Irony's Potential as Subversive Strategy: A Case Study of Anti-Racist Stand-Up Comedy

Abstract

In this paper, I evaluate the potential of irony to subvert racist discourse. Irony is characterised by semantic forms that engage explicit and implicit language so as to communicate oppositional or contradictory meanings for satirical or contentious purposes. This process is complicated as meaning often remains contested between the author of a statement and its various interpreters. My analysis of the stand-up comedian Aamer Rahman's work shows how irony can be used by comedians in order to subvert dominant and exploitative discourses. In particular, I illustrate how irony provides him with a tool to evoke and simultaneously distance himself from anti-Muslim racist discourses. For white audiences with an interest in deconstructing their own complicity in racism, his comedy can function as a Critical Public Pedagogy that enables critical self-reflection.