The cultural currency of a 'good' sense of humour: British comedy and new forms of distinction

Traditionally considered lowbrow art par excellence, British comedy has grown steadily in legitimacy since the 'Alternative Comedy Movement' of the early 1980s. Yet while there might be evidence of a transformation in British comic production, there is little understanding of how this has been reflected in patterns of consumption. Indeed, there is a remarkable absence of studies probing comedy taste in British cultural sociology, most notably in Bennett et al's (2009) recent and otherwise exhaustive mapping of cultural taste and participation. This paper aims to plug this gap in the literature by examining contemporary comedy taste cultures in Britain. Drawing on a large-scale survey and in-depth interviews carried out at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, it argues that comedy now represents an emerging field for the culturally privileged to activate their cultural capital resources. However, unlike previous studies on cultural capital and taste, this research finds that field-specific 'comic cultural capital' is mobilized less through taste for certain legitimate 'objects' of comedy and more through the expression of rarefied and somewhat 'disinterested'styles of comic appreciation. In short, it is 'embodied' rather than 'objectified' forms of cultural capital that largely distinguish the privileged in the field of comedy.     

Flight of the Conchords: Recontextualizing the voices of popular culture1

Folk‐comedy duo, Flight of the Conchords, have become one of New Zealand's most successful musical exports, having attracted a large international audience through their American‐produced TV series. One of their central comic devices is to stylize well‐known singers and their music. This article focuses on how Flight of the Conchords shift their phonetic style towards that of various target personas, and how they maintain their own voices as comedians in the process. An acoustic analysis compares Flight of the Conchords’ pronunciation of four vowels (kit , dress , trap , and goat) to the pronunciation of the pop singers being stylized. Both Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie manipulate their vowel production towards that of the targeted personas. They also maintain some distance from their targeted roles through a range of devices including the use of exaggerated phonetic style. Through their performances, Flight of the Conchords recontextualize and parody a range of popular cultural products, continuing the enregisterment of certain phonetic styles with the voices of well‐known characterological figures.     

Relationship based social work practice: the case for considering the centrality of humour in creating and maintaining relationships

Relationship based social work practice has received increasing attention in recent years. The use of humour has infrequently been considered in relation to social work, and humour use is a neglected aspect in examining relationships in social work. As humour conveys humanity, is grounded in our earliest attachments and in the management of emotions, the purpose of this paper is to consider how humour operates in social work relationships. Importantly humour can help facilitate relationships with service users, and become a tool to help service users, social workers and their colleagues establish relationships.     

How to Sharpen Words: Mayakovsky’s Machines of Poetic Humour

Analysis of Mayakovsky’s prose writings of the mid-1920s on the craft of satire reveals that he understood it to be a scientific discipline subject to strict cause-and-effect relationships: if the satirical treatment of a theme — any theme — is correct, then the piece will produce ‘involuntary laughter’ (neproizvol’nyi smekh). As an example, he puts forward his 1923 poem ‘Schematic of Laughter’ (Skhema smekha) — a text he claims contains no comic ideas, but only the correct satirical sharpening of discourse. As a barebones inventory of comic devices, the poem is a perfect place to begin an examination of Mayakovsky’s poetics of humour. But it is not alone; in a note to the 1925 poem ‘Shallow Philosophy in Deep Places’ (Melkaia filosofiia na glubokikh mestakh), Mayakovsky explains that it too is a ‘skeleton poem’ (stikh-skelet), just like the ‘Schematic’, and another compendium of humorous devices. Together, then, these poems represent the purest and most concentrated expression of Mayakovsky’s understanding of the mechanics of poetic humour. Sustained close reading of both poems reveals that his humorous devices, ranging from formal to narrative, all serve to establish and then deceive expectations in the reader.     

Laughing Across the Border: Radek Knapp’s Mr. Kuka’s Recommendations and Instruction Manual for Poland

The writing of Radek Knapp, a Polish-born author writing in German, is singular among the works of immigrant writers in the German-speaking countries for his nostalgic yet satirical view of Poland from the perspective of a long-time immigrant to Austria who understands both worlds well. The author, born in Warsaw in 1964 and living in Vienna since 1976, uses predominantly humoristic strategies to expose the national stereotypes that determine and undermine the contacts between Austrians, Germans, and Poles and shape the images of the foreigner in each of the countries. From this point of view, Knapp’s latest work, Gebrauchsanweisung für Polen [Instruction Manual for Poland, 2005], can be read as a work complementing his previous novel, Herrn Kukas Empfehlungen [Mr. Kuka’s Recommendations, 1999], in which, in a similarly humoristic style, he depicts the first encounters of a Polish high-school graduate with the idealized Western world.

