tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/humour-3967/articlesHumour – The Conversation2024-03-04T11:47:59Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2243432024-03-04T11:47:59Z2024-03-04T11:47:59ZKenyans use humour to counter unpopular state policies – memes are the latest tool<p>Seemingly disillusioned with the country’s leadership, Kenyans have taken to new ways of expressing their anger and frustration with their government. </p>
<p>On social media and in everyday conversations, President William Ruto is now referred to as Zakayo, named after the infamous <a href="https://www.bible.com/bible/111/LUK.19.1-10.NIV">Zaccheaus</a>, the much-hated chief tax collector in biblical Jericho. </p>
<p>Ruto is also called Kaunda Uongoman, which mimics the stage name of a controversial Congolese musician, <a href="https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/magazines/people-power/wahito-kanda-bongo-man-and-the-story-of-his-kenyan-beauty-1789094">Kanda Bongoman</a>. The first name is a reference to Ruto’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67563308">recent penchant</a> for Kaunda suits. The surname is a portmanteau of the Kiswahili word <em>uongo</em>, meaning liar, and man. </p>
<p>These nicknames are examples of the many humorous but pointed and pithy descriptions now widely used by Kenyans, particularly on social media platforms, to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329099584_Whatwouldmagufulido_Kenya's_digital_practices_and_individuation_as_a_nonpolitical_act">ridicule and express defiance</a> towards a president and government whose policy decisions have become <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67694865">deeply unpopular</a>. </p>
<p>Satire and humour have always been legitimate sites for popular engagement with the state in Kenya. But a new weapon in the armoury of those criticising the state is the use of memes. Across social media, Kenyans are employing a range of memes drawn from folk, biblical, global and everyday expressions, as well as videos, screen grabs and photographs riffed off circulating news stories to comment on the government’s failings. </p>
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<p>Memes have become an <a href="https://berghahnbooks.com/downloads/OpenAccess/BernalCryptopolitics/BernalCryptopolitics_03.pdf">important feature</a> of Kenya’s everyday and discursive political practices. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1470412914551351">Memes</a> are defined by media scholars Laine Nooney and Laura Portwood-Stacer as</p>
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<p>digital objects that riff on a given visual, textual or auditory form and are then appropriated, re-coded, and slotted back into the infrastructures they came from. </p>
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<p>I have <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=CmVgKXsAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">researched</a> these popular cultural forms particularly within the context of digital media in Africa. I have demonstrated, for example, how <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23743670.2015.1119490?casa_token=Sue0yxvwcvUAAAAA:dTsuDNJM9KDsFfjWqA7JvO1jupx_WdVmiLg7eKpMGu_7cbbqo-LoBohB6USKYQhGZHtpGfRp2ByF">Twitter</a> has incubated various cultures of popular expression. These create important “<a href="https://www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/OpenAccess/BernalCryptopolitics/BernalCryptopolitics_03.pdf#page=9">pockets of indiscipline</a>” through which state power is constantly challenged. </p>
<p>Media repression in Kenya has taken new forms. The focus is largely on <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-advertising-blackmail-to-physical-threats-kenyas-journalists-are-under-attack-but-they-must-also-regain-public-trust-203580">invisible tactics</a> that don’t make the state look bad. These range from the use of advertising blackmail to legal instruments often vaguely defined to facilitate misuse. There’s also the creation of a pliant “independent” media council which is <a href="https://mediacouncil.or.ke/index.php/about-us/origins-of-the-council">partly funded by the government</a>. </p>
<p>Memes aren’t completely insulating users from potential state harassment and legal transgressions. Nevertheless, they are making it possible for Kenyans to expand their spaces and boundaries of popular expression, and to navigate some of the existing legal barriers to free expression.</p>
<h2>Resistance legacy in Kenya</h2>
<p>Satire and humour have historically been important forms of political practice in Kenya. The tradition has existed in different forms across various platforms, including broadcast and print media, as well as in popular cultural forms such as music and drama. </p>
<p>For example, in the 1980s and 1990s a satirical newspaper fiction column, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504630500161581">Wahome Mutahi’s column Whispers</a>, became a must-read. Through satirical and humorous accounts of a fictionalised Kenyan family, Mutahi was able to openly criticise the government, commenting on state policies and failings in a way that mainstream press couldn’t. </p>
<p>This was at the height of the terrifying reign of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/daniel-arap-moi-the-making-of-a-kenyan-big-man-127177">late Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi</a>, when criticism of the government was dangerous. Journalists were routinely jailed, exiled or even killed for it. </p>
<p>Kenyans are again tapping into this history using new media technologies to creatively challenge power. </p>
<p>The political context in the country is different from that of the 1980s. Nevertheless, the government continues to exert influence on mainstream media. Its main means of doing so is through <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-advertising-blackmail-to-physical-threats-kenyas-journalists-are-under-attack-but-they-must-also-regain-public-trust-203580">the control of advertising revenue</a>. The state is the largest single advertiser in the country’s media, and organisations regarded as hostile are denied government advertising. </p>
<p>As a result, social media platforms have become alternative critical debating spaces. This is despite efforts by the state to <a href="https://www.article19.org/resources/kenya-withdraw-proposed-amendments-to-cybercrimes-law/">undermine free speech</a> in various communication platforms. </p>
<p>As rights group <a href="https://www.article19.org/resources/kenya-harmonise-free-expression-with-iccpr-recommendations/">Article 19</a> has argued, content-based restrictions on free expression that are incompatible with international human rights law and standards remain in Kenya’s penal code. Another problematic law is the <a href="http://kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/Acts/ComputerMisuseandCybercrimesActNo5of2018.pdf">Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act</a>, which the government has routinely used to punish those on social media exposing instances of state corruption. <a href="https://mediainnovationnetwork.org/2022/04/07/the-legal-challenges-facing-east-africas-bloggers-and-influencers/">Bloggers and political activists</a> have been subjected to some of these laws.</p>
<h2>Game of cat and mouse</h2>
<p>In an environment where the government seems determined to control public communication spaces, and has the means to do so, alternative cultures of defiance that have been known to elude state capture should thrive.</p>
<p>Yet, even as the use of memes, especially for political accountability, proliferates, there is always the fear that the state can simply ignore their spread and “vitality”, or appropriate them. This would weaken their subversive intent. For example, during a recent foreign trip to Japan, <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/realtime/2024-02-08-ruto-i-dont-mind-being-called-zakayo-but/">Ruto “accepted”</a> his nickname Zakayo, insisting that he wouldn’t backtrack on his unpopular tax policies. </p>
<p>When the state takes “ownership” of this language of resistance, it presents an interesting paradox, one which the Cameroonian scholar Achille Mbembe once likened to a form of “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/abs/provisional-notes-on-the-postcolony/BE5FFE3AC0DB10125B69E0D63E36DD89">mutual zombification</a>”. This is where the ruler and the ruled “rob each other of their vitality, leaving both impotent”. </p>
<p>In other words, none is left the stronger.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224343/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Ogola does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Satire and humour have always been sites for popular engagement with the state in Kenya.George Ogola, Professor of Media Industries, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2213642024-02-16T13:03:52Z2024-02-16T13:03:52ZUS election: how Trump and his followers use offensive humour to make prejudice acceptable<p>Fox News anchor Sean Hannity interviewed Donald Trump in front of a studio audience in Iowa in December 2023. Hannity asked Trump to guarantee he would not abuse his power or seek retribution if he was reelected in 2024. Trump nodded and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/06/donald-trump-sean-hannity-dictator-day-one-response-iowa-town-hall">replied</a>: “Except for day one.” The audience laughed at Trump’s answer.</p>
<p>Trump is obviously joking. The image of being a dictator for a single day is absurd – after all, a despot tends to rule for a lifetime. But evidence suggests that Trump may, in fact, abuse power and seek retribution if he regains the presidency. </p>
<p>For example, Trump <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/09/trump-interview-univision/">hinted</a> that he will use the Department of Justice to persecute his political adversaries. He is also <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/11/13/trump-loyalists-2024-presidential-election">planning</a> to install loyalists in federal agencies. So Trump’s jokey response may tell the truth, or at least a distorted version of the truth.</p>
<p>Research suggests that a joke is rarely just a joke. Humour <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-it-okay-to-laugh-during-a-pandemic-136755">eases stress</a>. Humour <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-humour-can-change-your-relationship-106402">strengthens relationships</a>. Humour is <a href="https://theconversation.com/laughing-is-good-for-your-mind-and-your-body-heres-what-the-research-shows-145984">good for your body and your mind</a>. </p>
<p>Humour is also a way to score political points. Consider Democratic governor Ann Richard’s quip in 1988 that George H.W. Bush was “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-tyKWNwtMU">born with a silver foot in his mouth</a>”.</p>
<p>Humour has always been a part of the rough and tumble of politics. But what’s different is the type of humour that Trump and the politicians that follow him indulge in. Trump tells norm-breaking jokes that punch down at the victims of discrimination and abuse: <a href="https://time.com/3963612/donald-trump-john-mccain-military-service/">prisoners of war</a>, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/07/26/donald-trump-mocks-trans-athletes-declares-may-just-have-run/?utm_content=telegraph&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1658918219">trans athletes</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34930042">the disabled</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-he-will-pardon-many-involved-jan-6-attack-2023-05-11/">sexual assault survivors</a>. </p>
<p>These kinds of jokes poke fun at the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion. This is why such non-PC humour is strictly off-limits to the liberal left. Trump and his political supporters, however, are comfortable offending those that previous <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41871958">Republican presidents</a> would not have done.</p>
<p>A month after the US Supreme Court ruling <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-54513499">on abortion rights</a> overturned Roe v Wade, Republican congressman Matt Gaetz <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/gaetz-defiant-after-saying-ugly-women-protest-abortion-offended-1727805">mocked</a> the physical appearance of pro-choice activists in a speech to conservative students: “Why is it that the women with the least likelihood of getting pregnant are the ones most worried about having abortions?”. </p>
<p>It wasn’t an original joke – it was <a href="https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/comedy/george-carlin-back-town-1996-full-transcript/">borrowed</a>, subtly amended, from the comedian George Carlin. But it was notable because a politician was telling it.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trump says he will seek retribution if elected “for day one”.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Republican presidential candidate and conservative radio host Larry Elder <a href="https://www.salon.com/2022/10/31/too-soon-don-jr-mocks-brutal-hammer-with-meme--got-my-paul-pelosi-halloween-costume/">joked</a> that Democrats were currently drafting “a law restricting the use of assault hammers” following the attack on Paul Pelosi (husband of then House speaker Nancy Pelosi) by a hammer-wielding assailant. For team Trump, jokes about violence and human rights issues are just part of their “<a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/woke-conservatives/story?id=93051138">war on woke</a>”.</p>
<p>Academic research often views joke-telling as a way to enact positive social and political change. Certainly, humour can <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0192512120971151">create solidarity</a>, <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-11980-4_27">challenge inequity</a> and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13505076211038080">speak truth to power</a>. Humour is a resource of hope for those who face discrimination or persecution in their daily lives – a means of <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/978-1-137-57346-9">“creative nonviolent resistance”</a>.</p>
<p>But it is important not to overstate the case.</p>
<p>In my book <a href="https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-trouble-with-jokes">The Trouble with Jokes</a>, I argue that humour is a political discourse that thrives on transgression and outrage. In the public sphere, jokes obscure the line between silliness and sincerity. As a result, jokes lower our defences against objectionable ideologies and fuel some of the most worrying political trends today. </p>
<p>Transgressive humour is particularly well equipped to aid extremists because it embodies a rebel attitude that refuses to take itself too seriously. By contrast, liberals are perceived to have a crippling fear of causing offence. Boundary-pushing jokes are a way for Trump to characterise the left as humourless and uptight.</p>
<p>Right-wing humour has traditionally been <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2015/02/why-theres-no-conservative-jon-stewart/385480/">ignored</a> or <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-51853-001">downplayed</a> by academic researchers and media commentators. Just a few years ago, it was possible to claim that political satire was <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo3770943.html">inherently liberal in orientation</a>. Think about the dominance of Jon Stewart’s long-running The Daily Show, a Democratic-leaning comedy talk-show.</p>
<p>But a different kind of satire has now gained popularity. According to academics Matt Sienkiewicz and Nick Marx, there now exists a <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/thats-not-funny-right-wing-comedy-complex-book-excerpt.html">“right-wing comedy complex”</a>, which includes conservative radio shows, podcasts and internet memes. And in this comedy complex, alt-right trolls mix with elected politicians.</p>
<p>The more extreme the politics, the more <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/23/how-jokes-won-the-election">humour is useful</a>. Telling an offensive joke serves up prejudice and hatred with a side order of irony. Delivered with a nod and a wink, humour reassures us that it’s all just <a href="https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-trouble-with-jokes">“a bit of fun”</a>.</p>
<h2>Joking aside</h2>
<p>The deeper question is this: why is offensive humour so appealing as a form of political discourse? One answer can be found in the work of Sigmund Freud.</p>
<p>In his 1905 book <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/286585/the-joke-and-its-relation-to-the-unconscious-by-sigmund-freud-translated-by-joyce-crick-introduction-by-john-carey/">The Joke and its Relation to the Unconscious</a>, Freud argued that jokes – especially offensive ones – reveal our inner urges. We are trained from an early age to be kind and polite to other people. Over time, we learn to restrain our selfish desires and feral instincts. But offensive jokes let us temporarily pause social prohibitions and flirt with our innermost fantasies.</p>
<p>Freud wrote that, when we laugh, we do not really know what we are laughing at. We think we are amused by clever wordplay or absurd imagery. But Freud thinks we are fooling ourselves. In reality, we are gaining pleasure from trampling on social taboos.</p>
<p>Offensive jokes encourage us to laugh at something we are not supposed to laugh at. And lifting this restriction gives us an illicit thrill of joy. This is why offensive jokes are more enticing than dad jokes or cheesy puns: they permit us to open a door marked “no entry” and peep inside.</p>
<p>This type of joke is not meant to be taken literally. But neither is it completely meaningless. The extremist tells offensive jokes to skirt as close to the line as possible – and to pull back at the last second. After all, Trump was <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-dictator-joking-truth-social-b2462848.html">only joking</a> about being a dictator. Wasn’t he?</p>
<p>For many voters, taboo-busting humour is an <a href="https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/american-humor/article-abstract/5/1/31/196943/Deplorable-Satire-Alt-Right-Memes-White-Genocide">exhilarating proposition</a>. And this is one reason why the outcome of the 2024 presidential election will be decided not only by dry political debate, but also by internet memes, online trolls and offensive jokes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221364/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Butler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Offensive jokes encourage us to laugh at something we are not supposed to laugh at. Something Trump-supporting politicians are using effectively.Nick Butler, Associate Professor, Stockholm UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2061912023-09-20T20:06:20Z2023-09-20T20:06:20ZThe joke’s on us – how big tech is replicating our laughter online<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546609/original/file-20230906-19-89j4qb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=700%2C5%2C3293%2C1988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christian Bowen/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Human laughter as we know it likely <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-evolutionary-origins-of-laughter-are-rooted-more-in-survival-than-enjoyment-57750">developed between ten and 16 million years</a> ago. For context, <a href="https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/stone-tools#:%7E:text=The%20earliest%20stone%20toolmaking%20developed,cores%2C%20and%20sharp%20stone%20flakes.">the stone tools</a> our distant human ancestors made in the Early Stone Age date back around 2.6 million years. These are vast time spans, but it was perhaps good that our Palaeolithic ancestors had a sense of humour ready to deal with tech fails such as a blunt hammerstone. </p>
<p>Why does this matter? Well, let’s fast forward to today and our contemporary issues with technology, such as how to deal with the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMWlRWnAZH8&ab_channel=Mrwhosetheboss">things we’ve made when they fail us</a>. Anger is a common response (see the video below) – but tech companies would much rather harness the soothing power of laughter.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Man Destroys Computer In a Cubicle Rage, 29 million views, posted 16 years ago.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Social animals that we are, humans have built <a href="https://online.uwa.edu/news/benefits-of-smiling-and-laughter/#:%7E:text=Laughter%20stimulates%20organs.,the%20physical%20effects%20of%20aging.">important societal functions</a> around laughter in a thousand different ways. </p>
<p>Laughter can repair a conversation gone awry. It can signal that we support someone in a group or think we belong to a community. It can be a flirtation device or simply suggest benevolence when engaging with others. Some people use laughter to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2019/04/10/using-laughter-to-build-trust-at-work/?sh=225c18e643c9">manufacture instant feelings of trust</a>. Others laugh at a <a href="https://bigthink.com/thinking/philosophy-laughing-at-funerals/">funerals</a>.</p>
<p>The short-term effects of laughter <a href="https://amavic.com.au/news---resources/stethoscope/the-value-of-laughter-in-medicine">are medically proven</a>. It can send endorphins to the brain and <a href="https://neurosciencenews.com/humor-therapy-depression-24507/">reduce depression and anxiety symptoms</a>. Laughter can even <a href="https://theconversation.com/pain-10-more-bearable-after-laughing-with-friends-3368">raise one’s pain threshold</a>by as much as 10%. </p>
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<p>However, one of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/laughter-can-communicate-a-lot-more-than-good-humor-people-use-it-to-smooth-social-interactions-193279">social functions of laughter</a> that interests tech giants and online app developers is its ability to soothe and to smooth. In an era in which we are increasingly reliant on digital devices and a rapidly growing online service industry, humour can be a <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress-relief/art-20044456">potent form of stress relief</a>.</p>
<p>Clearly, big industry players would prefer we hold on to our devices rather than angrily quitting or hitting them whenever an error 404 message appears. Or an update seems stuck at 10% completion. Laughter helps us to deal with these frustrating experiences.</p>
<p>If our <a href="https://blog.hubstaff.com/virtual-assistant-software/">virtual assistants</a>, <a href="https://www.analyticsinsight.net/cybernetics-spells-the-new-dawn-for-robotics/#:%7E:text=Cybernetics%20as%20a%20concept%20is,general%20and%20robotics%20in%20particular.">cybernetic robots</a>, and <a href="https://www.xrtoday.com/mixed-reality/metaverse-avatar-creation-how-to-create-a-metaverse-avatar/">digital avatars</a> can emote a sense of humour that pleases us, the logic is that this will help us tolerate the irksome aspects of technology. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/apple-wants-to-know-if-youre-happy-or-sad-as-part-of-its-latest-software-update-who-will-this-benefit-210789">Apple wants to know if you’re happy or sad as part of its latest software update. Who will this benefit?</a>
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<h2>Datafied humour</h2>
<p>Trying to reproduce laughter digitally comes with its own set of challenges. Tech companies start by understanding what we find funny – through analysing what we produce and interact with online. Think of the last thing that made you laugh. Chances are it was a pun. However, chances are also it wasn’t even a joke based on words.</p>
<p>This is where data and our reaction to it comes into play. One study found there is an <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/7kvezb/laughing-crying-emoji-divisive-gen-z-mums%20%E2%80%9C%E2%80%9D">85% chance</a> we’ll use the laughing-crying face emoji to react to something we find even remotely funny online. We deploy this versatile “<a href="https://www.protocol.com/laugh-cry-most-used-emoji">face with tears of joy</a>” to signal appreciation, share laughter, and reward our friends’ wit in chat groups. LOL anyone?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546552/original/file-20230906-20-3su8ka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546552/original/file-20230906-20-3su8ka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546552/original/file-20230906-20-3su8ka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546552/original/file-20230906-20-3su8ka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546552/original/file-20230906-20-3su8ka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546552/original/file-20230906-20-3su8ka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546552/original/file-20230906-20-3su8ka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546552/original/file-20230906-20-3su8ka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lol anyone?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Rawpixel</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet each time we post a digital smiley, it creates a machine-readable tag. Think of it as a process of adding invisible writing to whatever it is we’re adding the emoji to – this is metadata or “data about data”. </p>
<p>We produce billions of those tell-tale tags each day. They allow algorithms to develop their own sense of human humour and perfect their funny-content-and-user matchmaking. The algorithms learn from our “likes”, (basically <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90780140/the-inside-story-of-how-facebook-designed-the-like-button-and-made-social-media-into-a-popularity-contest">the business model of Meta</a>, the company formerly known as Facebook). </p>
<p>It’s all about figuring out that personal taste profile – something that used to happen explicitly via surveys, but now can <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/datamining.asp">transpire invisibly</a> without us even being asked. </p>
<p>There are many of these algorithms, working in many different ways, but we have only limited information about them. As with Netflix’s famed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8OK1HBEgn0&t=46s&ab_channel=WeAreNetflix">recommendation engine</a>, exactly how an algorithm functions, more precisely its source code, is often a well-kept trade secret of the company that employs it to detect, analyse and recommend humorous content. </p>
<p>Here’s what we do know though. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/feed-me-4-ways-to-take-control-of-social-media-algorithms-and-get-the-content-you-actually-want-204374">Feed me: 4 ways to take control of social media algorithms and get the content you actually want</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Witscript, TikTok and Instagram</h2>
<p>The purpose of these algorithms is to match us to something we personally find funny and keep us <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/22/kids-are-glued-to-their-screens-but-parents-are-in-no-position-to-criticize">“glued” to our devices</a>. But the kinds of datafied humour producing a virtual laugh adhesive can vary widely. </p>
<p>The current most commercially viable example of applying a humour AI to digital applications is the chatbot. Chatbots draw on vast amounts of language data sets, which are processed through machine learning and used to formulate text based on a user-given prompt or dialogue.</p>
<p>Encoding verbal humour this way into a chatbot’s algorithmic DNA has produced <a href="https://witscript.com/">Witscript</a>, a self-proclaimed “joke generator powered by artificial intelligence […] and the wit of a four-time Emmy-winning comedy writer”, <a href="https://www.emmys.com/bios/joe-toplyn">Joe Toplyn</a>.</p>
<p>Language-based joke generators like Witscript turn on the same generative AI principles as ChatGPT. Witscript’s originator <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.02008">claims</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>human evaluators judged Witscript’s responses to input sentences to be jokes more than 40% of the time. This is evidence that Witscript represents an important next step toward giving a chatbot a human-like sense of humor.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Meanwhile, TikTok is equipped with one of the best <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-0716-2197-4_1">recommending engines</a> in the business. The app’s average user typically spends a whopping <a href="https://www.demandsage.com/tiktok-user-statistics/#:%7E:text=TikTok%20users%20spend%20a%20significant,2.3%20years%20on%20the%20app.">1.5 hours per day</a> on the platform, which draws them in through an assemblage of algorithms creating TikTok’s For You page experience. It is mostly filled with viral videos, memes and other <a href="https://the-media-leader.com/tiktok-is-mainly-for-comedy-and-humor-says-gen-z/">trending short-form comedy content</a>. </p>
<p>By tracking not only our active, but also our <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/unique-power-tiktok-s-algorithm">passive behaviour</a>
when we consume digital content, (for example how many times we loop a video, how quickly we scroll past certain content and whether we are drawn to a particular category of effects and sounds), the app infers how funny we find something. This then triggers a process of sending this content to other user profiles similar to ours. Their reactions set off another wave of digital shares – the basics of viral humour.</p>
<p>That TikTok’s automated humour pipeline just <em>feels</em> right to its mostly Gen Z users is underlined by the fact that 54 % of US teens <a href="https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/new-report-on-teen-social-media-use-underlines-the-rise-of-tiktok-and-the/629377/">said last year</a> it would be hard to give up their connection to social media. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/even-if-tiktok-and-other-apps-are-collecting-your-data-what-are-the-actual-consequences-187277">Even if TikTok and other apps are collecting your data, what are the actual consequences?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Instagram is another app that wants you to feel good about what it lets you do with its application features. Its react messages give us an animated flurry of smiles when our finger taps the phone screen to release a laugh cascade. </p>
<p>Live videos enable users to unleash a swirling mass of Quick Stream Reactions while watching, one option being big-toothed smiles. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529377/original/file-20230531-15-bncig1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529377/original/file-20230531-15-bncig1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529377/original/file-20230531-15-bncig1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529377/original/file-20230531-15-bncig1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529377/original/file-20230531-15-bncig1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529377/original/file-20230531-15-bncig1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529377/original/file-20230531-15-bncig1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529377/original/file-20230531-15-bncig1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A screenshot from a YouTube tutorial video on Instagram animated reactions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1j9rUuqzjY&ab_channel=MasterAbhay">Author provided/YouTube</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This way of making tech feel less techy is eerily reminiscent of the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20160926-where-does-canned-laughter-come-from-and-where-did-it-go">canned laughs</a> that floated out of the TV set and into our living rooms with every laugh-tracked sitcom made in the 1980s. </p>
<p>There is no end to the ingenuity with which we try to make each other, and ourselves, comfortingly laugh in real life. Why should our online world and our <a href="https://www.techopedia.com/definition/30203/datafication#:%7E:text=This%20buzzword%20describes%20an%20organizational,is%20said%20to%20be%20datafied.">datafied</a> selves that inhabit it not work that way too? And why stop at artificial apps, if we can have artificial people?</p>
<h2>The avatars: ERICA, Jess, and Wendy</h2>
<p>Laughter is one of the most ubiquitous and pleasurable things humans do. Just ask the international team of roboticists who built a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKbqRmqdEFQ&ab_channel=HTTech">synthetic humanoid named ERICA</a>.
