The Comedy Stylings of Tamriel, part one: The Altmer

by Aryn Sarnath, Bard's College alumni and hanger-on

There are those who call comedy a universal language. While it is true that comedy tends to have some constants across the wildly differing cultures of Tamriel, such as subverting expectations and using clever wordplay, there is much that varies from land to land. In this chapter, we will examine the Altmer of the Aldmeri Dominion's unqiue spin on comedy .

While there are many who would say that the Altmer have no sense of humor at all, such a view is based on recent political tension, as the Altmer have a long, rich history of using laughter to bring their people closer together. Its certainly true that their humor is rooted in different factors, however;Whereas comedy in Elsweyr would be focused on the calm, relaxed salt-of-the-nirnroot working cat, Altmeri humor tends to focus on absurd, ignorant, inefficient workers portrayed unsympathetically, often of other races.
"A Nord Smith is working on a warm day in Cyrodiil, when he receives an order from the Legion general; 500 steel boots are needed in 3 days. The Nord begins working, taking regular breaks and finishes in 4 days. The Legion general is disappointed, but is at least happy to have the armor ready--until he sees rows of 500 left boots."

Altmeri humor tends to portray other races as less intelligent or hardworking, but even they have a sense of humor about themselves. Its often the case that Thalmor dissidents and defectors tell jokes casting the harshness of the Dominion in a comedic light.

"An older Altmer wishes to be thrown into prison to reunite with his incarcerated wife; First, he tries to steal bread from the state owned food lines, but he is let off because the workers know the pain of hunger. Then, he goes to steal the books "The Talos Mistake" and "The Dragon that Failed", the Thalmor 'official story' of the Oblivion Crisis, but the librarians are all too happy to get rid of those works. Finally, he goes for drastic measures, marches into the local Thalmor Council hall, and shouts out "Down with the Thalmor! Death to the Dominion!" And a Justiciar stands, staring the old man down. "You fool! " he shouted. "Could you imagine what would happen to you if any of us were true Thalmor believers?!

That joke, while longer, shows the disparity between Dominion-Altmer and the expats; to the Dominion, the world is filled with foolish, incompetents that couldn't find their ear tips with a map, and the dissidents and expats joke of a repressive,farcical regime where nothing seems to follow a sense of logic.

I hope that you, dear reader, have gleaned a better understanding of the Altmer through this slice of their humor, and thus, a slice of their mentality.