The article concentrates on Knapp’s use of humour in the depictions of foreigners in Austria and Germany on the one hand and Poland on the other. Using humour theories based on incongruity and surprise as conditions for a humorous effect to take place, the article investigates how comic strategies are employed in Knapp’s works to create a ‘laughter community’ of readers thinking beyond and across borders.     

My life is a mess: self-deprecating relatability and collective identities in the memification of student issues

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we investigate memes about student issues. We consider the memes as expressions of a new networked student public that contain discourses that may fall outside the mainstream discourse on higher education. The paper is based on content analysis of 179 posts in the public Facebook Group ‘Student Problem Memes’, combined with a nine-month media watch and a discussion workshop with 15 students. Through self-deprecating humour, students create an inverse attention economy of competitive one-downmanship, where the goal is to display humorous failure instead of perfect appearance. Our analysis shows that students use humour to express, share, and commiserate over daily struggles, but also that the problems related to work/study balance and mental health, are experienced as a persistent feature of student living. We also analyse limitations of meme-based publics, emphasizing processes of inclusion and exclusion through specific vernaculars of visual and discursive humour where issues related to gender, race, orientation, class, and ability are sidelined in favour of relatable humour.     

Religious Rhetoric and the Comic Frame in The Simpsons

Considered by many secular and religious critics alike to be the most "religious television show" currently being aired, The Simpsons reflects a commitment to satirizing the pietistic and hypocritical elements of American religious expression, but it does not attack the bases of American religious faiths. Utilizing the Burkean rhetorical concepts of comic frames consisting of an overlapping continuum of comedy, satire, and burlesque, individual characters on the show are evaluated for their rhetorical capacities to make us laugh as well as to make us aware of the impact of religion on our society.     

The Blue Collar Comedy Tour: Southern Fried Humor in the Context of Class Society

A popular culture phenomenon of some note over the last few years has been the emergence, and substantial popular and commercial success, of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. The Tour, and related movies, books, television series and specials, and spin‐off merchandise, consists of joint appearances by four established American comics who have developed comic personas based on stereotypical ideas, jokes and representations of “blue‐collar” or “redneck” behavior and lifestyles. The success of the Tour, and its individual members, is analyzed in light of the role comedy plays in a highly stratified class society such as the United States.     

The Impact of Comedy on Racial and Ethnic Discourse

An overwhelming facet of race literature suggests that American society has entered an era of colorblindness; where instead of perpetuating racist ideology through blatant discriminatory legislation, racial differences are either understated or ignored entirely. These new racial processes are reflected in the policies of major social institutions, but also within popular culture. Yet, as made evident by the success of comedians such as Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle, stand‐up comedy challenges acceptable racial discourse, placing race in the forefront. Comedy persists as a facet of popular culture where racial difference is made apparent, yet ironically the art of comedy is usually overlooked by sociologists. What is lacking in the humor research is an understanding of how comedy creates an environment where race can be spoken about directly, and often times harshly. Through the analysis of focus groups, this study finds evidence to suggest that racial and ethnic comedy serves to both reinforce and wane racial and ethnic stereotypes, similarities, and differences. After watching stand‐up comedy clips of popular comedians, black and white respondents show both agreement and disagreement on the following: (1) the offensiveness of ethnic comedy, (2) stereotypes and perceived truths, and (3) the utility of ethnic comedy in everyday interactions. These findings are helpful in understanding how comedy serves as one of the few openly racialized facets of popular culture as well as uncovering some of the ways in which race works within the culture of a self‐proclaimed colorblind society.     