<a href="https://robotsguide.com/robots/erica/">ERICA</a> was designed to detect when you’re laughing. She would then decide whether to laugh in return and choose to reciprocate with either a chuckle or a giggle.</p>
<p>(If this sounds familiar, the sci-fi series <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BqKiZhEFFw&ab_channel=WarnerBros.UK%26Ireland">Westworld</a> depicts lifelike android “hosts” who populate a theme park and interact convincingly real with humans). </p>
<p>When we talked to Divesh Lala, one of ERICA’s creators, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN2enf2ptBA&t=1s&ab_channel=AHSNConference">he told us</a> the goal for this project (completed in 2022) was to add more humanness to robots. Or at least the semblance. </p>
<p>But laughter is a very complex human emotion to replicate – 16 million years, remember? So, the challenge to emulate a nonverbal human process in real-world situations was formidable. </p>
<p>ERICA may be <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/robot-laugh/">10-20 years away</a> from laughing spontaneously and realistically at her humans, says Koji Inoue, assistant professor at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Informatics and lead author on <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2022.933261/full">a paper describing the ERICA project</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/robotics-science-fiction-and-the-search-for-the-perfect-artificial-woman-86092">Robotics, science fiction and the search for the perfect artificial woman</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But let’s look at the data that her AI framework was trained on. In this case, the Japanese research team used, or datafied, <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/robot-laugh/">80 speed-dating dialogues</a> from a matchmaking session with Kyoto University students.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DKbqRmqdEFQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-double-edged-sword-of-making-robots-more-human/id1636813577?i=1000577237029">double-edged sword</a> here is, of course, that not all future users who interact with ERICA will laugh as if they were on a date. Yet, understanding this difference in setting, tone, intention, context, and social purpose, is what they would expect of a machine designed to look and sound like a laughing human.</p>
<p>This “fooling act” is the intention of the Japanese government’s <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/japan/2020/11/20/japans-moonshot-research-program-is-taking-on-the-biggest-challenges/">Moonshot Research and Development </a> program which aims to “tackle important social issues, including Japan’s shrinking and ageing societies, global climate change, and extreme natural disasters”. It provided funding to the ERICA team with the aim of making this emotional service android laugh convincingly in thousands of different, unique situations.</p>
<p>But an AI sense of humour is tricky to get right – as other avatar examples prove. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546583/original/file-20230906-27-gl8rol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546583/original/file-20230906-27-gl8rol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546583/original/file-20230906-27-gl8rol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546583/original/file-20230906-27-gl8rol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546583/original/file-20230906-27-gl8rol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546583/original/file-20230906-27-gl8rol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546583/original/file-20230906-27-gl8rol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546583/original/file-20230906-27-gl8rol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A screenshot of Jess on Facebook Messenger.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The inability of Jetstar Jess – the airline’s virtual interactive interface – to crack jokes in the self-help chat desk <a href="https://www.passengerselfservice.com/2018/02/jetstars-chatbot-jess-is-now-on-facebook-messenger/">was all too obvious</a> when she launched in 2013. Some chatters were more intent on <a href="https://www.escape.com.au/news/the-bizarre-questions-people-ask-jetstars-virtual-assistant/news-story/b24e68bfa3ad88d628adca10e3610e24">trying to get a cheeky smile</a> out of the avatar. She can now be found in Facebook messenger. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the 3D-live-action-rendered <a href="https://wendy.westpac.com.au/">Westpac Wendy</a>, who says on the bank’s website that “Westpac have employed me as a Digital Coach because they want to use new technology to help young Aussies”, made her online debut a decade after Jess. She seems slightly better, with an improved ability to emote a more believable sense of humour. </p>
<p>Westpac’s AI technology allows the realistic rendering of Wendy’s face to smile in perfect unison with a computer-generated voice that tells PG-rated jokes when so asked. For instance, “I read a book on anti-gravity, I couldn’t put it down.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546559/original/file-20230906-23-8q4djc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546559/original/file-20230906-23-8q4djc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546559/original/file-20230906-23-8q4djc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546559/original/file-20230906-23-8q4djc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546559/original/file-20230906-23-8q4djc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546559/original/file-20230906-23-8q4djc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546559/original/file-20230906-23-8q4djc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Screenshot of Westpac Wendy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Westpac</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While Wendy delivers her wit, her avatar face expresses a digitised version of a true <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/definition/duchenne-smile/">Duchenne smile</a>. This complex, concerted mobilisation of facial muscles around our mouth and our eyes reads as a genuine smile, compared to the social smile we give to others as common courtesy (<a href="https://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/babys-first-social-smile#:%7E:text=But%20starting%20between%206%20and,So%20be%20on%20the%20lookout.">developed as infants between six and eight weeks</a>).</p>
<p>The race for replication is certainly on, with new Wendy avatars and many other humour-enabled androids appearing each year at tech expos. The AI scientists’ vision is of a <a href="https://www.techtimes.com/articles/280599/20220915/laughing-ai-scientists-teaching-robot-laugh-jokes-right-time.htm">future with artificial people</a> who smile reassuringly back at us. </p>
<p>Here again, our use of online laughter is the key. These avatars are designed to feel as normal as programmers and web designers can possibly make them – but will they ever be as natural as the <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/the-possibility-paradigm/201106/youre-not-laughing-enough-and-thats-no-joke">mirth of a four-year-old</a>, who laughs on average 300 times a day?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206191/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Laughter is one of the most ubiquitous and pleasurable things humans do, which is why companies online want to know what we find funny.Benjamin Nickl, Lecturer in International Comparative Culture, Literature, and Translation Studies, University of SydneyChristopher John Muller, Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies and Media, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2121092023-08-31T20:00:39Z2023-08-31T20:00:39ZHow ‘dad jokes’ may prepare your kids for a lifetime of embarrassment, according to psychology<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545452/original/file-20230830-27-8bq04m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C997%2C667&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/father-little-son-wearing-superheroe-costumes-1288435297">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This Father’s Day you may be rolling out your best “<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dad%20joke">dad jokes</a>” and watching your children laugh (or groan). Maybe you’ll hear your own father, partner or friend crack a dad joke or two. You know the ones:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What is the most condescending animal? A pan-DUH!</p>
<p>Why don’t scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes, dad jokes can be fun. They play an important role in how we interact with our kids. But dad jokes may also help prepare them to handle embarrassment later in life.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lowdown-on-laughter-from-boosting-immunity-to-releasing-tension-56568">The lowdown on laughter: from boosting immunity to releasing tension</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What are dad jokes?</h2>
<p>Dad jokes are a distinct style of humour consisting of puns that are simple, wholesome and often involve a cheesy delivery. </p>
<p>These jokes usually feature obvious wordplay and a straightforward punchline that leaves listeners either chuckling or emitting an exaggerated groan.</p>
<p>This corny brand of humour is popular. There are hundreds of <a href="https://www.menshealth.com/trending-news/a34437277/best-dad-jokes/">websites</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAgYiERRDPY&t=248s">YouTube videos</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@mmmjoemele/video/7207443872232770858">TikToks</a> dedicated to them. You can even play around with <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2019/06/us/dad-joke-generator-trnd/">dad joke generators</a> if you need some inspiration.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/must-love-jokes-why-we-look-for-a-partner-who-laughs-and-makes-us-laugh-98950">Must love jokes: why we look for a partner who laughs (and makes us laugh)</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why are dad jokes so popular?</h2>
<p>People seem to love dad jokes, partly because of the puns.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0191886922005025">study</a> published earlier this year found people enjoy puns more than most other types of jokes. The authors also suggested that if you groan in response to a pun, this can be a sign you enjoy the joke, rather than find it displeasing.</p>
<p>Other research shows dad jokes work on at least <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.26613/esic.5.2.248/html">three levels</a>:</p>
<p><strong>1. As tame puns</strong> </p>
<p>Humour typically <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797610376073">violates</a> a kind of boundary. At the most basic level, dad jokes only violate <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315731162-7/puns-tacit-linguistic-knowledge-debra-aarons">a language norm</a>. They require specific knowledge of the language to “get” them, in a way a fart joke does not.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1696617762297168008"}"></div></p>
<p>The fact that dad jokes are wholesome and inoffensive means dads can tell them around their children. But this also potentially makes them tame, which other people might call unfunny.</p>
<p><strong>2. As anti-humour</strong></p>
<p>Telling someone a pun that’s too tame to deserve being told out loud is itself a violation of the norms of joke-telling. That violation can in turn make a dad joke funny. In other words, a dad joke can be so unfunny this makes it funny – a type of <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/the-dubious-art-of-the-dad-joke/">anti-humour</a>.</p>
<p><strong>3. As weaponised anti-humour</strong></p>
<p>Sometimes, the purpose of a dad joke is not to make people laugh but to make them groan and roll their eyes. When people tell dad jokes to <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0033-2909.127.2.229">teasingly</a> annoy someone else for fun, dad jokes work as a kind of <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.26613/esic.5.2.248/html">weaponised</a> anti-humour. </p>
<p>The stereotypical scenario associated with dad jokes is exactly this: a dad telling a pun and then his kids rolling their eyes out of annoyance or cringing from embarrassment.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kids-learn-valuable-life-skills-through-rough-and-tumble-play-with-their-dads-119241">Kids learn valuable life skills through rough-and-tumble play with their dads</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Dad jokes help dads be dads</h2>
<p>Dad jokes are part of a father’s toolkit for engaging with his loved ones, a way to connect through laughter. But as children grow older, the way they receive puns change.</p>
<p><a href="https://psychcentral.com/lib/humor-as-a-key-to-child-development#1">Children</a> at around six years old enjoy hearing and telling puns. These are generally innocent ones such as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Why is six afraid of seven? Because seven ate nine!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As children age and their language and reasoning abilities develop, their understanding of humour becomes more complex. </p>
<p>In adolescence, they may start to view puns as unfunny. This, however, doesn’t stop their fathers from telling them.</p>
<p>Instead, fathers can revel in the embarrassment their dad jokes can produce around their image-conscious and <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/surviving-your-childs-adolescence/202203/adolescence-and-the-age-painful-embarrassment">sensitive</a> adolescent children.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545469/original/file-20230830-23-zasd3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Young woman looking annoyed" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545469/original/file-20230830-23-zasd3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545469/original/file-20230830-23-zasd3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545469/original/file-20230830-23-zasd3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545469/original/file-20230830-23-zasd3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545469/original/file-20230830-23-zasd3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545469/original/file-20230830-23-zasd3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545469/original/file-20230830-23-zasd3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dad jokes, funny? As if.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-not-mood-childish-games-portrait-1060150301">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In fact, in a study, one of us (Marc) <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.26613/esic.5.2.248/html">suggests</a> the playful teasing that comes with dad jokes may be partly why they are such a widespread cultural phenomenon. </p>
<p>This playful and safe teasing serves a dual role in father-child bonding in adolescence. Not only is it playful and fun, it can also be used to help <a href="https://www.dadsuggests.com/home/the-best-dad-jokes">educate</a> the young person how to handle feeling embarrassed.</p>
<p>Helping children learn how to deal with embarrassment is no laughing matter. Getting better at this is a very important part of learning how to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01650250143000535">regulate emotions</a> and develop <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.980104/full">resilience</a>. </p>
<p>Modelling the use of humour also has benefits. Jokes can be a useful <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-019-00296-9">coping strategy</a> during <a href="https://psychcentral.com/lib/humor-as-weapon-shield-and-psychological-salve">awkward situations</a> – for instance, after someone says <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuRnsrHEQFg">something awkward</a> or to make someone laugh who has <a href="https://www.helpguide.org/articles/relationships-communication/managing-conflicts-with-humor.htm">become upset</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dads-time-to-shine-online-how-laughter-can-connect-and-heal-136243">Dads' time to shine online: how laughter can connect and heal</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Dad jokes are more than punchlines</h2>
<p>So, the next time you hear your father unleash a cringe-worthy dad joke, remember it’s not just about the punchline. It’s about creating connections and lightening the mood. </p>
<p>So go ahead, let out that groan, and share a smile with the one who proudly delivers the dad jokes. It’s all part of the fun.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212109/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Dad jokes can help make you a better parent. But that’s only one reason why dad jokes work.Shane Rogers, Lecturer in Psychology, Edith Cowan UniversityMarc Hye-Knudsen, Cognition and Behavior Lab, Aarhus UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2031372023-04-17T02:28:37Z2023-04-17T02:28:37ZCaveat emptor: a new book on the best lines in Latin misses the bigger picture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518907/original/file-20230403-4850-nkisrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=41%2C213%2C2440%2C2237&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Preparation of actors for a satyric drama, from the House of the Tragic Poet, Pompeii.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of my favourite Roman artefacts to show visiting school groups or beginner’s Latin classes is a floor mosaic from the House of the Tragic Poet in Pompeii. The mosaic depicts a chained dog accompanied by the Latin words, <em>CAVE CANEM</em> (“beware of the dog”). </p>
<p>The cute familiarity of the image never fails to generate a chuckle or two. But importantly, it provides me with an opening to explore more important issues with the students, from Roman social history to the intricacies of the Latin imperative (used for commands and entreaties, like “beware”!)</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518902/original/file-20230402-18-vqsrxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518902/original/file-20230402-18-vqsrxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518902/original/file-20230402-18-vqsrxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518902/original/file-20230402-18-vqsrxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518902/original/file-20230402-18-vqsrxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518902/original/file-20230402-18-vqsrxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518902/original/file-20230402-18-vqsrxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518902/original/file-20230402-18-vqsrxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cave Canem: mosaic at the House of the Tragic Poet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Latin is perhaps most familiar today as the language of practical short-cuts (etc, e.g., i.e.) and quotable lines, beloved by creators of school mottos and political speechwriters alike. </p>
<p>Harry Mount and John Davie’s book, <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/et-tu-brute-9781399400978/">Et tu, Brute? The Best Latin Lines Ever</a>, brings together many of Latin’s greatest hits, from “Fortune favours the brave” to “Who will guard the guards?” But collecting the lines is easy – the difficulty is trying to work out what they add up to.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Et tu, Brute? The Best Latin Lines Ever – Harry Mount and John Davie (Bloomsbury)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Mount and Davie take the easy way out. “The fundamental reason for reading Latin is because it’s the language of Western civilization,” they write. </p>
<p>I couldn’t disagree more. We should read Latin because it is fun, challenging, amusing, and exciting, not because it forms part of any putative “inheritance” of the West.</p>
<p>But for these authors, Latin exists within a very limited thought-world. Yes, the book contains some funerary inscriptions and graffiti, and the occasional early modern philosopher, but again and again the authors return to the poetry and prose of the late Republic and early imperial period, which have long been the staple of English public (read: private) school and university (especially Oxbridge) curricula.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that within these traditional boundaries, Mount and Davie know their stuff. We are treated to the poetry of Catullus, Horace and Propertius, the satires and epigrams of Juvenal and Martial, and the histories and biographies of Tacitus and Suetonius. </p>
<p>Cicero’s speeches are likewise combed for memorable lines, from the instantly recognisable <a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/cui-bono"><em>Cui bono</em> (“Who benefits?”)</a> to his <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0021">invectives against Mark Antony</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-tacitus-annals-and-its-enduring-portrait-of-monarchical-power-107277">Guide to the classics: Tacitus' Annals and its enduring portrait of monarchical power</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The translations themselves are witty and evocative, but the contextual material is often weak or lacking. Catullus’s <a href="https://diotima-doctafemina.org/translations/latin/catullus-16/">Poem 16</a>, which comes billed as “the rudest poem in Latin”, features raw, confronting, sexually violent language. Yet there is no discussion of why Catullus uses such shocking obscenities or of the purposes of sexual invective in Latin.</p>
<p>The treatment of Ovid, most famous for his <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/100142.The_Art_of_Love">Art of Love</a>, is little better. While the authors acknowledge that his sexual advice – that young men should take advantage of drunk women and rape them – is “evil” and “wicked”, they also state that Ovid “wouldn’t last a second these days”, as if modern cancel culture is the problem, rather than the poet’s own words.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-ovids-metamorphoses-and-reading-rape-65316">Guide to the classics: Ovid's Metamorphoses and reading rape</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>I acknowledge that, as a university academic who thinks, writes, and teaches about the Romans on a daily basis, I am not the intended audience for this book. Instead, it is clearly aimed at the general reader with no prior knowledge of Latin and Roman history, or those with long-buried school Latin, eager to reacquaint themselves with the language. But I think these readers deserve better than what Mount and Davie have to offer.</p>
<h2>Glossing over women’s stories</h2>
<p>Women, in particular, come off badly in this book. This is admittedly, partly the result of the fact that most surviving Latin literature was written by men. But there is something decidedly uncomfortable about the parade of female lovers, goddesses, and Pompeiian sex workers offered here, which is not really alleviated by the inclusion of the famous <a href="https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/TabVindol291">letter from Vindolanda</a> in which an officer’s wife invites another woman to her birthday party.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Perpetua as depicted in the Euphrasian Basilica in Poreč, Croatia" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518994/original/file-20230403-28-14bsg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518994/original/file-20230403-28-14bsg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518994/original/file-20230403-28-14bsg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518994/original/file-20230403-28-14bsg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518994/original/file-20230403-28-14bsg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518994/original/file-20230403-28-14bsg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518994/original/file-20230403-28-14bsg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Perpetua as depicted in the Euphrasian Basilica in Poreč, Croatia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I missed texts like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Passion-of-Saints-Perpetua-and-Felicity">The Passion of Perpetua</a>, which contains the first-hand account of a young Christian woman from North Africa, written while awaiting execution at the imperial games in the early third century AD. One cannot but helped be moved by Perpetua’s account of her separation from her baby, whom she was still breastfeeding. </p>
<p>After being granted permission to keep her child with her, Perpetua wrote: “prison was immediately transformed into a palace for me, so that I preferred to be there than anywhere else” (<em>factus est mihi carcer subito praetorium, ut ibi mallem esse quam alicubi</em>). </p>
<p>The resonance of these heartfelt words only increases when Perpetua abandons her child, and her life, for her Christian faith.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518903/original/file-20230402-20-5dooep.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518903/original/file-20230402-20-5dooep.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518903/original/file-20230402-20-5dooep.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=989&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518903/original/file-20230402-20-5dooep.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=989&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518903/original/file-20230402-20-5dooep.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=989&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518903/original/file-20230402-20-5dooep.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1243&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518903/original/file-20230402-20-5dooep.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1243&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518903/original/file-20230402-20-5dooep.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1243&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The rise of Christianity and the entire course of Roman history after the early
second century is not well treated by Mount and Davie. Their account of Roman emperors comes to a sputtering halt with the reign of Domitian, erroneously credited with fighting against the Sarmatians “in modern Iran” – actually eastern Europe. A famous (and misleading) <a href="https://www.ccel.org/g/gibbon/decline/volume1/chap3.htm">quotation from Edward Gibbon</a> about the age of the Antonines then suffices for the next hundred years or so. </p>
<p>The poetry, panegyric, and pilgrim’s tales of the vibrant world of Late Antiquity are all but absent. Had they been included we could have journeyed to Persia with the soldier-historian <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ammianus-Marcellinus">Ammianus Marcellinus</a> or to the Holy Land with the Christian woman <a href="https://www.ccel.org/m/mcclure/etheria/etheria.htm">Egeria</a>.</p>
