The Question as Disguised Teaching

Hodja frequently asked seemingly stupid questions that revealed the stupidity of accepted social arrangements: 'Why do we bury our dead with their faces toward Mecca when they cannot see?' Such questions, delivered with innocent self-deprecation, function as powerful teaching instruments. The questioner positions themselves as the ignorant one, inviting the listener to explain—which forces the listener to examine their own assumptions. Self-deprecating humor becomes pedagogically powerful when structured as genuine questions. Instead of asserting 'this belief is foolish,' you ask 'I don't understand—could you explain why we do this?' This Socratic approach through self-deprecation is less threatening and more transformative than direct criticism. In contemporary contexts, self-deprecating humor that takes question form can challenge groupthink, expose organizational nonsense, and invite collective re-examination of taken-for-granted practices without creating defensive resistance.