Laughing otherwise: comic-critical approaches in alternative comedy

Abstract

The origins of ‘alternative comedy’ are difficult to pinpoint, though it coincided with the rise of Thatcher as Prime Minister in 1979 – that year saw the appearance of something called ‘alternative cabaret’, a term usually associated with Tony Allen, who combined activism and comedy. The acts this article will focus on are those which took a critical approach to comedy and/or politics – ‘alternative’ comedy (or altcom), therefore, as seeming to promise change through critical awareness. This paper will discuss parody as a means of critical (dis)engagement and transformation, in relation to context, and to influences such as punk. Altcom demonstrates an apparent eschewal of approaches which rely on irony and ambiguity, in favour of more ‘direct’ political engagement. It will be argued however that such ‘direct’ approach does not cancel out critical distance, but rather seeks alternative routes to establish it – namely comic and parodic overstatement, and the problematisation of ‘trust’. This entails the key questions of whether parody may take up critical distance without irony, as well as of the political implications of an approach which seeks to eliminate ambiguity. This more ‘direct’ approach however still depends on a balance of engagement and disengagement, requiring distancing from pre-established codes.     

Laughing it off? Humour,affect and emotion work in communities living with nuclear risk1

Over the past two decades, an increasing number of risk researchers have recognized that risks are not simply objective hazards but that the meanings of risk are discursively negotiated, dynamic and embedded within the wider social relations that constitute everyday life. A growing interest in the complexity and nuances of risk subjectivities has alerted sociocultural researchers not only to what is said in a risk situation, but also to how it is said and to what is unsaid and even, in a particular context, unsayable; to the intangible qualities of discourse that communicate additional meanings. Humour is both an intangible and marks such intangible meanings, yet it has largely been ignored and insufficiently theorized by risk researchers. In this paper, we draw upon insights from the humour literature - suspending the belief that humour is inherently good - to analyse and theorize humour as a way of examining the meanings and functions of risk. We show how humour can both mask and carefully reveal affectively charged states about living with nuclear risk. As such, it helps risk subjects to live with risk by suppressing vulnerabilities, enabling the negotiation of what constitutes a threat, and engendering a sense of empowerment. We conclude that humorous talk can be serious talk which can enrich our understandings of the lived experience of risk and of risk subjectivities.     

Issue Information

While engaged in research and teaching regarding racism in US organizations, members of the writing team have frequently found that conscientious humour and the meaningful lessons it can encode provide needed releases from the stress associated with social justice work as well as serve as an effective pedagogical tool. Taking inspiration from contemporary satirical humourists, including Robin Thede, Issa Rae, Dave Chappelle and Jordan Peele, who have used comedy to expose serious aspects of racism, as well as leading critical race theorists’ use of fictional chronicles about race we present a comedic chronicle centred around an African American protagonist who demonstrates a variety of coping and resistance strategies in conversations with a well‐intentioned yet culturally insensitive white male co‐worker who regularly engages her about her hair.     

Can’t buy me laughter – Humour in organisational change

This article reflects upon the potential role of humour during an organisational change process. We focus on three facets that are of special importance during change: coping with the change, resisting the change, and leading the change. For each facet, we present relevant quantitative and qualitative studies; and in a final section, we derive implications for employees, leaders, and organisations.In regards to coping with change, we focus on the stress-buffering effects of humour. High-humour individuals maintain higher levels of positive affect in stressful situations and appraise a potentially stressful event as a positive challenge rather than a threat. In regards to resisting change, we show that aggressive humour can be an indicator of serious distress and a means to express resistance towards authority or aspects of the change process. In regards to leading change, we point out how effective leaders may utilise humour to manage followers’ emotions in order to increase positive affect and to reduce perceived threat associated with change.We conclude by suggesting how humour can be used as a diagnostic tool, to foster a humour-supportive climate, to improve communication strategies, and to support an error management culture.     

Linking research,theory and practice in personal and professional development: Gender and sexuality issues in social work education

It is important for social work students to learn how to articulate and develop their own personal theories for practice. It is also important for them to learn how to handle their own personal issues (which they often find difficult and prefer to avoid); and to incorporate them into their theories. In this paper we will explore some of the links between research, practice and theory by considering gender and sexuality issues in social work education. We offer some suggestions on introducing these issues to social work students in such a way that the development of personal social work theories is encouraged. Using examples from our current teaching practice about child abuse, bullying and domestic violence, it will be argued that the importance of theory for understanding and applying research, as well as for addressing difficult personal issues, has been seriously undervalued in social work education.     