<p>Most of Et tu, Brute? could have been written decades ago with nary a word being changed. Our understanding and appreciation of Latin and Roman culture has long moved on, for the better. <em>Caveat emptor</em> (“Let the buyer beware”).</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203137/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caillan Davenport has received funding from the Australian Research Council and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. </span></em></p>Collecting choice Latin lines is easy – the difficulty is trying to work out what they add up to. And women, in particular, come off badly in this collection of Latin’s greatest hits.Caillan Davenport, Associate Professor of Classics and Head of the Centre for Classical Studies, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1993672023-03-13T20:42:34Z2023-03-13T20:42:34ZWhy do we laugh when someone falls down? Here’s what science says<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508491/original/file-20230206-15-srbzae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C11%2C7904%2C2646&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We do not laugh at the other's suffering or distress; we react to the other's surprise, incongruity and bewildered expression, having deciphered that he or she is not in distress and has not really hurt themselves.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Who among us has never laughed out loud when a friend stumbles on the pavement, bumps their head while standing up, or misses a step on the stairs? </p>
<p>I’m the first to admit to being guilty of this behaviour. So I would like to take this opportunity to apologize (once again) to my colleague Janie for bursting out laughing when I saw her collapse onto the floor in slow motion, in little jolts, as her legs went numb.</p>
<p>Clumsiness, loss of balance, falls — it’s the stuff of Charlie Chaplin’s adventures, burlesque performances with banana peels, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_zEzzq54Rm0iy7lmmZbCIg"><em>America’s Funniest Home Videos</em></a> children falling and people “getting stuck!” We laugh heartily, often uncontrollably, while watching these scenes. </p>
<p>But shouldn’t we actually feel empathy for the person involved, who is, after all, in a vulnerable, potentially humiliating situation? Rest assured, our laughter is not provoked by lack of empathy or sadism.</p>
<p>As a clinical psychologist who is an expert in the field of emotion regulation, I would like to shed light on the different aspects of these situations which have the potential to trigger our usually well-meaning laughter.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man slips down a snowy staircase" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508435/original/file-20230206-15-1sdsvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508435/original/file-20230206-15-1sdsvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508435/original/file-20230206-15-1sdsvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508435/original/file-20230206-15-1sdsvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508435/original/file-20230206-15-1sdsvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508435/original/file-20230206-15-1sdsvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508435/original/file-20230206-15-1sdsvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We laugh heartily when we are assured that the person who fell did not get hurt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Unpredictability and incongruity</h2>
<p>The first of these ingredients is surprise. More specifically, it is seeing a person surprised by a situation in everyday life, when it seemed like they had everything under control only a few seconds earlier. The unexpected situation surprises us and creates a departure from the predictable, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0093-934X(83)90002-0">from what we expected to see</a>.</p>
<p>This incongruous situation highlights our errors of prediction: we predicted that the sequence of X would be Y, but then the events unfolded in an unexpected way via B. We made a mistake in our prediction of what would happen. It is no longer coherent. Laughing at the situation is a way of resolving the incongruity by formulating a new, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2006.18.11.1789">more coherent, comic interpretation of what we witnessed</a>.</p>
<h2>Facial expression</h2>
<p>Faced with this surprising and incongruous situation, our brain searches for information that will allow us to interpret what is happening and to react accordingly. What does the face of the person who stumbles communicate to us? What we decode will determine our reaction.</p>
<p>A study <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.06.029">explored this avenue of research</a> with participants who were asked to view 210 images representing three types of faces: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>faces expressing a puzzled look; </p></li>
<li><p>faces expressing pain or anger; and </p></li>
<li><p>people whose bodies were placed in awkward positions, without the face being visible (e.g. the face hidden by skis; or the head shown in profile with the face hidden by the person’s arm). </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Twenty extra landscape images were added to the set of photos in order to confuse participants about the purpose of the study. Participants were asked to press a button each time a landscape image appeared and their brain activity was recorded during the task. Participants were also asked to indicate how funny they thought each image was.</p>
<p>At the end of the study, participants rated the images with puzzled faces as funnier than images in which the faces expressed pain or anger, and funnier than images in which bodies were shown in ridiculous positions but no facial expression was seen. The brain data also supported facial expression as an ingredient in how funny we found these bizarre situations to be. </p>
<p>So, when we perceive perplexity in the facial expression of the victim of clumsiness (a look of bewilderment, surprise or astonishment), this information creates a context that triggers our laughter. On the other hand, if we can read suffering or anger in the facial expression, we will be touched by the distress of the victim of the fall and be empathetic to their distress, which will prevent us from laughing. Our neural circuits appear to have the ability to recognize and appreciate the funny elements of unfortunate situations and analyze the context as non-threatening. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PT4fATKBkRI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>What if it were me…</h2>
<p>Witnessing another person’s unfortunate situation causes us to imagine ourselves in that same situation and ask, “What if it were me…?” </p>
<p>We identify with what they are going through and what they must be feeling. This exercise in empathy can quickly activate issues of discomfort, powerlessness, humiliation and shame within us. Laughter in that case allows us to externalize our relief at not being in the shoes of that unfortunate person. </p>
<p>Let’s forgive ourselves for laughing at comical situations involving other people’s clumsiness! We aren’t laughing at the other person’s suffering or distress; we are reacting to their surprise, to the incongruity of the situation and to their bewildered expression, having deciphered that they are not actually in distress and have not really hurt themselves. </p>
<p>And on that note, I look forward to making you laugh when I myself stumble on a crack in the pavement!</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yhKZCy41g5w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199367/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geneviève Beaulieu-Pelletier ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>A clinical psychologist explains what has the potential to trigger our usually well-meaning laughter.Geneviève Beaulieu-Pelletier, Psychologue, conférencière et professeure associée, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1924702022-12-14T17:24:50Z2022-12-14T17:24:50ZWhat’s so funny about race? — Podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501042/original/file-20221214-6441-p74buy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C19%2C944%2C643&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We discuss the politics of comedy with comedian Andrea Jin who recently made her late-night debut on 'The Late Late Show with James Corden' in October.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(The Late Late Show with James Corden)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/fabfe1af-b65f-46e1-8b83-1eefdb614dfd?dark=true"></iframe>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-572" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/572/661898416fdc21fc4fdef6a5379efd7cac19d9d5/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>A lot of us turn to comedians we know and love to help us laugh at ourselves, our communities or the overwhelm of politics. Just look at the beautiful accolades received by Trevor Noah this month as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/12/08/trevor-noah-daily-show-legacy/">he bade goodbye to his <em>Daily Show</em> audiences</a>. </p>
<p>Noah and other comedians like Roy Wood Jr., Mindy Kaling, Ali Wong, Chris Rock and Hasan Minhaj put race and other sensitive issues at the centre of their comedy. This gives us — the audience — reason to laugh, whether the jokes are directed towards us or not. It’s a way to release some of the tensions around some serious issues. </p>
<p>As comedy evolves, where is the line between a lighthearted joke and deep-rooted racism? And how far is too far? </p>
<p><a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/whats-so-funny-about-race">In this episode of <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em></a>, we get into it with Faiza Hirji, associate professor of communication studies and media arts at McMaster University and award-winning <a href="https://fanlink.to/GrandmasGirl">stand-up comedian Andrea Jin</a>. They look at how comedy can be an easier way to talk about difficult issues, and at how we can find a way to laugh with each other — rather than at each other. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501072/original/file-20221214-10178-cj9xs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501072/original/file-20221214-10178-cj9xs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501072/original/file-20221214-10178-cj9xs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501072/original/file-20221214-10178-cj9xs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501072/original/file-20221214-10178-cj9xs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501072/original/file-20221214-10178-cj9xs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501072/original/file-20221214-10178-cj9xs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trevor Noah, host of ‘The Daily Show’ tackled some deep issues about race using humour. Here he speaks at the 2022 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The psychology behind laughing at jokes can be traced back many years. While Hobbes and Plato suggested that making fun <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/02/the-dark-psychology-of-being-a-good-comedian/284104/">helps us feel superior</a>, Kant thought about it more as a cognitive shift from a <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/55636">serious situation into playful territory</a>. More recently, psychologist Daniela S. Hugelshofer <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/per.586">showed</a> how humour can act as a buffer against hopelessness and depression.</p>
<p>According to marketing psychologist Peter McGraw, who runs the Humor Research Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysSgG5V-R3U">“benign violation”</a> needs to be satisfied for us to find something funny. That is, for a joke to be funny, there needs to be a social or cultural violation and it must be benign.</p>
<h2>Follow and listen</h2>
<p>You can listen to or follow <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em> on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9qZFg0Ql9DOA">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/37tK4zmjWvq2Sh6jLIpzp7">Spotify</a> or <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/">wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts</a>. <a href="mailto:theculturedesk@theconversation.com">We’d love to hear from you</a>, including any ideas for future episodes. Join The Conversation on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheConversationCanada">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@theconversation">TikTok</a> and use #DontCallMeResilient.</p>
<h2>Read more in the Conversation</h2>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mindy-kalings-never-have-i-ever-makes-me-feel-hopeful-about-representation-gender-and-race-138262">Mindy Kaling's 'Never Have I Ever' makes me feel hopeful about representation, gender and race</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/goodbye-apu-heres-what-you-meant-to-us-105948">Goodbye Apu -- here's what you meant to us</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/psychology-behind-the-unfunny-consequences-of-jokes-that-denigrate-63855">Psychology behind the unfunny consequences of jokes that denigrate</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/roseanne-barr-saying-its-a-joke-is-no-defence-for-racism-97551">Roseanne Barr: saying 'it's a joke' is no defence for racism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stand-up-comics-should-concentrate-on-being-funny-so-dont-take-offence-if-they-are-108761">Stand-up comics should concentrate on being funny: so don't take offence if they are</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-wanna-be-white-can-we-change-race-78899">'I wanna be white!' Can we change race?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Transcript</h2>
<p>For an unedited transcript of this episode, go <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/whats-so-funny-about-race/transcript">here</a>.</p>
<h2>Clips used in this episode</h2>
<ul>
<li>Andrea Jin on <em>The Late Late show with James Corden</em> on Oct. 25, 2022</li>
<li>Andrea Jin, <em>Grandma’s Girl</em></li>
<li>Russell Peters: <em>Comedy Now Uncensored Special</em>, 2004 (Toronto)</li>
<li>Eman El-Husseini: <em>Comedy Now Uncensored</em>, Season 15, 2012 (Toronto)</li>
<li>Mindy Kaling: <em>Never Have I Ever …"felt super Indian</em>“ (S1, E4) </li>
</ul>
<p><em>Don’t Call Me Resilient is produced in partnership with the Journalism Innovation Lab at the University of British Columbia and with a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192470/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Some comedians put race at the centre of their comedy, giving audiences a chance to release some tension. But how far is too far? Where is the line between a lighthearted joke and deep-rooted racism?Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientOllie Nicholas, Assistant Producer/Journalism Student, Don't Call Me ResilientRithika Shenoy, Assistant Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1921682022-10-31T19:01:17Z2022-10-31T19:01:17Z2022: the year even right-leaning cartoonists had a gutful of Scott Morrison<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491828/original/file-20221026-20-5tqk25.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Warren Brown in The Daily Telegraph.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Best Australian Political Cartoons, 2022</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Although it isn’t mentioned anywhere on the cover of Russ Radcliffe’s latest offering, 2022 is the 20th anniversary of Best Australian Political Cartoons. That’s right – for anyone who has been collecting the books since they began in 2003, a whole shelf of plain blue, red, purple, green and gold spines now looks down from above, and a marvellous sight it is too. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Best Australian Political Cartoons 2022 – Russ Radcliffe, ed., (Scribe</em>)</p>
<hr>
<p>As a chronicler of Australia’s recent political cartoon history, Radcliffe’s work is unmatched. Searching and witty, but straightforward introductions provide a retrospective of the year being chronicled. A suite of the best work by the best cartoonists – and not always the most prominent – then takes up the vast bulk of the page space. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491829/original/file-20221026-17-nhnm85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491829/original/file-20221026-17-nhnm85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491829/original/file-20221026-17-nhnm85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=666&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491829/original/file-20221026-17-nhnm85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=666&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491829/original/file-20221026-17-nhnm85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=666&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491829/original/file-20221026-17-nhnm85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491829/original/file-20221026-17-nhnm85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491829/original/file-20221026-17-nhnm85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cleverly chosen excerpts and quotations from key figures round out the 180-odd sustainably sourced pages. The lines are crisp and clear, despite some cartoons being digitally born, and less than the magic 300dpi (the minimum resolution needed for publishers to print images effectively without those horrible pixelisations you sometimes see).</p>
<p>Radcliffe’s annuals (supplemented by specials such as Man of Steel (2007), a retrospective on the Howard years, and My Brilliant Career (2016), chronicling the rise (but not yet fall) of Malcolm Turnbull) are only really approached by the sterling efforts of the National Museum, National Library, and Museum of Australian Democracy, who have published a smaller volume every year since 2002, called <a href="https://www.booktopia.com.au/behind-the-lines-national-museum-of-australia/book/9780646821955.html?source=pla&gclid=Cj0KCQjwkt6aBhDKARIsAAyeLJ262jHp05jEM8k9C6NiFaIfcorjGg-yVIJqcm80gpWdknlTe8_Or9QaAkuvEALw_wcB">Behind the Lines</a>. </p>
<p>This is an ideal companion volume to Radcliffe’s collection, in part because of its tone. Derived from Commonwealth government-funded institutions and exhibitions, there has been an increasing insistence from those holding the purse strings on “fairness”, and “impartiality” in this book when it comes to presenting the foibles and failings of both sides of politics.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-scomo-to-albo-how-a-new-cast-of-characters-poses-a-challenge-for-cartoonists-184545">From ScoMo to Albo: how a new cast of characters poses a challenge for cartoonists</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Calling it as he sees it</h2>
<p>As his 2022 offering indicates, this is not something Radcliffe has ever been comfortable with. He calls it as he sees it. Labor – “vapid and uninspiring”; Liberal moderates are “pusillanimous”; and the “usual suspects” on the conservative wings of the Coalition parties and elsewhere are exposed for their delight in “threatening to blow up yet another government” if they don’t get their way. </p>
<p>The same is true in international politics: Putin is “brutal yet incompetent”; the United States “a fickle and capricious ally”; and “getting the boys in the Anglosphere back together” over submarines or shared intelligence is shown up to be the kind of 1940s thinking it is.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491835/original/file-20221026-19-bp702g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491835/original/file-20221026-19-bp702g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491835/original/file-20221026-19-bp702g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491835/original/file-20221026-19-bp702g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491835/original/file-20221026-19-bp702g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491835/original/file-20221026-19-bp702g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491835/original/file-20221026-19-bp702g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491835/original/file-20221026-19-bp702g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">David Pope’s re-interpretation in The Canberra Times of James Gillray’s famous 1805 depiction of William Pitt and Napoleon carving up the plum pudding of the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Best Australian Cartoons, 2022, edited by Russ Radcliffe</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With Cathy Wilcox on the front, and Matt Golding on the back, the covers sandwich the Who’s Who of Australian cartooning. This was the year Michael Leunig gave up editorial page space in Melbourne’s The Age to new talent (<a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/media/cartoonist-michael-leunig-axed-from-prime-spot-at-the-age-over-offensive-vaccine-image/news-story/3b6b99a4101ebe53df58cb21827df0d4">not entirely willingly</a>, it has to be said), and the immensely talented Fiona Katauskas finally landed a permanent staff job on <a href="https://www.theechidna.com.au/">The Echidna</a> weekly newsletter.</p>
<p>It was also the year when David Pope never seemed to miss a target on his website or in the Canberra Times, and when even the right-leaning Mark Knight (Herald Sun), Warren Brown (Daily Telegraph), and Johannes Leak (The Australian) had a gutful of Scott Morrison’s government, and deployed their powerful pens accordingly.</p>
<p>For portraits of Morrison, it’s hard to go past Warren Brown’s rendering of “Scotty’s Old Time Hawaiian Holiday Ukulele Hits!” – a bootleg album including I Didn’t Start the Fire, La Vie en Hose, and Losing My Religious Discrimination Bill.</p>
<p>But Cathy Wilcox comes close, with another “greatest hits” collection (Novak Djokovic, Federal ICAC, the Biloela family, and more, appearing on Scott’s famous office “trophy cabinet” alongside “I Stopped These” boats/submarines).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491822/original/file-20221026-27-iu5ab.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491822/original/file-20221026-27-iu5ab.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491822/original/file-20221026-27-iu5ab.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491822/original/file-20221026-27-iu5ab.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491822/original/file-20221026-27-iu5ab.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491822/original/file-20221026-27-iu5ab.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491822/original/file-20221026-27-iu5ab.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491822/original/file-20221026-27-iu5ab.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cathy Wilcox, The Sydney Morning Herald.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Best Australian Political Cartoons 2022 edited by Russ Radcliffe</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It always surprises me that Radcliffe has less to say about the immense talent in his pages than the characters they chronicle, but he is held in such high esteem among their number that the <a href="https://cartoonists.org.au/members/history/lifemembers">Australian Cartoonists Association</a> gave him the 2013 Jim Russell Award for significant contribution to Australian cartooning. Perhaps, in part, it is because he allows them to speak for themselves.</p>
<p>They “speak” through Knight’s astonishing ability to caricature Sussan Ley, or Leak’s equally brilliant Lidia Thorpe. Ley’s manic grin as she tries to help Peter Dutton with his smile (alas, he keeps shattering the mirrors hung on the wall) is the living image of the Member for Farrer.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491823/original/file-20221026-19-2jihi3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491823/original/file-20221026-19-2jihi3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491823/original/file-20221026-19-2jihi3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491823/original/file-20221026-19-2jihi3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491823/original/file-20221026-19-2jihi3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491823/original/file-20221026-19-2jihi3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491823/original/file-20221026-19-2jihi3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491823/original/file-20221026-19-2jihi3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mark Knight, Herald Sun.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Best Australian Political Cartoons 2022 edited by Russ Radcliffe </span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Thorpe’s revolutionary snarl, as she holds her Molotov cocktail and aerosol can (alongside Adam Bandt, flipping the bird to the viewer) is almost palpable.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491821/original/file-20221026-25-k1fiu3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491821/original/file-20221026-25-k1fiu3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491821/original/file-20221026-25-k1fiu3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491821/original/file-20221026-25-k1fiu3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491821/original/file-20221026-25-k1fiu3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491821/original/file-20221026-25-k1fiu3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491821/original/file-20221026-25-k1fiu3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491821/original/file-20221026-25-k1fiu3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Johannes Leak, The Australian.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Best Australian Political Cartoons 2022 edited by Russ Radcliffe</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As is to be expected, the federal election is the absolute core of this volume. Readers will see how the same old Scott just could not hold a candle (or a hose) to the new, trim, terrific Albanese (and Radcliffe picked Wilcox’s take on that for his cover illustration). Unsurprisingly, Leak presents a less flattering portrait of the new PM but, it has to be said, the likeness is spot on.</p>
<h2>New talent</h2>
<p>The establishment – including the velvet sledgehammer of Wilcox (fully 21 cartoons); the grin-inducing grotesquery of David Rowe (22 cartoons); and Pope’s genius for the clear line (24 cartoons) – rubs shoulders with the emerging talent – Oslo Davis, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badiucao">Badiucao</a> and Megan Herbert.</p>
