," Yeki bud yeki nabud " by Mohammad Ali Jamal-Zade (1892 - 1996). In Iran, active lexicographic work is being carried out, primarily on the collection of folklore material, dictionaries and anthologies of colloquial Farsi are being compiled, for example," Dictionary of Modern Folk Words " by Mansur Servat and the multi-volume encyclopedia of speech folklore "Book of the Street" by Ahmad Shamlu. Humorous newspapers and magazines are published regularly and in large print runs. One of the most popular laughter publications in modern Iran is undoubtedly "Gol-agha".

From literature, we move on to theatrical and spectacular, area forms of folk laughter culture. And here, of course, it is impossible not to mention the traditional Persian theater [Galunov, 1929, 1936; Kryzhitsky, 1927]. The Persian folk theater has its own deep traditions. For many centuries, uncensored street art has been almost the only way to vent the discontent of ordinary Iranians with the authorities in power. The mass protest took on a playful form and exposed social inequality through practical jokes, innuendos, parodies, and other techniques. The aesthetic creativity of Iranians, polished for centuries, has acquired quite distinct genre forms. The most striking laughter theater performances can be considered the Kyarim Shirey theater, taa-ziye religious mysteries of laughter, farce performances, buffoonery, Iranian puppet theater, Rukhouzi courtyard theater, the game of the grocer or Karim Shirey theater, the Persian puppet theater and the black servant theater.

Unfortunately, at present, the traditional folk-area theater art is in decline and is being degraded. Nevertheless, pockets of the farcical and spectacular tradition are still alive in the countryside. Performances attract crowds of onlookers.

5 Ahmad Shamlu (1925-2000), Persian poet, writer, literary critic and translator, Nobel Prize winner. Shamlu is the author of several collections of poetry, both classical and modern. In Iran itself, he became known as a translator into Persian of many masterpieces of modern literature and an enthusiastic folklorist.

6 Here is an example of Hafez divination, which is extremely popular among ordinary people: which means: "Oh, Hafez from Shiraz! O you who reveal all secrets! I conjure you by your book, by the soul of your Shahnabat! Tell me what I made a wish for, God forbid, for the good of Ali no!". Shahnabat is a crystal sugar cube, a traditional Persian delicacy. We believe that this metaphor refers to Hafez's beloved, his contemporary poetess Jahan-Molk Khatun, known not only for her poems, but also for her beautiful appearance and kind disposition.

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Ordinary people are attracted not only by the theatrical entourage, but also by the actors ' uncensored speech, which is replete with comic mortgages and oaths, rude words in vain and undisguised abuse.

Theatrical art is closely connected with another laughing subculture of streets and squares of Iran - maarekegiri. Maarekegiri attracts curious passers-by, demonstrating verbal art, showing all sorts of tricks, balancing, involving the audience in the area actions.

After the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, a new direction emerged in the folk stage art, namely the theatrical underground. Funny parodists perform at closed venues, entertain private parties, telling the public seditious jokes on the topic of the day. Radio and television are full of funny scenes from the everyday life of Iranians. For many years, the radio program "Friday Morning with you"7 with its permanent host Manouchehr Nouzari, who played the role of Mr. Molyavvan (translated from Farsi as "Multicolored"), was particularly popular among the population. Molyavvan amused the audience with his sparkling jokes. The comic effect was magnified many times every time Iranians behind funny scenes recognized themselves in the hectic and full of troubles of life.

Every year, comedies are released on the screens of Iranian cinemas, which are very popular with the audience. One of the latest movie hits can be safely called the comedy "Wedding in Iranian" directed by Hassan Fathi. Given Iran's increasing openness to the outside world, the film has become more relevant than ever. The plot is based on the romance of an American and a local beauty and the resulting conflict of cultures. Against the background of cultural contrast, the traditions and customs of Iranian society are brilliantly played out, and the matchmaking and wedding scenes have a pronounced laugh character, rich in laughter idioms.

