Chapter 1. Humour in politics and the politics of humour

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors offer a working definition of political humour and summarise its main aspects as discussed in the relevant literature: the genres where political humour surfaces or dominates; the reasons why political criticism is so often encoded in humorous terms; and the (side-)effects of political humour. They also discuss the so-called “inherent ambiguity of humour”, thus explaining why political humour does not necessarily influence politics. Rather than provoking social and political change, political humour conveys criticism against the political status quo and recycles and reinforces dominant values and views on politics. The diverse sociopolitical conditions may influence who is allowed to participate in the creation and circulation of political humour and who may become its target.

“This is not a political party, this is Facebook!”: Political jokes and political (mis)trust in crisis-ridden Greece

“…In this sense, it is once again confirmed that political jokes are a momentary social disruption (through symbolically attacking persons in power) which has no lasting or radical effects but eventually reinforces the existing sociopolitical order, rather than an act of rebellion against the financial markets and agencies (cf. Billig 2005: 200-235;Davies 2011;Tsakona & Popa 2011;Tsakona 2015).…”

“…Although ever since then research on political humour has expanded to a significant extent (see among others Tsakona & Popa 2011, 2013Tsakona 2015 and references therein), political jokes do not seem to be the most popular genre of political humour among humour scholars. Other genres such as political cartoons, satirical shows (whether on TV or in the form of stand-up comedy), politicians' humour, and, more recently, Raskin (1985: 222-246) discusses jokes from both Communist and non-communist countries and further specifies their topics.…”

Negative assessments in humour: a way of doing gender

“…I use and define humour like Villy Tsakona and Diana Elena Popa (2011), as an umbrella term for phenomena related to humour: mockery, parody, ridicule satire, irony, etc. Humour is also a social deed.…”

Pragmeme of Political Humour in Selected Nigerian Political Cartoons

“…Political humour includes any humorous text that not only makes reference to politics, but achieves the goal of politics by dealing with political issues, people, processes, events, or institutions. It is known to be a communicative resource for spotting, highlighting, and attacking incongruities originating in political discourse and action (Tsakona & Popa, 2011, Chun, 2004, & Warner, 2007. These incongruities are those political shortcomings that constitute a deviation from political norms, and consequently, in view of this nonconformity, become undoubtedly source material for the media.…”