<p>Herbert’s “coathanger” cartoon, lambasting both the lack of effective US gun laws and the neutering of Roe v Wade, is among the most startling, powerful cartoons to have appeared all year; possibly for years, if not decades. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491824/original/file-20221026-13-8vquet.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491824/original/file-20221026-13-8vquet.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491824/original/file-20221026-13-8vquet.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491824/original/file-20221026-13-8vquet.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491824/original/file-20221026-13-8vquet.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491824/original/file-20221026-13-8vquet.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491824/original/file-20221026-13-8vquet.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491824/original/file-20221026-13-8vquet.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Megan Herbert, The Age.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Best Australian Political Cartoons 2022 edited by Russ Radcliffe </span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Badiucao’s depiction of Putin suckling at the teat of Xi Jinping would get him locked up (or worse) if he published in Moscow or Beijing. It’s worth remembering that Australians are actually allowed to do this sort of thing, and it arguably underpins our very democratic traditions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491827/original/file-20221026-27-p9y3fa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491827/original/file-20221026-27-p9y3fa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491827/original/file-20221026-27-p9y3fa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491827/original/file-20221026-27-p9y3fa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491827/original/file-20221026-27-p9y3fa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491827/original/file-20221026-27-p9y3fa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491827/original/file-20221026-27-p9y3fa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491827/original/file-20221026-27-p9y3fa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Badiucao, The Age.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Best Australian Political Cartoons 2022 edited by Russ Radcliffe </span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>My favourite</h2>
<p>The best cartoon of the collection? </p>
<p>As an historian, I’m partial to Pope’s reinterpretation of James Gillray’s famous 1805 depiction of William Pitt and Napoleon carving up the plum pudding of the world. As as Whovian, I love a good Dalek joke (thanks to Matt Bissett-Johnson,). As a former denizen of New England, I find Wilcox’s Barnaby Joyce a thing to behold. </p>
<p>But it has to be Pope, reimagining the invention of the outdoor dunny, with Pauline Hanson, Matt Canavan and Craig Kelly spouting all kinds of medieval conspiracy theories about why it won’t work and is a bad thing. Classic.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491826/original/file-20221026-16-6jnlng.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491826/original/file-20221026-16-6jnlng.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491826/original/file-20221026-16-6jnlng.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491826/original/file-20221026-16-6jnlng.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491826/original/file-20221026-16-6jnlng.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491826/original/file-20221026-16-6jnlng.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491826/original/file-20221026-16-6jnlng.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491826/original/file-20221026-16-6jnlng.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">David Pope, The Canberra Times.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Best Australian Political Cartoons 2022 edited by Russ Radcliffe </span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For historians, Radcliffe’s maddening refusal to provide the dates for the cartoons has prompted more than one tantrum, and trip to the relevant state or national library. Still, in a world of near-constant chaos, it’s nice to be able to rank Radcliffe’s volumes up there with death and taxes. We need a few certainties in life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192168/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Scully receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is affiliated with the Australian Cartoonists' Association.</span></em></p>It’s the 20th anniversary of Best Australian Political Cartoons – and it has been quite a year. From Putin to Dutton to Albanese, our cartoonists have been hard at work skewering the powerful.Richard Scully, Associate Professor of Modern European History, University of New EnglandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1927302022-10-19T21:08:01Z2022-10-19T21:08:01Z4.3 trillion readers can’t be wrong – why The Onion’s defence of satire should be heard by the US Supreme Court<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490564/original/file-20221019-14-eamm7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C18%2C6048%2C3992&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you’ve read, watched and enjoyed the work of America’s best-known satirical publication <a href="https://www.theonion.com/">The Onion</a>, you might be surprised by how serious it suddenly became earlier this month. So serious, in fact, that it might end up before the US Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Each year approximately 7,000 appellants petition to have their cases heard before the Supreme Court, but <a href="https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/educational-resources/about-educational-outreach/activity-resources/about">only 100 to 150</a> of these petitions are reviewed. What are known as <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/amicus_curiae#:%7E:text=Generally%2C%20it%20is%20referencing%20a,are%20called%20%22amicus%20briefs.%22"><em>amicus curiae</em> briefs</a> can be filed by interested third parties to strengthen the need for a petition to be seen by the court. </p>
<p>Little wonder, then, that it caught the eye of the media when such a brief was <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-293/242292/20221003125252896_35295545_1-22.10.03%20-%20Novak-Parma%20-%20Onion%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf">filed by The Onion</a>. Despite the publication’s typically absurd claim to a daily readership of 4.3 trillion, the intent of the brief is far from ridiculous. Because The Onion believes the right to use satire is under threat.</p>
<p>The brief was filed to support an appellant named Anthony Novak, who in 2015 was arrested and charged with <a href="https://codes.findlaw.com/oh/title-xxix-crimes-procedure/oh-rev-code-sect-2909-04.html">using a computer to disrupt police operations</a>. The disruption was said to arise from Novak’s decision to create a satirical Facebook page identical in appearance to that of the police department in the city of Parma, Ohio. </p>
<p>At trial, Novak was found not guilty and then sued the city for violation of his civil rights. The city sought qualified immunity for its officers, which shields them from civil litigation unless they had been shown to violate someone’s civil rights – exactly the claim raised by Novak. </p>
<p>A state judge agreed with Novak and rejected the city’s qualified immunity, indicating Novak could sue. The city appealed and the case moved to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Sixth Circuit reversed the lower court’s rejection and ruled the officers should be granted qualified immunity because Novak’s actions were not protected speech.</p>
<p>This barred Novak from seeking any damages for his arrest. His last chance for appeal is now in the hands of the Supreme Court.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1577062701938901000"}"></div></p>
<h2>Satire and protected speech</h2>
<p>The purpose of The Onion’s brief is to provide additional information about the nature of satire, and to urge the Supreme Court to hear Novak’s case and reconsider the decision handed down by the Sixth Circuit. </p>
<p>It’s written with humorous and satirical flair, and is indeed a very good read. True to form, though, the playful aspects of The Onion’s brief contain a serious message: if the Supreme Court were not to hear Novak’s case, future satirists (including the writers at The Onion) may face legal prosecution for creating satire. </p>
<p>Therefore, it argues, the Supreme Court must hear Novak’s case to ensure the preservation of satire as a legitimate means of free speech.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ninety-years-on-what-can-we-learn-from-reading-evelyn-waughs-troubling-satire-black-mischief-190441">Ninety years on, what can we learn from reading Evelyn Waugh's troubling satire Black Mischief?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Yet more than 30 years ago, the Supreme Court decided in <a href="https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/drawing-justice-courtroom-illustrations/about-this-exhibition/significant-and-landmark-cases/satire-is-protected-free-speech/">Hustler v. Falwell</a> that satire and parody are protected speech under the <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/">First Amendment</a> of the US Constitution. Why then did the Sixth Circuit rule in favour of the city if Novak’s page was a form of protected speech? </p>
<p>The reason is simple: the Sixth Circuit limited the boundaries of what it considered to be satire. <a href="https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/22a0090p-06.pdf">In its decision</a>, the Sixth Circuit noted that while the Facebook site was satire and thus protected, Novak also deleted spoiler comments from his page and copied a warning from the real page to his own. </p>
<p>The Sixth ruled the police officers could not be expected to extend first amendment protection to these actions and thus granted them qualified immunity, squashing Novak’s civil suit.</p>
<p>The court’s decision presents a quandary: how can the creation of a satirical work be protected speech when the maintenance of the work is not? The seemingly contradictory logic behind the Sixth Circuit’s decision is why The Onion’s brief is so important – it provides a definition of satire from a position of experience and expertise.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1577388763906543616"}"></div></p>
<h2>Defining how satire works</h2>
<p>So, what is satire and how does it work? While there is a tradition of defining it as a literary genre, satire is much more than a category on a bookshelf. Satire can occur in any medium, such as Novak’s Facebook page. </p>
<p>This is because satire is “parasitic” – a satirist appropriates formal features of an existing genre, person or event to create a pretence of authenticity and sincerity. By pretending to be something it is not – such as a news story or a police Facebook page – a satirical work arouses expectations and stereotypes associated with that genre. </p>
<p>At the same time, the satirist provides indirect and subtle clues which, when interpreted correctly, belie the satirical pretence and pull back the curtain to expose the ruse, which distinguishes the satire from the real thing. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-makes-a-good-literary-hoax-a-political-point-for-starters-170538">What makes a good literary hoax? A political point, for starters</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The second step must be indirect for satire to work, and it cannot work if the satirical object is labelled “satire” in advance. This point is strongly emphasised in The Onion’s brief: killing the satirical pretence kills the satire. If Novak’s efforts to maintain a satirical pretence are an arrestable offense, then satire is no longer protected speech.</p>
<p>Whether Novak’s case goes to the Supreme Court is still uncertain, and the details of his case are more nuanced than asking whether someone can be jailed for making satire. Instead, the Supreme Court would need to draw new lines defining what satire is and how it works. Agreeing on a universal definition of satire is far from easy. </p>
<p>Fortunately, “<a href="https://www.theonion.com/about">America’s Finest News Source</a>” has provided the court with an excellent explanation, demonstrating just how serious satire can be.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192730/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Skalicky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>‘America’s finest news source’ The Onion wants the US Supreme Court to answer some difficult questions: is satire protected speech, and if so, how do we define it?Stephen Skalicky, Senior Lecturer in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1901932022-09-22T17:05:18Z2022-09-22T17:05:18ZWhy do we laugh? New study considers possible evolutionary reasons behind this very human behaviour<blockquote>
<p>A woman in labour is having a terrible time and suddenly shouts out: “Shouldn’t! Wouldn’t! Couldn’t! Didn’t! Can’t!” </p>
<p>“Don’t worry,” says the doctor. “These are just contractions.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Until now, several <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1088868320961909">theories</a> have sought to explain what makes something funny enough to make us laugh. These include transgression (something forbidden), puncturing a sense of arrogance or superiority (mockery), and incongruity – the presence of two incompatible meanings in the same situation. </p>
<p>I decided to review all the available literature on laughter and humour published in English over the last ten years to find out if any other conclusions could be drawn. After looking through more than one hundred papers, my <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0732118X22000472">study</a> produced one new possible explanation: laughter is a tool nature may have provided us with to help us survive.</p>
<p>I looked at research papers on theories of humour that provided significant information on three areas: the physical features of laughter, the brain centres related to producing laughter, and the health benefits of laughter. This amounted to more than 150 papers that provided evidence for important features of the conditions that make humans laugh.</p>
<p>By organising all the theories into specific areas, I was able to condense the process of laughter into three main steps: bewilderment, resolution and a potential all-clear signal, as I will explain. </p>
<p>This raises the possibility that laughter may have been preserved by <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/what-is-natural-selection.html">natural selection</a> throughout the past millennia to help humans survive. It could also explain why we are drawn to people who make us laugh.</p>
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<h2>The evolution of laughter</h2>
<p>The incongruity theory is good at explaining humour-driven laughter, but it is not enough. In this case, laughing is not about an all-pervasive sense of things being out of step or incompatible. It’s about finding ourselves in a specific situation that subverts our expectations of normality. </p>
<p>For example, if we see a tiger strolling along a city street, it may appear incongruous, but it is not comic – on the contrary, it would be terrifying. But if the tiger rolls itself along like a ball then it becomes comical. </p>
<p>Animated anti-hero Homer Simpson makes us laugh when he falls from the roof of his house and bounces like a ball, or when he attempts to “strangle” his son Bart, eyes boggling and tongue flapping as if he were made of rubber. These are examples of the human experience shifting into an exaggerated, cartoon version of the world where anything – especially the ridiculous – can happen.</p>
<p>But to be funny, the event must also be perceived as harmless. We laugh because we acknowledge that the tiger or Homer never effectively hurt others, nor are hurt themselves, because essentially their worlds are not real.</p>
<p>So we can strip back laughter to a three-step process. First, it needs a situation that seems odd and induces a sense of incongruity (bewilderment or panic). Second, the worry or stress the incongruous situation has provoked must be worked out and overcome (resolution). Third, the actual release of laughter acts as an all-clear siren to alert bystanders (relief) that they are safe.</p>
<p>Laughter could well be a signal people have used for millennia to show others that a <a href="https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/fight-or-flight-response/">fight or flight</a> response is not required and that the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306987798900615">perceived threat has passed</a>. That’s why laughing is often contagious: it unites us, makes us more sociable, signals the end of fear or worry. Laughter is life affirming.</p>
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<p>We can translate this directly to the 1936 film <a href="https://www.charliechaplin.com/en/articles/6-Filming-Modern-Times">Modern Times</a>, where Charlie Chaplin’s comic tramp character obsessively fixes bolts in a factory like a robot instead of a man. It makes us laugh because we unconsciously want to show others that the disturbing spectacle of a man reduced to a robot is a fiction. He is a human being, not a machine. There is no cause for alarm.</p>
<h2>How humour can be effective</h2>
<p>Similarly, the joke at the beginning of this article starts with a scene from normal life, then turns into something a little strange and baffling (the woman behaving incongruously), but which we ultimately realise is not serious and actually very comical (the double meaning of the doctor’s response induces relief), triggering laughter.</p>
<p>As I showed in a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0732118X15300167">previous study</a> about the human behaviour of weeping, laughter has a strong importance for the physiology of our body. Like weeping – and chewing, breathing or walking – laughter is a rhythmic behaviour which is a releasing mechanism for the body. </p>
<p>The brain centres that regulate laughter are those which control emotions, fears and anxiety. The release of laughter breaks the stress or tension of a situation and floods the body with relief. </p>
<p>Humour is often used in a hospital setting to help patients in their healing, as <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35180260/">clown therapy studies</a> have shown. Humour can also <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11211708/">improve blood pressure and immune defences</a>, and help <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34642668/">overcome anxiety and depression</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28679569/">Research</a> examined in my review has also shown that humour is important in teaching, and is used to emphasise concepts and thoughts. Humour relating to course material sustains attention and produces a more relaxed and productive learning environment. In a teaching setting, humour also reduces anxiety, enhances participation and increases motivation.</p>
<h2>Love and laughter</h2>
<p>Reviewing this data on laughter also permits a hypothesis about why people fall in love with someone because “they make me laugh”. It is not just a matter of being funny. It could be something more complex. If someone else’s laughter provokes ours, then that person is signalling that we can relax, we are safe – and this creates trust.</p>
<p>If our laughter is triggered by their jokes, it has the effect of making us overcome fears caused by a strange or unfamiliar situation. And if someone’s ability to be funny inspires us to override our fears, we are more drawn to them. That could explain why we adore those who make us laugh.</p>
<p>In contemporary times, of course, we don’t think twice about laughing. We just enjoy it as an uplifting experience and for the sense of well-being it brings. From an evolutionary point of view, this very human behaviour has perhaps fulfilled an important function in terms of danger awareness and self-preservation. Even now, if we have a brush with danger, afterwards we often react with laughter due to a feeling of sheer relief.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190193/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carlo Valerio Bellieni does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Could laughter be a survival mechanism?Carlo Valerio Bellieni, Professor of Pediatrics, Università di SienaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1870392022-08-04T16:36:36Z2022-08-04T16:36:36ZWhy have so few women won the Leacock prize for comedy?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477216/original/file-20220802-25-wlgzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C1%2C844%2C604&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Stephen Leacock Medal is one of the few prizes for literary humour.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leacock_in_Colliers_1926_01.jpg">(Stephen Leacock/Wikimedia Commons)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After winning the <a href="https://www.leacock.ca/aboutus.php">Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour</a> in 1996 for <a href="https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/letters-from-the-country"><em>Letters from the Country</em></a>, journalist and humourist Marsha Boulton proudly declared in an interview with the <em>Vancouver Sun</em>: “This means I really am a funny woman and women in Canada are funny people, and we can write humour just as well as men can.” </p>
<p>Boulton was right to feel honoured, as she was in exclusive company. And as a woman writing humour, even more so. Only nine women have won since the first medal was awarded in 1947. </p>
<p>On August 3, the Leacock Associates <a href="https://quillandquire.com/omni/mark-critch-dawn-dumont-and-rick-mercer-shortlisted-for-25k-stephen-leacock-medal/">announced the shortlist for the 75th annual award</a>: Three books by established Canadian writers Mark Critch, Dawn Dumont and Rick Mercer. </p>
<p>As judges prepare to announce the winner in September, it’s worth asking: why have so few women won the Leacock Medal? And on the rare occasions when they have won, what kind of women’s humour has been rewarded?</p>
<h2>Why have so few women won the Leacock Medal?</h2>
<p>Most of the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2015/04/29/leacock-awards-history-of-overlooking-women-is-no-laughing-matter.html">women who submit their writing</a> for the award have already <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/06/catherine-nichols-female-author-male-pseudonym">negotiated structural barriers, like sexism, at elite publishing houses</a>. They’ve also dealt with a culture that continues to perpetuate <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2007/01/hitchens200701">the myth that women aren’t funny</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.leacock.ca/medalaward.php#judging">The judging process</a> also works against women. There’s a lack of criteria, judge anonymity and no discussion among judges – they simply read and rank the texts.</p>
<h2>What kind of women’s humour has been rewarded?</h2>
<p>Though few in number, there have been some great selections of women’s humour. But most have reflected a limited sense of what constitutes Canadian humour, especially Canadian women’s humour. </p>
<p>Earlier winning books often reinforced conservative stereotypes about women, domesticity and Canadian provincialism. </p>
<p>The first five books to win, which span almost 50 years, are largely autobiographical accounts of women in the home, often in rural settings, with the comedy arising from the contrast between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.1997.10.2.137">the cultural edge and the center</a>. At the same time however, other Canadian women like Margaret Atwood, Erika Ritter and Carol Shields were writing comedy that didn’t conform to this narrow vision. </p>
<p>It is no accident that the most fallow period for female prizewinners corresponded with both the flourishing of second-wave feminism and the subsequent backlash of the 1980s, <a href="https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/181915">when anti-feminist humour proliferated</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Susan Juby talks character and voice.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Among the four most recent female winners, the comedic themes are harder to classify. Some mine, but also challenge, domestic and provincial comedy. </p>
<p>Susan Juby’s <a href="https://susanjuby.com/books/republic-of-dirt-return-to-woefield/"><em>Republic of Dirt</em></a> appears to be a typical Canadian provincial story, where the land is a source of both comedy and domestic values. But, in fact Juby’s book treats issues like sexual assault, marital breakdown and drug addiction with comic dexterity, while the novel’s only loving and functional nuclear family is composed of two women and their adopted children. </p>
<p>Similarly, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130610185058/http:/www.leaderpost.com/news/Eston%2Bauthor%2Bwins%2BLeacock%2BMedal/8491504/story.html"><em>Dance, Gladys, Dance</em></a> creates a family of quirky characters who engage in civil protest to preserve a community art space. The protagonist of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/books/molly-of-the-mall-1.5809535"><em>Molly of the Mall</em></a> pursues a bachelor’s degree at the University of Alberta, while <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/article-bc-based-author-jennifer-craig-wins-stephen-leacock-medal-for-humour"><em>Gone to Pot</em></a> features a grandmother earning a living in a most unconventional manner by running a grow-op in her basement.</p>
<h2>Improving the judging</h2>
<p>As <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781683930723/Women-and-Comedy-History-Theory-Practice">English professors</a> and <a href="https://udpress.udel.edu/book-title/prologues-and-epilogues-of-restoration-theater/">comedy</a> <a href="https://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/fall_2020/zwagerman.htm">scholars</a>, we offer several suggestions for changing the adjudication of the Leacock Medal. </p>
<p>We would like to see the judging process made transparent, with the judges’ identities made public — like the Giller and Governor General’s literary awards.</p>
<p>We would also like the judges to consider the structural issues facing women humorists, and widen their sense of what Canadian comedy can be beyond rural, domestic and overwhelmingly white themes. </p>
<p>Several studies have shown that when adjudicators remain unaware of applicants’ gender, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.90.4.715">results</a> are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-014-9313-4">fairer</a>. Have attempts been made to anonymize submissions?</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">An animated film based on Stephen Leacock’s account of a young man’s first brush with banking.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The more complex issue concerns humour as a matter of taste. Given that films are frequently termed “chick flicks” simply for having a female protagonist, and that as recently as 2013, Wikipedia grouped American novels into <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/25/wikipedia-women-american-novelists">two different pages</a>, “American novelists” and “American women novelists” — judges should be aware and discuss their own potential biases.</p>
<p>The Stephen Leacock Medal is one of the few prizes for literary humour. It is undeniably important in bringing attention to humour writing, which is unlikely to win any other mainstream literary prize. We need to value the recognition of great Canadian comic writing, and ensure it’s judged equitably. </p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of a story originally published on Aug. 4, 2022. The earlier story mentioned one of the Leacock Prize nominees, Dawn Dumont (also known as Dawn Walker) and her son Vincent were missing since July 22, 2022. They have since been found, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/update-dawn-walker-august-5-2022-1.6542497">find more information here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187039/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We need to value the recognition of great Canadian comic writing and ensure it’s judged equitably.Sean Zwagerman, Associate Professor, Department of English, Simon Fraser UniversityDiana Solomon, Associate Professor of English, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1859042022-07-25T04:02:29Z2022-07-25T04:02:29ZIrony machine: why are AI researchers teaching computers to recognise irony?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473359/original/file-20220711-19-5d335n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock thinking robot</span> </figcaption></figure><p>What was your first reaction when you heard about <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-google-software-engineer-believes-an-ai-has-become-sentient-if-hes-right-how-would-we-know-185024">Blake Lemoine</a>, the Google engineer who announced last month the AI program he was working on had developed consciousness?</p>