‘Some Good Clean Fun’: Humour,Control and Subversion in an Advertising Agency

This article explores the relation between humour and control, drawing on participant observation in an organization in which humour was central to daily life. Keys is a leading advertising agency whose staff spent an unusually large amount of time sending humorous e‐mails. Examining these e‐mails in some depth, we unpack the role of humour in subverting various forms of control, including gender norms and managerial authority. We find the relation between humour, control and subversion to be ambiguous. Building upon current debates in organization studies, we develop the concept of humour based on our observations at Keys. Specifically, we argue that humour is always in excess of both control and subversion, a ‘nicely impossible’ object that cannot be captured. This article thus contributes to theoretical approaches on organizational humour, conceptualizing the concept of ‘newness’ through Judith Butler's re‐reading of Derridean différance and the Lacanian Real. In addition, we contribute a novel empirical account of the study of e‐mail list humour in a contemporary advertising firm.     

Rear gunners and troubled privates: Wordplay in a dick joke competition1

A humorous competition called ‘The Adventures of Naked Man’ ran in a Wellington (New Zealand) newspaper from 1999 to 2000. The competition's protagonist is the sole naked person in a drawn setting where, because of some convenient object or body position, his penis is obscured from sight. Entrants to the competition submitted a caption to go with the drawn setting, the point being to make humour. Without explicit instruction, most entrants constructed some form of dick joke, the interesting questions being, just how, and with what variations? These questions are pursued by drawing on the full corpus of Naked Man settings and captions. Basic principles of conversation analysis, including some early work of Sacks on punning, are used to analyse the nature and popularity of the Naked Man competition. The article also offers some more speculative comments to do with gender and the organisation of language about sexuality.     

Management in/as Comic Relief: Queer Theory and Gender Performativity in The Office

Our discussion here focuses on gender performativity — the evocation of gender through stylized modes of interaction and the recitation of particular cultural norms — in the BBC comedy series The Office. We suggest that The Office can be read as a cultural text that brings sedimented ways of thinking about and enacting gender into relief, a technique that effectively ‘queers’ management and organization as gendered phenomena. In doing so, we argue that not only does The Office parody the ways in which management is configured according to the terms of what Judith Butler has described as the ‘heterosexual matrix’, but that it also represents a parodic critique of the gendered ways in which this configuration is enacted in everyday organizational encounters. We also suggest that, in addition to its capacity to be read as a parody of gender performativity, The Office reflects queer theory's concern, particularly as the latter has been articulated in Butler's writing, to reveal something of the pathos inherent in the desire for recognition that underpins the hegemonic performance of gender. In this respect, our reading of The Office emphasizes that, as a popular cultural text, it throws into (comic) relief the extent to which the desire for recognition underpins the organizational performance and management of gender in accordance with the terms of the heterosexual matrix.     

Media Production as Therapy: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The rapidly changing communication environment of the digital age has generated needed discussion regarding implications of media technologies for social work practice. Yet scarce research has considered the therapeutic value of media technologies for social work practice. This systematic review explores how media production is used as a therapeutic intervention in human services to identify the therapeutic value and potential challenges of its application in the field. Media Production as Therapy (MPT) affords a range of therapeutic outcomes, including self- and community-awareness, self-reflection and self-correction practices, self-expression and story-sharing, and processing trauma. Challenges confronted through MPT include time and resource constraints, logistical difficulties, issues of authenticity, and dissemination concerns. Despite limited research, this review provides needed guidance for social workers to harness technology for social good, operating in the digital space to implement MPT interventions that afford a range of therapeutic benefits to clients in an increasingly mediated world.     

Only joking? Online humour in the 2005 UK general election

Humour has long been a part of election campaigns but rarely has election humour been subject to scholarly analysis. The increasing popularity of new forms of Internet-based humour has, however, raised questions about the significance of humour in campaigning and whether online humour can be used as means of stimulating political engagement. This article assesses online humour in the context of the 2005 UK election, exploring both the motivations of the different actors who distributed web-based political humour and the nature of the texts themselves. We find that whilst the official party campaigns use humour very cautiously, there has been an upsurge in humour based campaigns from net activists as well as more traditional broadcasters. Yet, overall, the way that humour is used is paradoxical, since it often attempts to encourage participation but portrays politics as a cynical game, leaving the rationale for political participation unclear.