Ammunition, not a ride: Humor, human geography, and the fragile absurdities of power

Abstract

In this author's response, I close this forum on the spatiality and political utility of humor by responding to a superb set of critical commentaries – for which I am extremely grateful – in three parts, with the sobering contemporary reality of the comedian-president facing down a brutal invasion serving as a critical, conjunctural point of entry. First, humor can be, as the commentators highlight in different ways, extremely serious business. Second, context matters. And, third, there's a great deal more work to be done. In each of these areas, I respond to some of the many significant issues and questions raised by the commentators that remain for the study of humor, both within geography and as a matter of interdisciplinary inquiry.