<p>If, like me, you’re instinctively suspicious, it might have been something like: <em>Is this guy serious? Does he honestly believe what he is saying? Or is this an elaborate hoax?</em></p>
<p>Put the answers to those questions to one side. Focus instead on the questions themselves. Is it not true that even to <em>ask</em> them is to presuppose something crucial about Blake Lemoine: specifically, <em>he</em> is conscious?</p>
<p>In other words, we can all imagine Blake Lemoine being deceptive.</p>
<p>And we can do so because we assume there is a difference between his inward convictions – what he genuinely believes – and his outward expressions: what he <em>claims</em> to believe.</p>
<p>Isn’t that difference the mark of consciousness? Would we ever assume the same about a computer?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-google-software-engineer-believes-an-ai-has-become-sentient-if-hes-right-how-would-we-know-185024">A Google software engineer believes an AI has become sentient. If he’s right, how would we know?</a>
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<h2>Consciousness: ‘the hard problem’</h2>
<p>It is not for nothing philosophers have taken to calling consciousness “<a href="https://iep.utm.edu/hard-problem-of-conciousness/#:%7E:text=The%20hard%20problem%20of%20consciousness%20is%20the%20problem%20of%20explaining,directly%20appear%20to%20the%20subject.">the hard problem</a>”. It is notoriously difficult to define.</p>
<p>But for the moment, let’s say a conscious being is one capable of having a thought and not divulging it.</p>
<p>This means consciousness would be the prerequisite for irony, or saying one thing while meaning the opposite. I know you are being ironic when I realise your words <em>don’t</em> correspond with your thoughts.</p>
<p>That most of us have this capacity – and most of us routinely convey our unspoken meanings in this manner – is something that, I think, should surprise us more often than it does.</p>
<p>It seems almost discretely human.</p>
<p>Animals can certainly be funny – but not deliberately so. </p>
<p>What about machines? Can they deceive? Can they keep secrets? Can they be ironic?</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475553/original/file-20220722-24-8kdn4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a kitten peeks out from between a pile of knits" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475553/original/file-20220722-24-8kdn4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475553/original/file-20220722-24-8kdn4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475553/original/file-20220722-24-8kdn4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475553/original/file-20220722-24-8kdn4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475553/original/file-20220722-24-8kdn4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475553/original/file-20220722-24-8kdn4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475553/original/file-20220722-24-8kdn4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Animals can be funny, but not on purpose.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>AI and irony</h2>
<p>It is a truth universally acknowledged (among academics at least) that any research question you might cook up with the letters “AI” in it is already being studied somewhere by an army of obscenely well-resourced computational scientists – often, if not always, funded by the US military.</p>
<p>This is certainly the case with the question of AI and irony, which has recently attracted a significant amount of <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2021.791374/full">research interest</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, given that irony involves saying one thing while meaning the opposite, creating a machine that can detect it, let alone generate it, is no simple task.</p>
<p>But if we <em>could</em> create such a machine, it would have a multitude of practical applications, some more sinister than others.</p>
<p>In the age of online reviews, for example, retailers have become very keen on <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/23/4/394">so-called</a> “opinion mining” and “sentiment analysis”, which uses AI to map not merely the content, but the mood of reviewer’s comments. </p>
<p>Knowing whether your product is being praised or becoming the butt of the joke is valuable information.</p>
<p>Or consider content moderation on social media. If we want to limit online abuse while protecting freedom of speech, would it not be helpful to know when someone is serious and when they are joking?</p>
<p>Or what if someone tweets that they have just joined their local terrorist cell or they’re packing a bomb in their suitcase and heading for the airport? (Don’t ever tweet that, by the way.) Imagine if we could determine instantly whether they are serious, or whether they are just “being ironic”. </p>
<p>In fact, given irony’s proximity to lying, it’s not hard to imagine how the entire shadowy machinery of governmental and corporate surveillance that has grown up around new communications technologies would find the prospect of an irony-detector extremely interesting. </p>
<p>And that goes a long way towards explaining the growing literature on the topic.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/weaponised-irony-after-fictionalising-elizabeth-macarthurs-life-kate-grenville-edits-her-letters-180335">'Weaponised irony': after fictionalising Elizabeth Macarthur's life, Kate Grenville edits her letters</a>
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<h2>AI, from Clippy to facial recognition</h2>
<p>To understand the state of current research into AI and irony, it is helpful to know a little about <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Your_Wit_Is_My_Command.html?id=toY8EAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">the history of AI</a> more generally. </p>
<p>That history is typically broken down into two periods.</p>
<p>Until the 1990s, researchers sought to program computers with a set of handcrafted formal rules for how to behave in predefined situations. </p>
<p>If you used Microsoft Word in the 1990s, you might remember the irritating office assistant Clippy, who was endlessly popping up to offer unwanted advice.</p>
<p>Since the turn of the century, that model has been replaced by data-driven machine learning and neural networks.</p>
<p>Here, enormous caches of examples of a given phenomena are translated into numerical values, on which computers can perform complex mathematical operations to determine patterns no human could ever discover.</p>
<p>Moreover, the computer does not merely apply a rule. Rather, it learns from experience, and develops new operations independent of human intervention.</p>
<p>The difference between the two approaches is the difference between Clippy and, say, facial recognition technology.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/facial-recognition-is-on-the-rise-but-the-law-is-lagging-a-long-way-behind-185510">Facial recognition is on the rise – but the law is lagging a long way behind</a>
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<h2>Researching sarcasm</h2>
<p>To build <a href="https://aclanthology.org/W16-0425/">a neural network with the ability to detect irony</a>, researchers focus initially on what some would consider its simplest form: sarcasm.</p>
<p>The researchers begin with data stripped from social media.</p>
<p>For instance, they might collect all tweets labelled #sarcasm or Reddit posts labelled /s, a shorthand that Reddit users employ to indicate they are not serious.</p>
<p>The point is not to teach the computer to recognise the two separate meanings of any given sarcastic post. Indeed, meaning is of no relevance whatsoever.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1549009741602504706"}"></div></p>
<p>Instead, the computer is instructed to search for recurring patterns, or what one researcher calls “syntactical fingerprints” – words, phrases, emojis, punctuation, errors, contexts, and so forth.</p>
<p>On top of that, the data set is bolstered by adding more streams of examples – other posts in the same threads, for instance, or from the same account.</p>
<p>Each new individual example is then run through a battery of calculations until we arrive at a single determination: sarcastic or not sarcastic.</p>
<p>Finally, a bot can be programmed to reply to each original poster and ask whether they were being sarcastic. Any response can be added to the computer’s growing mountain of experience.</p>
<p>The success rate of the most recent sarcasm detectors approaches <a href="https://aclanthology.org/W16-0425/">an astonishing 90%</a> – greater, I suspect, than many humans could achieve. </p>
<p>So, assuming AI will continue to advance at the rate that took us from Clippy to facial recognition technology in less than two decades, can ironic androids be far off?</p>
<h2>What is irony?</h2>
<p>But isn’t there a qualitative difference between sorting through the “syntactical fingerprints” of irony and actually understanding it?</p>
<p>Some would suggest <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_intelligence">not</a>. If a computer can be taught to behave exactly like a human, then it’s immaterial whether a rich internal world of meaning lurks beneath its behaviour.</p>
<p>But irony is arguably a unique case: it <em>relies</em> on the distinction between external behaviours and internal beliefs.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">In 1994 film Reality Bites, Ethan Hawke’s character famously defines irony (in very simplistic terms).</span></figcaption>
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<p>Here it might be worth remembering that, while computational scientists have only recently become interested in irony, philosophers and literary critics have been thinking about it for a very long time.</p>
<p>And perhaps exploring that tradition would shed old light, as it were, on a new problem.</p>
<p>Of the many names one could invoke in this context, two are indispensable: the German Romantic philosopher <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schlegel/">Friedrich Schlegel</a>; and the post-structuralist literary theorist <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780190221911/obo-9780190221911-0023.xml">Paul de Man</a>.</p>
<p>For Schlegel, irony does not simply entail a false, external meaning and a true, internal one. Rather, in irony, two opposite meanings are presented as equally true. And the resulting indeterminacy has devastating implications for logic, most notably the law of non-contradiction, which holds that a statement cannot be simultaneously true and false.</p>
<p>De Man follows Schlegel on this score, and in a sense, universalises his insight. He <a href="http://users.clas.ufl.edu/burt/unintelgbledethbyflm/concepofirony.pdf">notes</a> every effort to define a concept of irony is bound to be infected by the phenomena it purports to explain. </p>
<p>Indeed, de Man believes <em>all</em> language is infected by irony, and involves what he calls “permanent parabasis”. Because humans have the power to conceal their thoughts from one another, it will always be possible – permanently possible – that they do not mean what they are saying. </p>
<p>Irony, in other words, is not one kind of language among many. It structures – or better, haunts – every use of language and every interaction.</p>
<p>And in this sense, it exceeds the order of proof and computation. The question is whether the same is true of human beings in general.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185904/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Barbour does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Irony is linked to the ability to say one thing while thinking another – which means it’s also intrinsic to being human. What does new research into artificial intelligence and irony reveal?Charles Barbour, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1847052022-06-21T15:14:41Z2022-06-21T15:14:41ZComedy should punch up, not kick down<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468053/original/file-20220609-22-jt8ogw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C4712%2C3332&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canadian Howie Mandel is a veteran stand up comic</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Power</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/comedy-should-punch-up--not-kick-down" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Recently at <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/rumors-comedy-rich-vos-racism-homophobia-1.6469701">a Winnipeg comedy club</a>, American comic Rich Vos hurled racist “jokes” at female Indigenous attendees — lobbing lines like he hoped the women would get ticketed for driving under the influence on the way home.</p>
<p>Vos’s antics further a longstanding practice of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0731121417719699">spewing bile and ignorance disguised as entertainment</a>. </p>
<p>As a researcher and a stand-up comedian myself, I see that comedy’s greatest power actually isn’t to bully and divide, but rather to unite and heal. </p>
<p>It should be deployed to help propel truth and conciliation among Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, not derail it.</p>
<h2>Why we laugh</h2>
<p>Scholars commonly offer <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14382-4">three theories</a> on why we find things funny.</p>
<p>First comes <em>ridicule</em> — the notion that we, the audience, are superior to the butt of the joke. Insult comics like Vos ride this oldest train of thought, freighted as it may be.</p>
<p>The second theory is <em>surprise</em>, the joyous incongruity awaiting us when the rug is yanked from under us.</p>
<p>The third is <em>relief</em>, the physical catharsis from releasing our pent-up emotions. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_588-1">Sigmund Freud</a> couched this as repressed psychic energy.</p>
<p>If this trifecta has a common denominator, it could be duality: us vs. them, expectation vs. surprise, repression vs. release. <a href="https://iep.utm.edu/aristotle-poetics/">Aristotle</a> echoes this in seeing comedy as the converse of tragedy, a dualism echoed by even more recent comics like <a href="http://steveallen.com/">Steve Allen</a> defining comedy as tragedy plus time and <a href="https://johnvorhaus.com/product/the-comic-toolbox/">John Vorhaus</a> positing that comedy equals truth plus pain.</p>
<p>Maybe that’s why comedy thrives in our hours of greatest need: when we, individually or as a society, are in pain.</p>
<h2>Comedy for survival</h2>
<p>Being what the great Ojibway writer <a href="https://www.drewhaydentaylor.com/">Drew Hayden Taylor</a> calls “a person of pallor” — white — I can’t imagine the historic and present pain suffered by Indigenous people <a href="https://nctr.ca/records/reports/#trc-reports">due to colonialism</a>.</p>
<p>But I can certainly appreciate how turning to comedy has helped Indigenous people and others resist their oppressors. Kanien’kehá:ka actor Devery Jacobs declares: “Indigenous people are masters at taking the hurt and pain that was dealt to us, laughing in the face of it and weaving it into <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/2021/06/10477340/how-indigenous-people-use-humour-for-survival">ridiculous comedy gold</a>.” </p>
<p>This mirrors the legendary Jewish penchant for comedy as a means of coping with centuries of persecution and genocide, manifested in a sub-genre dubbed “<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-holocaust-jokes-can-only-be-told-by-a-jewish-comedian-87027">Holocaust humour</a>” and documented in Israeli scholar Chaya Ostrower’s in-depth study of Holocaust survivors, <a href="https://store.yadvashem.org/en/it-kept-us-alive-16"><em>It Kept Us Alive</em></a>.</p>
<p>Taylor observes that the ability to laugh has not only kept Indigenous people sane, but also given them power, “<a href="http://www.drewhaydentaylor.com/books/me-funny/">sort of like a spiritual pemmican</a>.” The Toronto-based, all-Indigenous female comedy troupe <a href="https://www.tvo.org/article/independent-women-why-this-all-indigenous-comedy-group-brings-big-laughs-and-hard-truths">Manifest Destiny’s Child</a> deploys comedy to share lived experiences and to heal. Anishinaabe Comedian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/25/indigenous-news-site-walking-eagle-news-satire">Tim Fontaine</a> shows us that dark comedy can bring the light of understanding as a path to change.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JSgcQwmtCkE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Tim Fontaine shares ‘5 Things To Know About Indigenous Humour’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/subversive-laughter-the-liberating-power-of-comedy/oclc/30593331"><em>Subversive Laughter: The Liberating Power of Comedy</em></a>, comedian Ron Jenkins documents cases where the form has been deployed to survive and even overcome tyranny. </p>
<p>He describes clowns in Bali who stage theatre against Westernization by tourists. Lithuanian street artists who decorate Russian barricades with caricatures of Stalin and Lenin. A khaki-clad clown who leads an anti-apartheid march in South Africa. Comic theatre artists who mock the widespread intolerance of eccentricity in Japan.</p>
<p>My ancestors come from Hungary, located in central Europe with limited natural defences and thus a hotspot for armed tourism by Mongol, Turkish, Austrian, Nazi and Soviet occupiers. My parents, then young political refugees of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Hungarian-Revolution-1956">the Hungarian Revolution</a>, still recall standing in a breadline in Budapest, sharing jokes about Russians while around the corner, Soviet tanks terrorized the streets. Growing up as a child of immigrants, I found comedy to be an essential survival tactic on the playground.</p>
<h2>Controlling public discourse</h2>
<p>Cultural theorist <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/comedy-the-mastery-of-discourse/oclc/927916833&referer=brief_results">Susan Purdie</a> sees the real role of comedy as controlling language and meaning. So when comedians command a podium, they don a mantle of power.</p>
<p>I argue that ethically, in civil society, this mantle should come with a responsibility not to abuse it. Comedy’s societal credibility and contribution — its proven power as a force for positive change — comes from punching <em>up</em> rather than kicking <em>down</em>.</p>
<p>Comedy is a social corrective exposing the gap between what <em>is</em> (injustice, poverty, environmental disaster) and what some think it <em>ought to be</em> (fairness, equal opportunity, gentle breezes). This gap, which may be history’s largest mass case of <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/cognitive-dissonance">cognitive dissonance</a>, remains our omnipresent duality.</p>
<p>In addressing this gap to inspire positive change, comedy <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520299764/a-comedian-and-an-activist-walk-into-a-bar">promotes new ideas and offers hope</a>. That entails punching <em>up</em> at privilege to call out abuse, not kicking <em>down</em> to perpetuate it.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sQaIDo94viA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for <em>Larry Charles’ Dangerous World of Comedy</em>.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Racial slurs like those belched by Vos at Indigenous audience members channel Roman emperors cracking wise about emaciated Christians <a href="https://depts.washington.edu/hrome/Authors/jimkuo2/IlColosseo/253/pub_zbpage_view.html">making lame lunches for the lions</a>. Vos admitted a further cardinal sin in comedy in professing no knowledge of the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/doris-trout-vigil-1.6466067">violence facing Indigenous women in Winnipeg</a>, which boasts the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/indigenous-population-statistics-canada-report-winnipeg-1.5390580">largest Indigenous population in Canada</a>: no research!</p>
<p>So what does all this teach us about the role of comedy in public discourse?</p>
<p>We might think of the comedian’s loftiest task as being to “<a href="https://www.utne.com/community/speak-the-truth-but-not-to-punish-zm0z17szsel/">speak the truth, but not to punish</a>.” But comedy can serve as a corrective, a cream-pie balm for a societal rash, nudging us towards a kinder way to live.</p>
<p>At its best, comedy can bridge, unite and heal, rather than divide, bully and perpetuate the very ills that it is uniquely equipped to help us solve. At its core (even in addressing our many flaws) comedy, like its timeless tool, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/magazine/who-made-that-whoopee-cushion.html">whoopee-cushion</a>, should lift us all up.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184705/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geo Takach receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, an agency of the Government of Canada. </span></em></p>At its best, comedy can bridge, unite and heal, rather than divide, bully and perpetuate the very ills that it is uniquely equipped to help us solve.Geo Takach, Professor of Communication and Culture, Royal Roads UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1822282022-05-31T20:12:35Z2022-05-31T20:12:35ZThe first Australian First Nations anthology of speculative fiction is playful, bitter, loud and proud<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466164/original/file-20220531-26-eoybgi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>This is not “just” an anthology of Australian First Nations <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-science-fictions-women-problem-58626">speculative fiction</a>, but also the <em>first</em> Australian anthology of First Nations speculative fiction. And what an entry onto the scene it is! </p>
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<p><em>Review: This All Come Back Now: An Anthology of First Nations Speculative Fiction edited by Mykaela Saunders (University of Queensland Press)</em></p>
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<p>In my view, speculative fiction – the narrative exploration of “what-ifs”, the creative probing into latent possibilities, the imaginary voyaging into potential futures – is the genre of our times. We are on the brink of … something. Environmentally, for sure. But also socially, politically, economically. </p>
<p>What this something is, when it will happen, how it will shape the future: these are the questions at stake. This collection of Australian <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-way-we-talk-about-first-nations-issues-is-striking-as-our-analysis-of-82-million-words-of-australian-news-and-opinion-shows-179480">First Nation</a> voices exploring these very questions – creatively, through storytelling – is a most welcome addition to the scene. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-how-speculative-fiction-gained-literary-respectability-102568">Friday essay: how speculative fiction gained literary respectability</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>Country with a capital ‘C’</h2>
<p>What makes the contributions to <a href="https://www.uqp.com.au/books/this-all-come-back-now">This All Come Back Now</a> distinct – and distinctly First Nations? </p>
<p>First, Country with a capital “C”, in that very First Nations sense of something utterly fundamental and intimately related to the self, is centrally present across these pages. Many of these stories are fully immersed in Country. </p>
<p>It’s often being restored after catastrophe, or is restorative. For example, in Larrakia, Kungarakan, Gurindji and French writer Laniyuk’s piece, “Nimeybirra”: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I want justice. I want retribution. I want vengeance. I want the ugly. I want the wrong. […] In the quiet calm, in conversation with Country, I hear the whispers of another way of being, and that is the call I must follow. That is the only reason and voice that makes sense in the world.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465963/original/file-20220530-16-84t9za.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465963/original/file-20220530-16-84t9za.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465963/original/file-20220530-16-84t9za.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465963/original/file-20220530-16-84t9za.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465963/original/file-20220530-16-84t9za.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465963/original/file-20220530-16-84t9za.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465963/original/file-20220530-16-84t9za.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465963/original/file-20220530-16-84t9za.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Laniyuk: Country is ever-present in her story, ‘Nimeybirra’.</span>
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<p>Throughout, Country’s ever-presence is suggested in little phrases or metaphors (the moths in Martu author Karen Wyld’s “Clatter Tongue”, the mangroves in Bardi writer Kalem Murray’s “In His Father’s Footsteps”). And it’s there in myriad deeply meaningful references to smoke, birds, sand, water, wind, light, air and trees. </p>
<p>Sometimes, the contrast between a story’s setting and Country is incongruent – but at first glance only. A gripping example is Nyungar technologist and digital rights activist Kathryn Gledhill-Tucker’s startling piece “Protocols of Transference”. </p>
<p>It consists of shards of monologue directed towards an unspecified electronic technology, from when it “first spoke” to its final days. </p>
<p>The narrator observes that the collapse predicted by data that had “overwhelmed our scientists” was “avoidable, had they paid attention to our country and kin.”</p>
<blockquote>
<p>By country and kin, we mean all of it. We encompass the ground and all its substrate, sand, rare earth minerals, craters left from old meteors that make their way into old stories, hidden river systems, animals fossilised in place, tracks tracing paths from trees to waterholes; trade routes and songlines that have made way for worn paths, widened by horses, then lanes of cars, paved with bitumen, that leave scars of old stories in the geometry of people and protocol.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ancient-stories-and-enduring-spirit-loving-country-reminds-us-of-the-wonders-right-under-our-noses-151571">Ancient stories and enduring spirit: Loving Country reminds us of the wonders right under our noses</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Cheeky and ‘bitter-funny’</h2>
<p>Another recurring element in this anthology is a particular kind of humour. It’s playful: Noongar writer Timmah Ball’s “An Invitation” is set in a time that references the “era before buildings disappeared”. </p>
