This study argues that the ethnic Laz in Turkey resort to irony, humor and mockery to cope with and negotiate the stereotypes, ethnic humor and mockery they encounter in their interactions with outsiders. The trope of irony, humor and mockery have enabled the Laz to navigate the national and regional hierarchies and reproduce their symbolic boundaries regardless of the common and ardent appropriation of Turkishness. In so doing, the Laz can more subtly challenge the official ideology of uniformity. While the public use of Lazuri is still considered a threat to the negotiated boundaries of Lazness, new instruments present creative displays of their ethnic capital which do not contradict present day principles of Turkish nationalism, and offer a legitimate sharing of intimacy without embar-rassment. The Laz, like other non-Turkish Muslim peoples of the Black Sea region, abandoned their politically threatening ethnic distinctions, appropriated the capital of Turkishness through their performances, and coped with mockery and stigma by ironizing differences and negotiating, trivializing or selectively appropriating the stereotypes imposed upon them. Ironically, they have “out-performed” ethnic Turks in certain ways, in their search for acceptance as Turks, achieving upward mobility and avoiding forms of stigmatization.Prispevek prikazuje, kako etnični Lazijci v Turčiji stereotipe, etnični humor in zasmehovanje, na katere naletijo v interakciji z nečlani svoje skupnosti, premagujejo z ironijo, humorjem in norčevanjem. S temi besednimi figurami se Lazijci uspešno prebijajo skozi regionalno in državno hierarhijo ter kljub splošno razširjenemu in vnetemu usvajanju turške identitete poustvarjajo svoje simbolične meje, s čimer na bolj pretanjen način izpodbijajo uradno ideologijo enakosti in enotnosti. Medtem ko javna raba lazijščine še vedno velja za grožnjo sprejetim mejam lazijske identitete, se skozi ta nova jezikovna sredstva ustvarjalno izraža etnični kapital lazijskega ljudstva, ki ni v nasprotju s sodobnimi načeli turškega nacionalizma in ponuja možnost pristne intimnosti brez zadrege. Lazijci so se, tako kot druga neturška muslimanska ljudstva iz črnomorske regije, odrekli svoji politično ogrožajoči etnični drugačnosti, s svojim delovanjem so prevzeli kapital turštva, posmehu in družbeni zaznamovanosti pa se zoperstavljajo z ironiziranjem razlik ter s trivializiranjem ali selektivnim usvajanjem stereotipnih vlog, ki so jim bile vsiljene. Ironija je, da so v želji, da bi bili sprejeti kot Turki, v določenih pogledih etnične Turke prekosili, saj se uspešno vzpenjajo po družbeni lestvici in izogibajo nekaterim oblikam stigmatizacije