Carnival and festive forms of folk laughter culture in Iran also have their own national and linguistic specifics [Dorri, 1971, p. 69]. The Iranian New Year, or Nowruz, which falls at the end of March, is undoubtedly the most popular holiday in modern Iran. On a nationwide radio, an announcer announces the arrival of the New Year on the day of the spring equinox, joy and jubilation come to the homes of Iranians. The saying: "O master of hearts and eyes, O master of night and day, O changerof year and fortune, change our life for a better life!" in Arabic (its Persian equivalent is given in parentheses) is recited in unison by all Iranians at the moment of the New Year. It is difficult to imagine folk festivals on New Year's holidays without the participation of the khajifiru buffoons-

7 The program was broadcast in the 90s of the last century, after which it was replaced by the program "Iranian Friday", which retained the same format.

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zov. The traditional invocation of the Iranian "Santa Claus" can be considered "Haji Firuz one day a year [sali ek ruz]" - a song that is sung by Haji Firuz, street buffoons-beggars, starting a few days before the onset of the Iranian New Year and ending a few days after the holiday. Holidays and festive events are also associated with the Iranian New Year, such as "get-out-of-home"8 sizdahbedar, kalyadovanie kashokzani, divination for the betrothed falgushistodan, chaharishmbeyesuri 9.

We gave the most general description of the language content of the Iranian laughter culture, structured it according to the genre principle, characterized specifically Iranian humor, and gave illustrative examples from the modern Persian language. The article attempts to draw the attention of the scientific community, primarily Iranians, to the problem of ethnic laughter as a cultural phenomenon. Folk humor in all its variety of genres and forms is not only an object of literary studies and folklore studies, but also a problem node of linguistics of cross-cultural communications. To understand the other and to make yourself understood - that is what humanitarian knowledge is all about. And nothing brings people together like empathy for the funny.

list of literature

Bakhtin M. M. Author and hero. To the philosophical foundations of the humanities, St. Petersburg: Azbuka Publ., 2000.
Bakhtin M. M. Creativity of Francois Rabelais and folk culture of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. JM.., 1990.

Bondarenko A.V. Teoriya i praktika narodno-smekhovoy kul'tury (na materiale sovremennogo persiskogo yazyka) [Theory and practice of folk laughter culture (based on the modern Persian language)].
Bertels E. E. Istoriya literatury i kul'tury Irana [History of Literature and Culture of Iran]. Izbrannye trudy [Selected Works], Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1988.
Galunov R. A. People's Theater of Iran // Soviet ethnography. 1936. N 4 - 5.

Galunov R. A. A few words about the prospects of collecting materials on folklore theater in Persia. l., 1929.

Dorry J. H. Iz istorii "smekhovoi kul'tury" v Irane [From the history of "Laughing Culture" in Iran]. 1971. N 6.

Kryzhitsky G. K. Exotic Theater, St. Petersburg: Academia Publ., 1927.
Likhachev D. S. Istoricheskaya poetika russkoy literatury [Historical Poetics of Russian Literature]. Laughter as a worldview, St. Petersburg: Alteya Publ., 2001.
Likhachev D. S., Panchenko A.M., Ponyrko N. V. Smekh v Drevnoi Rusi [Laughter in Ancient Russia].
Morier J. Smith The Adventures of Haji Baba from Isfahan / Translated from English by O. I. Senkovsky. Afterword by V. Braginsky, Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya literatura, 1989.

Sizdahbedar 8 is celebrated on the last day of the New Year holidays. In the official calendar of Iran, it is held as "Nature Day" and is a day off. There is a popular belief that this day, in order not to invite trouble to the devil's dozen, should be spent in nature with relatives and friends.

Chaharshambeyesuri 9 - the last Wednesday before Nowruz (Iranian New Year), when Iranians go out of town, into nature, light fires and jump over them, saying: "From you my yellowness, from me your redness!", asking the fire to take away all illnesses and adversities and grant health and well-being.

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