<p>It’s cheeky and tongue-in-cheek, as shown in Gomeroi poet <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alison-whittaker-506872/articles">Alison Whittaker</a>’s “The Centre”: “I remember my first time in the digital coolamon”. (A <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolamon_(vessel)">coolamon</a> is an Australian Aboriginal carrying vessel.)</p>
<p>And it’s often bitter-funny. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465964/original/file-20220530-22-t704ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465964/original/file-20220530-22-t704ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465964/original/file-20220530-22-t704ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465964/original/file-20220530-22-t704ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465964/original/file-20220530-22-t704ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465964/original/file-20220530-22-t704ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465964/original/file-20220530-22-t704ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465964/original/file-20220530-22-t704ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Adam Thompson.</span>
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<p>In pakana writer Adam Thompson’s “Your Own Aborigine”, a “Sponsorship Bill” requires Aboriginal people to be personally sponsored by an Australian taxpayer in order to receive welfare money. </p>
<p>In a story within a story in “Five Minutes”, Kalkadoon writer John Morrissey presents a mocking play on the the relative <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-artistic-call-for-us-to-recognise-the-connections-of-country-is-a-testament-to-the-power-of-aboriginal-knowledge-169102">connection to Country</a> for settlers (200 years) compared to Aboriginal Australians (50,000 years), as aliens invade. </p>
<p>They incinerate settlers in an instant – but apologetically grant Aboriginal people an extra five minutes to say goodbye to Country. </p>
<p>Or consider Wonnarua and Lebanese author Merryana Salem’s play on temporalities in “When From?”, a story about a clandestine time-travel mission, in a world where <a href="https://theconversation.com/time-travel-could-be-possible-but-only-with-parallel-timelines-178776">time travel</a> is possible (but has been banned), to collect “reference footage” of <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-but-we-already-had-a-treaty-tom-griffiths-on-a-little-known-1889-peace-accord-182511">frontier violence</a>, for historical accuracy in filmmaking. </p>
<p>When traveller Ardelia Paves, instructed not to interact with “the population”, protests that “they’ll be massacred”, she’s told:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Even if you were permitted to interact with the population, Miss Paves, how would you warn them? Last I checked, the dialect was lost […] I acknowledge your anger, I do, but we’re making a film that will tell their story, and we need you to do this so that we can.”</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/supernovas-auroral-sounds-and-hungry-tides-unpacking-first-nations-knowledge-of-the-skies-178875">Supernovas, auroral sounds and hungry tides: unpacking First Nations knowledge of the skies</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘Loud and proud’ First Nations voice</h2>
<p>Finally, what sets this anthology apart is its sense that though each “what-if?” story is wildly different from the next, they come together as a whole that is bigger than its parts. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465965/original/file-20220530-16-bnftsc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465965/original/file-20220530-16-bnftsc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465965/original/file-20220530-16-bnftsc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465965/original/file-20220530-16-bnftsc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465965/original/file-20220530-16-bnftsc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465965/original/file-20220530-16-bnftsc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465965/original/file-20220530-16-bnftsc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465965/original/file-20220530-16-bnftsc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mykaela Saunders, editor of This All Come Back.</span>
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<p>To some considerable extent, this is due to Koori writer and editor Mykaela Saunders’ exceptional editing. Each story stands alone as a unique exploration of its “what-if” premise – set in its own imaginative time and place, with its own original story arc, delivered in its own style. Yet these stories segue seamlessly from one to the next. </p>
<p>Each story is connected to its precedessor through one theme and to its successor through another: they come together like notes in a song. While there are many original voices in this anthology, it also speaks with one loud and proud overarching First Nations voice. </p>
<p>I recommend this anthology to readers interested in good fiction generally and speculative fiction in particular. But most emphatically, I recommend it to anyone who might wonder what a First Nations response to the question of our potential future might look like. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Correction: this article originally stated this anthology was the first First Nations anthology of speculative fiction. However, First Nations anthologies that come under the ‘speculative fiction’ umbrella have been found to exist in other countries, so we have amended the text to make clear it is the first in Australia.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182228/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yasmine Musharbash received funding from the ARC. </span></em></p>What might our future look like? Together, these speculative fiction stories offer a First Nations response to this burning question.Yasmine Musharbash, Senior Lecturer and Head of Anthropology, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1822922022-05-10T20:01:34Z2022-05-10T20:01:34ZElection humour 2022: can the major parties win votes with a funny marmot or a joke about Star Wars?<p>The 2022 election campaign seems longer than Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow. And there is still ten days to go. But that does not mean the whole thing is without lighter moments.</p>
<p>Humour is an important and inescapable tool of persuasion used by politicians, parties and their allies during election campaigns. </p>
<p>What are we seeing in 2022?</p>
<p>Neither Prime Minister Scott Morrison or Labor leader Anthony Albanese are renowned as great wits, in contrast to Gough Whitlam and other former prime ministers who thrived in more freewheeling times. </p>
<p>Instead, humour is now a campaign function that can be supplied by party or non-party specialists – not necessarily comedy specialists – as part of heavily managed campaigns. </p>
<h2>The power of a joke</h2>
<p>Humour is a funny thing because of its many ways, receptions and uses. It is not always light-hearted and inoffensive, as fans of <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/transcript-ricky-gervais-golden-globes-2020-opening-monologue-1266516/">Ricky Gervais</a> or <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/gusalexiou/2022/03/30/chris-rocks-oscars-alopecia-jibe--when-do-jokes-about-body-difference-stop-being-funny/?sh=26e2d1cc4f95">Chris Rock</a> know. </p>
<p>Many of us think celebrities deserve such ridicule, just as we think politicians deserve mockery laced with malice or <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233441585_The_pleasures_of_political_humour_in_Australian_demOuocracy">schadenfreude</a>. Our tradition of stereotyping politicians as corrupt began 300 years ago with satirists such as Jonathan Swift, the writer of Gulliver’s Travels.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/funny-that-why-humour-is-a-hit-and-miss-affair-on-the-election-campaign-trail-116513">Funny, that: why humour is a hit-and-miss affair on the election campaign trail</a>
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</em>
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<p>Humour is not always subversive in politics, although comedians like Australia’s Charlie Pickering think their work <a href="https://www.broadsheet.com.au/sydney/entertainment/article/charlie-pickering-shelf-stacking-tv-studios#:%7E:text=%E2%80%9CThere's%20an%20architecture%20behind%20power,holds%20them%20there%20is%20useful.%E2%80%9D">speaks</a> “truth to power”. After all, it can be used to reinforce community values or <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Laughter_and_Ridicule/OUJ3k2jPSbUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=michael+billig+humour+bergson+laughter+is+the+mechanism+of+social+discipline&pg=PA128&printsec=frontcover">discipline</a> those who step outside social conventions, for instance in the struggle against <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/voices/culture/article/2017/02/21/why-you-should-laugh-racism">racism</a>.</p>
<h2>Humour as a campaign tool</h2>
<p>Humour can also be a positive campaign tool, enhancing the credibility of politicians, even if by association. </p>
<p>Independent candidate Zoe Daniel <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/grace-tame-and-zoe-daniel-bring-the-laughs-20220411-p5acmx.html">appeared</a> in a session of the recent Melbourne Comedy Festival with advocate Grace Tame and comedian and <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/federal-election-2022/2022/03/23/dan-ilic-its-not-a-race-election/">anti-fossil fuel campaigner</a> Dan Ilic. Apart from looking like a good sport she also <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/federal-election/grace-tame-mocks-scomo-in-first-gig-at-melbourne-comedy-festival/news-story/dedb047becbc952fc5267137f6eec499">benefited</a> from their mockery of her Liberal opponent in Goldstein, Tim Wilson, and Morrison. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Early voting station in Queensland." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462159/original/file-20220510-23-hhke5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462159/original/file-20220510-23-hhke5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462159/original/file-20220510-23-hhke5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462159/original/file-20220510-23-hhke5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462159/original/file-20220510-23-hhke5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462159/original/file-20220510-23-hhke5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462159/original/file-20220510-23-hhke5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">With the start of early voting, the scramble for votes has intensified.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darren England/AAP</span></span>
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<p>Clearly, humour can be used by a party as a negative tool when getting an audience to laugh at an opponent and diminish their reputation. </p>
<p>To these ends, memes have been important tools since the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/how-the-parties-are-using-memes-to-get-your-vote-this-election/7487426">2016</a> federal election, repurposing culture with ironic humour in order to reach disengaged voters. </p>
<p>This continued in 2019 with the Liberals aiming to dominate the digital conflict with lots of posts. However, this means quantity can come at the expense of humorous quality. </p>
<h2>The 2022 campaign</h2>
<p>This time, the Liberals seem to replaying their success of three years ago with humour, focusing their efforts on Facebook (aimed at all ages) and, to a lesser extent, Instagram but not Twitter.</p>
<p>Since the start of the election campaign on April 10, the Liberals have had a clear lead in Facebook numbers. The federal Liberals have 1.1 million followers and had 1.69 million interactions and 1.96 million video views compared to Labor with 509,000, 1.21 million and 1.21 million. </p>
<p>But the Liberals have declined from a big start and Labor has caught up on average number of daily posts and getting better interaction rates. </p>
<p>Liberal humour hasn’t always garnered great success because of the strategy of quantity over quality. This includes a mock poster for “a new series by Flip-flop-flix”.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FLiberalPartyAustralia%2Fposts%2F545269506957380&show_text=true&width=500" width="100%" height="590" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share"></iframe>
<p>According to the Crowdtangle research tool, it only got 1.3 times less interactions than the average comparable Liberal post. Similar under-performing videos include the “Chronicles of Marles” at -1.7 times and a Star Wars <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=959885104700792">themed post</a> at -3.2 times with only 1,800 views. </p>
<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=476&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FLiberalPartyAustralia%2Fvideos%2F554703826274046%2F&show_text=false&width=476&t=0" width="100%" height="500px" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share"></iframe>
<p>The Liberal’s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/100044230069311/posts/544704410347223">007 meme</a> - “flip-flopped, not stirred” - fared modestly well according to Crowdtangle, with 6.3 times the average (5,300 reactions, 1,000 comments and 1,000 shares), according to the Facebook ad library. A <a href="https://www.facebook.com/100044230069311/posts/531406828343648">Gump meme</a>, received a score of 5.7 times and more than 7,000 interactions.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FLiberalPartyAustralia%2Fposts%2F531406828343648&show_text=true&width=500" width="100%" height="590" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share"></iframe>
<p>Some Liberal videos have also done modestly well. One that <a href="https://www.facebook.com/100044230069311/posts/544125917071739">edited Albanese</a> into an appearance before Judge Judy received about 23,500 views. This falls short of their standard “serious” posts criticising Albanese, such as two focusing on his failure to remember the unemployment rate which got <a href="https://www.facebook.com/100044230069311/posts/536574714493526">160,000</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/100044230069311/posts/536769327807398">80,000</a> views, according to Crowdtangle. </p>
<h2>Labor jokes</h2>
<p>Labor has been focusing its efforts more on Instagram and on TikTok, where we know younger voters spend most of their time. Only 23% of under <a href="https://australianelectionstudy.org/wp-content/uploads/The-2019-Australian-Federal-Election-Results-from-the-Australian-Election-Study.pdf">35s</a> voted for the Coalition in 2019, so this is an important demographic for the ALP. </p>
<p>On TikTok, Labor has a huge lead, with 76,400 followers, 1.6 million likes and 3.4 million views since April 10. This is compared to the Greens with 15,000, 206,800 and 1.47 million respectively and the Liberal Party with 1,900, 22,700 and 499,000. </p>
<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Falpspicymemes%2Fposts%2F360044482824297&show_text=true&width=500" width="100%" height="396" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share"></iframe>
<p>Labor has been using its channel to poke fun at Morrison’s “raw” <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@australianlabor/video/7094863348524731649?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en">chicken curry</a> and has made use of <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@australianlabor/video/7094500613265820929?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en">well-known marmot footage</a> to joke about the absence of disgraced education minister Alan Tudge during the campaign. </p>
<p>One Labor post with about 157,000 views depicts Morrison as a brute from the video game <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@australianlabor/video/7091467953706700034?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en">Halo</a> bashing young people and making housing unaffordable, playing on their <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/young-voters-believe-homeownership-out-of-reach-name-cost-of-living-top-priority-20220419-p5aeih.html">fears</a> about the issue. </p>
<p>Another Labor <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@australianlabor/video/7093682627147746561?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1">TikTok</a> with about 23,000 views splices a blinking Morrison replying, “It’s not my job” to Princess Leia from Star Wars begging for help. </p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-691" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/691/d9eb5fd0f3051ec5d68d6b69966d36fe88823d06/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Other players</h2>
<p>Non-party players are also helping to fight the election with humour. </p>
<p>Controversial political commentator and comedian Jordan Shanks (also known as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/22/john-barilaro-tells-court-he-felt-broken-after-friendlyjordies-videos-appeared-on-youtube">Friendlyjordies</a>) is not an ALP contractor but is effectively a Labor party satirist in the same fashion that Swift was for the Tories in the 18th century. Shanks openly advocates for <a href="https://www.facebook.com/100044249598356/posts/525632918921690">Labor</a> and has the advantage of being more risque than the party can be. He regularly gets between 150,000 and 500,000 views on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/friendlyjordies/videos">Youtube</a> and on <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@friendlyjordies">Tiktok</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, satirical website Juice Media usually excoriates the “shit-fuckery” of the Coalition in “honest government ads”. The latest instalment has so far earned more than 500,000 views and supports the “not-shit” independents. </p>
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<h2>What does this mean?</h2>
<p>Labor’s internal <a href="https://alp.org.au/media/2043/alp-campaign-review-2019.pdf">review</a> of the 2019 election found the party had dropped behind the Coalition when it came to digital strategy. </p>
<p>But this time, the record seems more mixed when it comes to humour. Of course, we await post-election analysis, but it is clear both parties view humour as a serious way of undermining their opponents. </p>
<p>Yet, there is no assurance that a catchy meme or a clever pop culture reference will convert voters to either party’s policies or leaders. It is possible they can be preaching to the converted, which is fine for bolstering political identity but not for boosting votes among the uncommitted.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182292/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Rolfe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Humour is now part of the modern election campaign. Facebook and TikTok have become joke battlegrounds.Mark Rolfe, Honorary lecturer, School of Social Sciences, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1794012022-04-14T08:55:22Z2022-04-14T08:55:22ZEaster laughter: the hilarious and controversial medieval history of religious jokes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456596/original/file-20220406-10476-bd5h6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=84%2C48%2C7972%2C4614&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/priest-religion-man-confident-happy-big-1080873869">Krakenimages.com / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Just how serious is Easter? For non-churchgoers (like myself) with a sweet tooth (guilty, again) the answer to this question is probably: not very, although the chocolate eggs are welcome. For the more devout, Easter is an incredibly serious business.</p>
<p>And yet, there has always been scope for joy and laughter in Easter celebrations. The early Christian tradition of <em>risus paschalis</em> – Easter laughter – is alive and well in congregations around the world. Historically-minded preachers hark back to the view, first offered by the Church Fathers, that Jesus’s resurrection represents the ultimate practical joke, played by God on the devil: the triumph of life over death, of good over evil.</p>
<p>But what interests me more, as someone who researches the cultural history of joking and laughter, is the controversial status Easter laughter once held. In late medieval Europe, priests provoked the laughter of their congregations on Easter Day by telling crude jokes, making obscene gestures and putting on slapstick comedic performances. According to one <a href="https://crrs.ca/publications/tt16/">contemporary witness</a>, preachers often spiced up these occasions by pitting husbands and wives against each other.</p>
<p>Ironically, the most detailed accounts of this practice survive in the writings of its staunchest critics across northern Europe. By expressing their outrage in letters and theological treatises, those who tried so desperately to cancel this popular custom preserved knowledge of it for posterity. </p>
<p>One such opponent was Johannes Oekolampadius, a preacher in Basel who was gently teased by fellow pastors for giving rather dull sermons. In one letter (dated 1518), Oekolampadius launches into a bitter rejection of the immorality of priests who tell jokes. He accuses them of behaving like comedians, resorting to the basest techniques to get their congregations to laugh, with a repertoire including offensive hand gestures and animal noises (such as a cow in labour).</p>
<p>Obviously, testimony like Oekolampadius’s is biased, but the excesses he describes did eventually lead to at least one pope trying to <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=W7b6Ohp4C10C&pg=PA212&lpg=PA212&dq=Clement+X+banning+risus+paschalis&source=bl&ots=VFNn9tgGMS&sig=ACfU3U30RzFIe5-aqSwwuvymmPdL2cUoaw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiKzsDpiPD2AhUbiVwKHdQfD9sQ6AF6BAgIEAM#v=onepage&q=Clement%20X%20banning%20risus%20paschalis&f=false">put a stop</a> to this kind of entertainment taking place in church.</p>
<h2>Medieval cancel culture</h2>
<p>Cancel culture, it turns out, is not a modern phenomenon, especially when it comes to joking and laughter. Theoretical discussion as to what constitutes a good or a bad joke, what is permissible or morally reprehensible, is as old as the practice of joking in public.</p>
<p>Before modern times, the stakes were probably at their highest in the Christian middle ages, when the relationship between religious belief and laughter was, at best, uneasy. Deriding wickedness and laughing at the devil were, under certain circumstances, entirely acceptable. Even Martin Luther, the driving force behind the Protestant Reformation, <a href="https://wordandworld.luthersem.edu/issues.aspx?article_id=1601">declared as much</a>. And moderate exuberance when reminded of Christ’s triumph over death could hardly be objected to. </p>
<p>But satirical jibes concerning priests and the institution of the Church were pushing it, and laughing at central tenets of the Christian faith itself was a different matter altogether. In the eyes of the serious-minded and more educated men of the day, there was always the danger that ordinary people might draw the wrong conclusions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Against a bright yellow background, a young girl wearing bunny ears laughs and holds up two colourful eggs to her eyes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457406/original/file-20220411-10926-h1gbu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457406/original/file-20220411-10926-h1gbu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457406/original/file-20220411-10926-h1gbu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457406/original/file-20220411-10926-h1gbu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457406/original/file-20220411-10926-h1gbu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457406/original/file-20220411-10926-h1gbu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457406/original/file-20220411-10926-h1gbu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">How seriously should Easter be taken?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cheerful-happy-child-ears-bunny-holds-1629254413">Olga Nikiforova / Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>This is just one of the reasons why, in the middle ages, humorous material in written form tended to be prefaced with an apology of sorts. Joke tellers sought to preempt or minimise any offence they might cause. Readers (and audiences) were often given a warning or provided with some justification or assurance as to the honest intentions of their entertainers. </p>
<p>Heinrich Bebel, a prominent collector of jokes and funny anecdotes in the early 16th century, wrote in the preface of a collection of jokes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>So far, honest reader, I have steered these ‘facetiae’ in such a way as to avoid telling jokes that come across as too lascivious and base. I have occasionally included merrier items in this little book, and to people who know no better, these will seem to contain some obscenity. However, here too I have taken nothing that I have not heard told by serious men at banquets and, for the most part, in the presence of ladies.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Bebel also attributes certain jests to other people, devolving responsibility, as it were. He cites a local abbot when relaying a joke about the Holy Trinity’s squabble over who should go down to earth to be crucified – God, the Holy Ghost or Jesus. They settle on Jesus, as God claims he is too old and the Holy Ghost argues that a dove on the cross would simply look ridiculous.</p>
<p>From the abbot who knows a good one about the crucifixion, to priests who offer their own comedy routines at Easter, the different facets of <em>risus paschalis</em> modify what we think we know about medieval Christian practices. They may even help us to see Easter in a new, less serious light, although obscenities in the pulpit are probably a thing of the past. Above all else, they remind us of the enduring appeal of joke tellers and entertainers who can laugh at themselves and their own ideology – whatever that happens to be.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179401/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Seb Coxon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Religion has been a laughing matter since the middle ages.Seb Coxon, Reader in German, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1793012022-03-15T18:58:45Z2022-03-15T18:58:45ZTeacher sacked for reading bum book to students: the latest conservative book ban<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452140/original/file-20220315-19-1j6dv4a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C9%2C1580%2C1078&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Illustration detail from the cover of Andy Griffiths' international bestseller, The Day My Bum Went Psycho (Pan Macmillan).</span> </figcaption></figure><p>On March 1, 2022, Toby Price, an assistant principal at Gary Road Elementary School in New Byrum, Mississippi, faced a problem. The reader booked for a Zoom session for 240 grade two students hadn’t shown up. So Price grabbed one of his favourite books, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21975813-i-need-a-new-butt">I Need a New Butt</a>, and began reading. </p>
