Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech Hosts Scientific Meeting to “Deconstruct” Hassan Al-Fad’s Comedic Project
Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech will hold an exceptional scientific meeting on Thursday, November 27, 2025, aiming to transcend the entertaining nature of Moroccan comedy and delve deeper into its analysis as a cultural and aesthetic discourse with profound implications. The meeting, titled “The Comedic Project of Artist Hassan Al-Fad: Converging Approaches,” features a distinguished group of researchers and academics.
This symposium is part of the vibrant scientific research dynamics at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and seeks to examine Hassan Al-Fad’s artistic experience from an academic perspective. The initiative aims to deconstruct the deep structures of comedic discourse and reveal its social, psychological, and linguistic implications, emphasizing that comedy is not merely a tool for entertainment but a cognitive act that reproduces reality through humor and critique, reflecting the transformations of taste and cultural representations in contemporary Morocco.
The inaugural session, chaired by Dr. Abdeljalil Lakrifa, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, will include speeches from the university president Dr. Bali Boukadir, the organizing committee, and a keynote address by the artist Hassan Al-Fad, who is the esteemed guest of the symposium. His presence will create a unique moment of interaction between creative experience and critical academic vision.
The scientific session, directed by critic Abdel Haq Meifrani, will be rich in diverse and intersecting approaches across different fields of knowledge. Al-Fad’s comedy will be examined through a psychological lens to understand the function of laughter as a mechanism for relief, as well as a social perspective that views his works as representations of the “margins” and a reproduction of the world from the “bottom” viewpoint.
Scholarly papers will also be presented, focusing on semiotic analysis to track the operation of signs in his famous characters like “Kabour” and “Helman,” as well as a linguistic approach that will emphasize the linguistic and lexical structure of the satirical discourse, and a cultural perspective that will examine the image of Bedouin culture, values, and religious imaginary in his works.
This symposium comes amidst a growing academic interest in comedy as a fertile research topic that reflects social transformations and tests the relationship between art, identity, and language. It presents an opportunity to value the efforts of young researchers and their contributions to developing cultural critique through modern methodologies.
The meeting will conclude with a special celebratory segment to acknowledge the artistic journey of Hassan Al-Fad and his contribution to establishing contemporary Moroccan comedy with a popular flavor and a critical perspective characterized by a distinct social and aesthetic sensibility.
