Tales of not-so-humorous-Juha

The more stories I read about Juha, the more I get to know his character. Though he is a many-faced man with a myriad of different stories, some of his characteristics persist. From my perspective, I believe Juha to be selfish, cynical, and disrespectful. 

This might be purely a culture difference. Many of the stories which make him seem selfish and disrespectful center around women, the role of the wife, and marriage. In these "jokes," the woman, usually Juha's wife, is seen usually as ugly or unintelligent. For example: "Some people told Juha his wife had lost her brains. He thought for a few moments. 'She doesn't have any brains,' he said finally. 'Let me think now, what might she have lost?'" (page 45) There are a lot of stories like this one that are demeaning and disrespectful towards women. Again, this might just be attributed to the culture differences between the Eastern and Western worlds. Women in the Middle East barely exist in the eyes of men. Though women in the West are mocked by men to a certain degree, this humor is often harmless, and even girls laugh at "women should be in the kitchen" or "women are bad drivers" jokes. I laugh at them, because I know they are harmless. In contrast, women in the Middle East lack rights and are forced into submission, so the jokes in this context seem malicious. 

Juha also seems incredibly cynical. "Juha recounted: 'A friend ask me once: 'Why not marry, Juha?' 'I'd divorce my own self,' I told him, 'if only I could.''" (page 47) He is always assuming the worst of the world and the people in it. "'How long,' someone asked him, 'will people go on being born and dying?' 'Until hell's full,' Juha replied." (page 52) Juha holds a negative view of the universe. At first, I thought Juha to be more of a scholar and giver of wisdom, but these stories show him in a darker light. Juha has many stories which relate to different kinds of people, and these cynical views relate more to pessimists. 
 
Another characteristic that stands out to me is Juha's desire to always one-up everyone else. In these stories, he reminds me of Kristen Wiig's one-upper character named Penelope on SNL. Penelope always has to be better, smarter, dumber, faster, slower, richer, poorer... whatever one person says, she amplifies it. This is what Juha does in his stories. He is always trying to out-do people. 

Finally, most of Juha's stories make jokes or bring around humor at the expense of others. This is a common type of humor, but it isn't an innocent one. Many scholars have remarked that it is the only type of humor - and one would certainly think so after reading these tales. Even when Juha isn't mocking someone else, he is mocking himself. That being said, I don't find these tales funny or even relatable, in part due to the cultural differences and in part due to the type of humor portrayed.