<p>He was fired two days later.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452130/original/file-20220315-19-4d3dk7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452130/original/file-20220315-19-4d3dk7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452130/original/file-20220315-19-4d3dk7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452130/original/file-20220315-19-4d3dk7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452130/original/file-20220315-19-4d3dk7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1026&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452130/original/file-20220315-19-4d3dk7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1026&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452130/original/file-20220315-19-4d3dk7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1026&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>In <a href="https://pen.org/take-action/open-letters/sign-now-hinds-county-schools-reading-is-not-a-crime/">Price’s termination letter</a>, Hinds County Schools Superintendent Delesicia Martin cited “unnecessary embarrassment, a lack of professionalism and impaired judgment” on Price’s part. The superintendent was particularly disturbed by the word “fart”, which he called “inappropriate”. </p>
<p>However, the book, which features a character who sets out to find a replacement bum after he discovers his has a crack in it, is recommended for the same age group as Price’s audience. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/battles-over-book-bans-reflect-conflicts-from-the-1980s-177888">Battles over book bans reflect conflicts from the 1980s</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>Ban sets a dangerous precedent</h2>
<p>Why – apart from depriving young children of entertainment – does this matter? Making decisions about who can access books on the basis of whether they offend the sensibilities of those in authority, rather than whether they’re a good match for their target audience, sets a dangerous precedent.</p>
<p>Conservatives in the United States have recently focused on school boards as easy pressure points in the ongoing culture wars. </p>
<p>Late last year Rabih Abuismail, a member of the Spotsylvania County School Board in Virginia, <a href="https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/spotsylvania-school-board-votes-to-remove-sexually-explicit-books-from-libraries/2878034/">proposed</a> that books be not only be removed from school libraries, but also burned for good measure. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis <a href="https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/politics/2022/03/10/ron-desantis-slams-disney-florida-dont-say-gay-anti-lgbt-bill/6994905001/">supports a bill</a> (colloquially known as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill”) which has this wording:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This joins with some dozens of other bills in state legislatures across the US which seek to repress discussion of gender, race or sexual identity. The terms are deliberately vague so that teachers can never know whether they’re on safe ground. </p>
<p>In this kind of atmosphere, what chance does a good bum joke have? </p>
<h2>Breaking taboos and attracting reluctant readers</h2>
<p>Bums have a foundational role in literature. Chaucer’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Millers-Tale">The Miller’s Tale</a>, Shakespeare’s frequent play on the word “ass” and Swift’s scatological obsessions are part of this rich inheritance. In children’s literature, bums have found a ready audience: children love to read about bodily functions. They know there is some level of taboo-breaking here and they love to break the rules. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452123/original/file-20220315-17-1yqzads.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452123/original/file-20220315-17-1yqzads.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452123/original/file-20220315-17-1yqzads.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452123/original/file-20220315-17-1yqzads.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452123/original/file-20220315-17-1yqzads.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452123/original/file-20220315-17-1yqzads.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452123/original/file-20220315-17-1yqzads.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
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</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, books such as Stéphanie Blake’s <a href="https://www.walkerbooks.com.au/Books/Poo-Bum-9781877467974">Poo Bum</a>, Dave Pilkey’s <a href="https://pilkey.com/book/the-adventures-of-super-diaper-baby">The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby</a>, Mark Norman’s <a href="https://www.walkerbooks.com.au/Books/Funny-Bums-9781742032504">Funny Bums</a> and Kate Maye and Andrew Joyner’s <a href="https://www.andrewjoyner.com.au/the-bum-book">The Bum Book</a>, sell very well.</p>
<p>And I’m not sure what the Mississippi school superintendent would make of Andy Griffith’s international bestseller <a href="https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9780330362924/">The Day My Bum Went Psycho</a>. Here, the protagonist, Zack Freeman, finds that his own bum is part of a global conspiracy to cause a methane eruption that could render everyone unconscious while the bums take the place of people’s heads.</p>
<p>Griffiths, a former teacher, <a href="https://www.news24.com/parent/Storytime/why-is-humour-in-kids-books-important-best-selling-author-andy-griffiths-spills-his-secrets-20190912">says</a> he started writing humorous books as a way to engage reluctant readers. “Kids respond to humour. They are naturally playful with words and ideas. If you want a sure way to engage children, especially reluctant readers, then humour is necessary.”</p>
<p>Michelle Jensen, president of the School Library Association of NSW, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/dav-pilkeys-captain-underpants-inspires-reluctant-readers-20140426-zqywx.html">agrees</a>. “The book often needs to be funny, so that’s probably why they like Captain Underpants.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sex-and-other-reasons-why-we-ban-books-for-young-people-47514">Sex and other reasons why we ban books for young people</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Irony, anxiety and why kids love bum books</h2>
<p>Kids love bum books for reasons that are not immediately obvious, too. They know that use of words with light taboos will gain laughter and approval from peers. They learn that these words have a kind of power, and enjoy experimenting with this power. </p>
<p>When children call you a “poo poo” (knowing you are not, in fact, a “poo poo”), they are experimenting with irony, where they intentionally use the wrong word. They are showing that there’s no natural connection between a word and a thing, an understanding that helps them to absorb picture books, where there is often a disjunction between the word and the illustration. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452132/original/file-20220315-15-65tz9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452132/original/file-20220315-15-65tz9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452132/original/file-20220315-15-65tz9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452132/original/file-20220315-15-65tz9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452132/original/file-20220315-15-65tz9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452132/original/file-20220315-15-65tz9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452132/original/file-20220315-15-65tz9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Adults joke about things that make us anxious. So do children, who often have concerns about toilet accidents and can use language to discharge some of this worry. These books can also be used to initiate conversations about bodily processes, showing that they should not be embarrassing and we do not always control them. </p>
<p>And “disgust”, however it can be theorised, exerts a weird dynamic of attraction and repulsion on all of us. How else can you explain that there is a TV show called Dr. Pimple Popper?</p>
<h2>Teachers fired for sharing LGBTQ+ books</h2>
<p>In the United States right now, we can also imagine Toby Price being fired for reading a book about a queer kid, or about racial history. </p>
<p>In late 2021, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, third grade teacher Lauren Crowe <a href="https://bookriot.com/teacher-pulled-from-classroom/">was suspended</a> because her TikTok site showed the LGBTQ+ material she used in class. Crowe was subsequently reinstated, as Illinois laws support the teaching of LGBTQ+ perspectives. But the incident seems likely to discourage other teachers from using similar books. </p>
<p>In 2015 in North Carolina, teacher Omar Currie <a href="https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-teacher-who-read-gay-fairy-tale-resigns-20150616-story.html">felt compelled to resign</a> after he read a gay-themed fairytale to his third grade students and caused a controversy that culminated in a town hall meeting with 200 participants. </p>
<p>Queer books for younger readers have <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2020/feb/why-queer-literature-is-vital-for-people-growing-up-lgbtq-.html">saved lives</a>, as children and teens who struggle with their own developing identity <a href="https://theconversation.com/queer-young-adult-fiction-isnt-all-gloomy-realism-here-are-5-uplifting-books-to-get-you-started-141125">increasingly see their challenges reflected in fiction</a> and know they are not alone. </p>
<p>Bum books, for all their good points, aren’t quite so noble.</p>
<p>But if they can ban the bum, they can ban anything – and that should worry us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179301/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Ryan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A teacher was fired this month for reading his favourite picture book, I Need a New Butt, to kids. It’s an example of how US conservatives are focusing on school boards as weapons in the culture wars.Simon Ryan, Associate Professor (Literature), Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1701002021-11-09T18:21:34Z2021-11-09T18:21:34ZPreppers is a deep reading of colonial violence – and a hilarious, must-watch Aussie TV comedy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430719/original/file-20211108-16752-g2jky6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2150%2C1493&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC TV</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Preppers, created by Nakkiah Lui and Gabriel Dowrick, ABC TV</em></p>
<p>A sophisticated multi-layered critique of colonialism, capitalism and patriarchy with an all-star Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cast (along with some well-known non-Indigenous personalities playing an assortment of “allies”), Preppers is hilarious.</p>
<p>Trying to navigate being the only Indigenous person on an all-white TV morning show, Wake up Australia, and dealing with <a href="https://www.booktopia.com.au/unmasking-the-racial-contract-debbie-bargallie/book/9781925302653.html">daily microaggressions</a>, Charlie (Nakkiah Lui) finds herself suffering feelings of inadequacy and soothing herself with self-help affirmations. </p>
<p>Then, after a series of unfortunate events, she wakes to find herself at a doomsday preppers hold out known as “Eden 2”. The six-part series then unfolds in an isolated camp where power relations shift as everyone prepares for the end of the world.</p>
<p>The core cast of seven is led by a group of brilliant Blak actors: Lui is joined by Jack Charles, Meyne Wyatt, Ursula Yovich and Aaron McGrath, with non-Indigenous actors Eryn Jean Norvill and Chum Ehelepola rounding out the preppers. </p>
<p>Many other wonderful actors move in and out of the series, including Miranda Tapsell, Luke Carroll and Christine Anu, as it tackles some big issues such as colonial violence, frontier wars, inter-generational trauma and the politics of identity. </p>
<p>But it does this all in the great Aussie tradition of <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-84796-8_6">taking the piss</a>: making fun of the things that are absurd, risible, offensive and hurtful.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nvb1Mx34TiA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>A story of allyship</h2>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-84796-8_10">Much has been written on the topic of allyship</a> with Indigenous people, particularly the danger that, in seeking “ally” status one is really seeking to position oneself as the “good white person”.</p>
<p>If white allies are motivated solely by a desire to be seen as a “good person”, there is a danger they might remain <a href="https://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers/2070/">ignorant of or indifferent</a> to larger structures of power. Preppers explores this complexity in a way that will make us all laugh, while also revealing how allyship operates to silence or take from Indigenous people. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430732/original/file-20211108-25-bmjnpb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white woman dressed like a coloniser, and an Aboriginal woman dressed as an Aussie flag thong." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430732/original/file-20211108-25-bmjnpb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430732/original/file-20211108-25-bmjnpb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430732/original/file-20211108-25-bmjnpb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430732/original/file-20211108-25-bmjnpb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430732/original/file-20211108-25-bmjnpb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430732/original/file-20211108-25-bmjnpb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430732/original/file-20211108-25-bmjnpb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Is this allyship?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC TV</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In one episode, the group is accidentally locked in the bunker. Jayden (Aaron McGrath) calls on Kirby (Eryn Jean Norvill) to be sacrificed before they run out of air. As Jayden describes it, this would be “the ultimate display of white allyship”.</p>
<p>Kirby, not very happy to comply, responds by stating she should survive to go on and tell the story. </p>
<p>“We don’t need another white person to tell a Black story,” says Jayden.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430731/original/file-20211108-10550-nd7vuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white woman with a shotgun mike, looked on by three Aboriginal people." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430731/original/file-20211108-10550-nd7vuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430731/original/file-20211108-10550-nd7vuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430731/original/file-20211108-10550-nd7vuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430731/original/file-20211108-10550-nd7vuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430731/original/file-20211108-10550-nd7vuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430731/original/file-20211108-10550-nd7vuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430731/original/file-20211108-10550-nd7vuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘We don’t need another white person to tell a Black story’, Jayden tells Kirby.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC TV</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Becoming an ally is no simple or straightforward matter. Instead, it requires constant reflection on your social position, and remaining accountable to those with whom you are “allied” – but you probably won’t be called to self-sacrifice to ensure enough air is left in your doomsday bunker.</p>
<p>In true Hollywood end-of-days fashion, the group turns on itself. Kirby declares Charlie (Lui) will be the one to die. </p>
<p>Charlie’s reward will be becoming the namesake for a future child of born again Christians Lionel (New Zealand-Sri Lankan actor Chum Ehelepola) and Kelly (Ursula Yovich). Not the first or the second child but one of the later ones, Kelly notes. </p>
<p>An annual day of honour will also be bestowed upon Charlie – “a day of mourning and dancing and stuff”. Thankfully, they are saved by the arrival of Charlie’s mum, Marie (Christine Anu). </p>
<h2>Tough truths through comedy</h2>
<p>Preppers unpacks what we think we know – and what has been taught to us as truth – about colonisation. In one scene, bones are found. The preppers suspect the bones could be those of an Aboriginal person killed during the frontier wars.</p>
<p>The truth of these atrocities is questioned by some members of the group. “Don’t they teach you that in school?”, Jayden asks.</p>
<p>“We used to make boomerangs out of Popsicle sticks, does that count?”, asks Lionel. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430733/original/file-20211108-10010-1o9yuk7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Jack Charles" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430733/original/file-20211108-10010-1o9yuk7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430733/original/file-20211108-10010-1o9yuk7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430733/original/file-20211108-10010-1o9yuk7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430733/original/file-20211108-10010-1o9yuk7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430733/original/file-20211108-10010-1o9yuk7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430733/original/file-20211108-10010-1o9yuk7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430733/original/file-20211108-10010-1o9yuk7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Through Monty (Jack Charles), Preppers tells the truth about Australia’s history.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC TV</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The resident Elder, Monty (Jack Charles), reveals he may have some records of local frontier wars and quips “that is the thing with you white fellas. You deny it but you wrote it down”. </p>
<p>Describing <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/this-interactive-map-highlights-150-indigenous-massacres">frontier violence</a> as an apocalypse, Monty shows the group a series of slides of colonial soldiers and settlers killing Aboriginal people, declaring they were “led by a cruel man, a real dog. He shot, burnt, beat, hung local Aboriginal people”. </p>
<p>Even though Preppers is a comedy, the show provides a deep reading often left out of recollections of colonial violence. Indigenous people were not just passive victims of the heinous crimes. They were people who fought for their lives and Country. </p>
<p>“They ambushed this colonial dog and his men, stole their weapons and turned the guns back on them. The Blackfullas had their revenge”, says Monty.</p>
<h2>Blackfulla deadly</h2>
<p>From Charlie, whose anxiety manifests into uncontrollable flatulence, to a Black <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2019/04/is-you-vs-wild-real-netflix-bear-gryllls.html">Bear Grylls</a>-alpha-male-wannabe (Guy, played by Meyne Wyatt), to a pair of amorous born again Christians practising abstinence, Preppers includes brilliant performances from all in the cast.</p>
<p>Preppers embodies the true definition of Blak humour in all its intricacies, and the unique ways Indigenous comedy can address the complexities of everyday life of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in contemporary Australia.</p>
<p>The series is, to quote a line in one of the episodes, “like deadly, like Blackfulla deadly, not like gammin [fake or pretend]” - a must watch! </p>
<p><em>Preppers is on ABC from November 10.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-so-funny-about-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-humour-38484">What's so funny about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander humour?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170100/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bronwyn Carlson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Led by a brilliant Blak cast including Nakkiah Lui, Jack Charles and Ursula Yovich, Preppers tackles some big issues while making you laugh out loud.Bronwyn Carlson, Professor, Indigenous Studies and Director of The Centre for Global Indigenous Futures, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1647372021-07-23T13:06:42Z2021-07-23T13:06:42ZChildren start trying to make us laugh from a surprisingly young age<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412677/original/file-20210722-19-1h6jzmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=103%2C60%2C5647%2C3768&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-school-kids-sitting-together-on-447170968">wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>“What did the face mask say to the mouth?”</em>
<em>“Let me cover for you!”</em></p>
<p>This timely joke was made not by a professional comedian but by a group of primary school students, who have won the 2021 title of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/57838574">“Britain’s Funniest Class”.</a> It was selected by public vote from a shortlist chosen by legacy comic brand Beano Studios. </p>
<p>While the subject matter is pandemic-themed, the structure follows a pattern we are all familiar with from Christmas cracker jokes. The opening line sets the scene, before introducing the comic element – a punchline using a word which has a double meaning.</p>
<p>These pun style jokes appear simple, but underpinning them is a complex set of language skills. So how early can children recognise – and start to make – jokes like these?</p>
<p>Children develop humour from a very early age, starting with a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-children-develop-a-sense-of-humour-77028">sense of shared experience and socialisation</a>. In the beginning, humour is of a physical and visual nature and includes laughing during games such as “peek-a-boo” and pulling faces. Children like to imitate and will <a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.2044-835X.2011.02075.x">try to make adults laugh</a> by copying what they do. This type of humour precedes language development, but nevertheless establishes the principle in children that something can be funny –- and indeed that they can make people laugh. </p>
<h2>Emerging words</h2>
<p>The basis of much verbal humour is incongruity -– the use of vocabulary which doesn’t make sense or fit with what is being said, and therefore is funny. To understand this type of humour, children must be able to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1129078?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">understand pretence</a> -– to know that something which is said need not necessarily be true. This usually happens at around ages two to three, coinciding with the expansion of pretend play skills. </p>
<p>To be able to tell their own jokes, children need imagination. They need to be able to come up with the ideas for something which is not true or cannot be real as a basis for developing the joke. They also need to understand that context is important –- that what you say can have different meanings depending on when and where it is said. And children need to have sufficient vocabulary to be able to express their imagined ideas and to describe the context when they would occur. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young boy with his thumbs in his ears, waving hands and sticking his tongue out." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412680/original/file-20210722-15-wday2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412680/original/file-20210722-15-wday2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412680/original/file-20210722-15-wday2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412680/original/file-20210722-15-wday2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412680/original/file-20210722-15-wday2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412680/original/file-20210722-15-wday2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412680/original/file-20210722-15-wday2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Playing peek-a-boo and making silly faces is one of the earliest ways children show an understanding of humour.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/redhead-boy-being-fun-naughty-1673103637">Martin Lauge Villadsen/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Storytelling and double meanings</h2>
<p>Being able to tell a story is critical even to the most basic of jokes. There is a need to set up the story and then <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/class/linguist197a/attardehumorinlanguage.pdf">introduce an incongruous element</a> which is resolved with a punchline. These narrative skills also start to develop <a href="https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/90686/">between the ages of two and three</a>, when children are producing sentences in a sequence to report events that they want to talk about.</p>
<p>As most puns are based on double meanings, children also need to have an appreciation that words can have more than one meaning. An awareness of homonyms starts to emerge between ages three and four, when <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-child-language/article/childrens-understanding-of-homonymy-metalinguistic-awareness-and-false-belief/EA4C3659E994885B64A47D391F1A2A6E">children begin the process of metalinguistics</a> – talking about language.</p>
<p>Once children understand that spoken words may not be true but may in fact be made up and unreal, and they can understand variation in context and double meanings, and are able to tell a simple story –- they can use language to create incongruities in the form of puns and ambiguities which cease to confuse and start to amuse. </p>
<h2>Why does this matter?</h2>
<p>We might think of humour as frivolous, something which doesn’t really matter but provides a lighthearted distraction to everyday life. But this attitude is a significant undervaluing of the place of comedy in our lives and the skill required to be funny. </p>
<p>Humour can also be an avenue to help young people develop their confidence and communications skills, as demonstrated by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists’ <a href="https://www.rcslt.org/news/national-joke-telling-competition-for-young-welsh-talent-open-for-entries/">national joke-telling competition</a> for primary school-aged children.</p>
<p>My father was a comedian who started out by using jokes as a way to get noticed when he was a small, redheaded teen and the youngest in a large family. We often think of timing as critical in comedy, but the ability to choose words and use them wisely to create humour is just as important. </p>
<p>And although we don’t all have to be funny –- it certainly helps socially if we can understand the joke. Humour helps us to feel a sense of belonging within a group. It can have an almost tribal quality with an exclusivity for those who “get the joke.”</p>
<p>So, well done to Britain’s funniest class. Not only are you funny, but you are also skilled linguists, using words in a sophisticated way to bring joy. And like any skill, it needs to be used to be maintained –- so keep on practising your joke-telling and making us laugh.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164737/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yvonne Wren owns shares in ChildSpeech, an independent speech and language therapy service.
She receives funding for her academic role at the University of Bristol and North Bristol NHS Trust from The Underwood Trust, Welsh Government and National Institute of Health Research.
She is a trustee for I CAN, the children's communication charity.</span></em></p>The winners of Britain’s Funniest Class contest show us that kids can be funny. But how early can they do it on purpose?Yvonne Wren, Associate Professor of Speech and Communication, University of Bristol, UK; Director, Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit, North Bristol NHS Trust, UK., University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1633722021-07-01T15:14:33Z2021-07-01T15:14:33ZSouth African government’s handling of COVID-19: study shows declining trust<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409298/original/file-20210701-5437-1fvhyh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some of the first South African COVID-19 vaccine trial volunteers at the Baragwanath hospital in Soweto, in 2020.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Siphiwe Sibeko (Pool)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The public has been overwhelmed by a surge in misleading and false information during the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Health Organisation has decried this <a href="https://www.who.int/health-topics/infodemic#tab=tab_1">“infodemic”</a>, which can lead to mistrust in health authorities and undermine the public health response. People often do not know which information to trust, making them vulnerable to disinformation. </p>
<p>New <a href="http://disinfoafrica.org/2021/06/14/working-paper-trust-in-institutions-covid-19-related-information-seeking-and-vaccination-messaging-in-south-africa/">research</a> suggests that South Africans are more likely to trust scientific sources, such as doctors and the World Health Organisation, than their own government. Most disapprove of the government’s handling of the pandemic. </p>
<p>These are the findings of an online survey we conducted to find out where people were getting their information about COVID-19 from and which sources they trusted most. We also conducted a small experiment to test people’s views on vaccinations. Both were done online, which means that the views represent only those South Africans with access to the web. </p>
<p>Our <a href="http://disinfoafrica.org/2021/06/14/working-paper-trust-in-institutions-covid-19-related-information-seeking-and-vaccination-messaging-in-south-africa/">study</a>, conducted with support from the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) Africa Infodemic Response Alliance, showed that when it came to getting information about the pandemic, South Africans appeared to rely mostly on “traditional” media sources. On average, 74% said they got information about COVID-19 via media such as television, radio and newspapers. </p>
<p>The results also showed that approval of the South African government’s response to the pandemic had declined from a year ago, when we conducted <a href="http://disinfoafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/What-Motivates-The-Sharing-of-Misinformation-about-China-and-COVID-19.pdf">a similar study</a>. </p>
<p>The current survey showed a high level of disapproval: 61% of respondents said they “strongly” or “somewhat” disapproved of the way the government was handling the pandemic, while only 21.1% said they “strongly approved”. This has an impact on the effectiveness of messages promoting vaccination. If receivers of pro-vaccination messages disapprove of the sender of the message, they are less likely to trust the content of the message or share such messages with others. </p>
<p>The deteriorating level of trust in the government may be related to the stuttering vaccine rollout in the country, which was high on the news agenda at the time of the study. The rollout plan suffered several setbacks and the government was <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/concerns-grow-over-slow-pace-of-sas-vaccine-rollout-20210323">widely criticised</a> for not meeting its targets. The survey was also fielded at the time when the country’s health minister, Zweli Mkhize, was put on special leave while an investigation against allegations of corruption <a href="https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/breaking-news/2525292/zweli-mkhize-special-leave-corruption-probe-8-june/">was under way</a>. </p>
<h2>The research</h2>
<p>Our study consisted of two parts. </p>
<p>First, we conducted an online survey in which we asked 1,585 South African social media users what media they consumed, which sources of information they trusted most, and their attitudes towards COVID-19. We also asked them how they would evaluate the government’s response to the pandemic.</p>
<p>The second part of the study involved an online experiment with 1,180 social media users. We sought to determine how effective social media messaging strategies were in promoting vaccination, and what role the sender of the message played in how users responded to it.</p>
<iframe title="Trust in COVID-19 information sources in South Africa" aria-label="Bar Chart" id="datawrapper-chart-4xAtL" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/4xAtL/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="420"></iframe>
<p>The online survey showed that, overall, medical doctors and the World Health Organisation were the most trusted sources of information, followed by radio and television. News websites, family and the South African government were less trusted. But they were still more trusted than social media, friends, community leaders, celebrities and faith leaders. </p>
<p>Respondents who intended voting for the governing African National Congress (ANC) or opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) tended to trust the government’s communication more than supporters of other parties, such as the official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA).</p>
<p>Overall, most said they consulted established news media sources like television (85.6%), radio (79.2%) and newspapers (online 58.3%, print 73.4%) more than they did social media. The exception was Facebook, which had a high usage (85.1%), followed by WhatsApp (67.5%). </p>
<p>Google was also a popular platform to obtain information from (85.3%), but other social media platforms like TikTok (19.6%), Twitter (29.2%), Instagram (26.6%) and YouTube (45.6%) were much less popular sources of information. </p>
<iframe title="COVID-19 News consumption habits in South Africa" aria-label="Stacked Bars" id="datawrapper-chart-9D7oA" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/9D7oA/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="383"></iframe>
<p>In the Facebook experiment, participants saw one of four versions of a Facebook post that included a video encouraging citizens to get vaccinated. Each of the four versions was made to look like it had been posted from a different account. Two of these accounts were from political parties in South Africa (the ANC and DA), and two were institutional accounts (WHO and the National Department of Health).</p>
<p>All four posts included the same video, which was designed to look like a <a href="https://twitter.com/viralfacts">#ViralFact message</a> such as the ones distributed by the WHO’s Africa Infodemic Response Alliance. The video combined two common health communication messaging strategies, “humour” and “fear”.</p>
<p>We were interested in comparing how users would react to the same information coming from different messengers. Specifically, we looked at whether different messengers would result in people being more or less likely to get vaccinated. We also looked at whether users would be more or less likely to share the social media posts depending on where they came from. </p>
<p>We found that media users’ intentions to get vaccinated weren’t particularly swayed by which political party did the posting. In all cases, after seeing the Facebook ad, their intention to get the COVID-19 shot remained very high, confirming <a href="https://protect-za.mimecast.com/s/OapFCzm4GXCXP0NRSJ1Vej">findings by other researchers</a>.</p>
<p>But when it came to sharing social media posts, users were less likely to say they would share the Facebook post when they thought it came from an ANC account. Users who were told the post came from the WHO, the National Department of Health or the DA were significantly more likely to share the post.</p>
<p>The study supports <a href="https://cramsurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/3.-Burger-R_Policy-Brief.pdf">others</a> showing a relatively high rate of vaccine acceptance among South Africans. It also suggests that the content of pro-vaccination messages is important for promoting vaccine acceptance. So is the sender.</p>
<h2>Implications</h2>
<p>The strong disapproval of the government’s handling of the pandemic, as well as the overall low levels of trust in the ANC, should be a warning to government communicators that crafting persuasive pro-vaccine messages is not enough. The trust deficit in the messenger also has a negative impact on people’s trust in the message itself, and people’s likelihood to share those messages.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163372/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>
This work is based on the research supported by the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dani Madrid-Morales does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The strong disapproval of the South African government’s handling of the pandemic is a warning that crafting persuasive pro-vaccine messages is not enough.Herman Wasserman, Professor of Media Studies in the Centre for Film and Media Studies, University of Cape TownDani Madrid-Morales, Assistant Professor in Journalism at the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, University of HoustonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1609052021-05-27T15:39:48Z2021-05-27T15:39:48ZLaughing through lockdown: why comedy is important in times of crisis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403130/original/file-20210527-22-qplr1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7393%2C4932&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-beautiful-happy-cheerful-asian-chinese-1454274836">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most of us have needed a good laugh over the last 12 months. Searches on Netflix for horror <a href="https://www.digital-i.com/blog/five-facts-about-netflix-viewing-during-the-pandemic/">dipped at the peak of the first lockdown</a>, while stand-up comedy saw a <a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/news/what-we-watched-2020-on-netflix">huge jump in viewers</a>.</p>
<p>In the world of social media, accounts poking fun at responses to the virus have also gained enormous followings, with accounts like <a href="https://www.instagram.com/quentin.quarantino/?hl=en">Quentin Quarantino</a> and the Reddit thread <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/CoronavirusMemes/">CoronavirusMemes</a> surging in popularity in the past year.</p>
<p>We’ve spent a significant amount of time joking about Zoom meetings, hand-washing songs, and home haircuts. But what makes us switch so quickly between panicking at death tolls and chuckling at a video sent by a friend?</p>
<p>As a scholar who’s spent much of my career studying laughter and comedy, I often come across surprising functions of humour. I’ve studied Italian comedy and its reception in 16th-century France, the political consequences of laughter in the Wars of Religion, and the historical antecedents to today’s main theories of humour. </p>
<p>Much of my research has revealed fascinating things about how humour appeals to us in times of hardship. But the pandemic has really amplified the roles that comedy can play and brought home our reliance on humour.</p>
<h2>Humour in ancient Rome</h2>
<p>Our need to laugh in the face of disaster is by no means new. In ancient Rome, gladiators would leave humorous graffiti on barrack walls before going to their deaths. The ancient Greeks also sought new ways to <a href="http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/194985/1/194985.pdf">laugh at deadly disease</a>. And during the Black Death pandemic in 1348, the Italian Giovanni Boccaccio wrote the Decameron, a collection of often funny tales told by storytellers isolating from the plague.</p>
<p>The need to avoid offence with humour is just as ancient. In 335 BCE, Aristotle advised against laughing at anything painful or destructive. The Roman educator Quintilian also outlined in 95 CE the very fine line between <em>ridere</em> (laughter) and <em>deridere</em> (derision). It’s still generally accepted a common position that humour shouldn’t hurt, and this is particularly true when the object of laughter is already vulnerable.</p>
<p>When the boundary between laughter and derision is respected, comedy can play a key role in helping us to recover from disaster, providing benefits which explain our tendency to seek humour in serious situations, especially in terms of enhancing our sense of physical and mental wellbeing.</p>
<h2>How humour helps during crises</h2>
<p>Laughter serves as a great workout (laughing 100 times burns as many calories as <a href="https://homewoodhealth.com/corporate/blog/humour-therapy">15 minutes on an exercise bike</a>), helping to relax our muscles and promote circulation. Combinations of exercise and laughter — such as the increasingly popular “laughter yoga” — can also provide significant <a href="https://www.psychiatryadvisor.com/home/depression-advisor/laughter-yoga-shows-promise-as-alternative-therapy-in-depression/">benefits to patients with depression</a>. </p>
<p>Laughter also decreases stress hormones and increases endorphins. In tough times, when we have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/music-us-news-ap-top-news-weekend-reads-virus-outbreak-7d86ffc9a7737e8f7b98a0492f850589">thousands of thoughts a day</a>, a bout of giggling provides our brains with respite we desperately need.</p>
<p>In the same way, we seek humour in a crisis because it is difficult to feel <a href="https://www.sunderland.ac.uk/more/news/story/finding-time-to-laugh-why-humour-is-more-important-than-ever-1266">scared and amused</a> at the same time, and most often, the combination of these emotions result in feeling thrill and not terror. </p>
<p>Sigmund Freud explored this in 1905 when revising the so-called <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/humor/#RelThe">“relief theory”</a>, suggesting that laughter feels good because it purges our system of pent-up energy. Even in the 1400s, clerics argued that mirth was vital for keeping up spirits, explaining that people are like <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-030-56646-3_4">old barrels</a> which explode if they aren’t uncorked from time to time.</p>
<p>As levels of loneliness reached a record high during the winter lockdown (in November, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-54973709">one in four UK adults</a> reported feeling lonely), laughter has also been crucial in bringing people together. Not only is it typically a communal activity – some scientists believe that our human ancestors laughed in groups <a href="https://www.livescience.com/9430-study-laughter-contagious.html">before they could speak</a> – it’s even <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/2006/061211/full/news061211-7.html?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=commission_junction&utm_campaign=3_nsn6445_deeplink_PID100038822&utm_content=deeplink">more contagious than yawning</a>. </p>
<p>Given that we’re far more likely to laugh at topics we find personally relatable, humour has helped people to identify with one another during lockdowns. This in turn creates a sense of unity and solidarity, alleviating our sense of disconnectedness. Literature scholar and author Gina Barreca maintains that “laughing together is as <a href="https://eu.goupstate.com/story/opinion/columns/2020/03/23/barreca-even-in-this-virus-crisis-laughter-can-be-good-medicine/41789319/">close as you can get without touching”</a>.</p>
<p>Laughter can also be a means of easing our worries. Joking around a fear, especially during a pandemic, can make it <a href="https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/society-and-culture/we-need-laughter-now-more-than-ever-it-gets-us-through-the-darkest-times-coronavirus-covid-19">more manageable</a>, a phenomenon known by comedians as “finding the funny”. This is linked to “superiority theory”, the idea that we laugh because we feel superior to something or someone else (for example, it’s funny when someone slips on a banana because we ourselves haven’t). </p>
<p>We laugh because we are superior, unthreatened, and in control. In this way, joking about a virus heightens our sense of power over it and relieves anxiety. Joking can also be useful because it enables us to talk about our problems and to express fears we may otherwise find hard to put into words.</p>
<p>Though many of us have <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-52064153">felt guilty for seeking humour in the pandemic</a>, let’s not add this to our list of worries. Certainly, our situation may not always be a laughing matter. But laughing itself matters, and when used appropriately, it can be one of our most effective coping mechanisms during a crisis, allowing us to find a healthier balance with others, with ourselves, and even with events beyond our control.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160905/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucy Rayfield's research into laughter started with a PhD at the University of Oxford which was funded by the AHRC. Her postdoctoral research has been funded by the MHRA.</span></em></p>It may seem strange to seek humour in the face of disaster, but our need to do so is ancient.Lucy Rayfield, Lecturer in French, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1551412021-02-15T04:12:22Z2021-02-15T04:12:22Z10am brunch, 1pm Kmart: when the media pokes fun at someone’s lifestyle, it’s harder for the next person to get COVID tested<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384148/original/file-20210215-13-g4o46e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7087%2C4016&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In countries like Australia where infection rates remain relatively low, contact tracing is <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30457-6/fulltext">a crucial defence</a> in our fight against COVID-19. </p>
<p>We’ve seen this recently in <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-23/how-sydneys-northern-beaches-covid-19-avalon-cluster-took-hold/13082654">Sydney</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/brisbanes-covid-lockdown-has-a-crucial-difference-it-aims-to-squash-an-outbreak-before-it-even-starts-152892">Brisbane</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-02/this-is-perth-in-lockdown/13108940">Perth</a>, and now we’re seeing it in <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-12/coronavirus-australia-live-news-covid-19-latest-victoria/13146258">Melbourne</a> as Victorian health authorities battle to contain the Holiday Inn outbreak. </p>
<p>The media can play an important role in sharing official information about new cases, potential exposure sites, and who needs to get tested and isolate. </p>
<p>But it’s important to distinguish between informing and shaming when it comes to sharing details of where people who have tested positive have been.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-can-you-expect-if-you-get-a-call-from-a-covid-contact-tracer-150742">What can you expect if you get a call from a COVID contact tracer?</a>
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<h2>It’s about the language</h2>
<p>When the daily itineraries of positive cases are picked apart <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/living-for-the-weekend-infected-hotel-quarantine-worker-s-busy-itinerary-20210204-p56zk0.html">by journalists</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/pjhelliar/status/1358520749875634178">on social media</a>, it’s tempting to join in the fun. This could be driven by fear. It’s scary to think we could have been infected on a trip to the supermarket. </p>
<p>But what can seem like a harmless opportunity to vent or make a joke represents a kind of public shaming, and can actually cause harm.</p>
<p>In a recent case in which <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-08/victorian-hotel-worker-at-holiday-inn-tests-positive-to-covid-19/13130892">a Victorian hotel quarantine worker</a> tested positive, Twitter users were quick to mock not only how many places the worker had visited, but also what the venues said about them.</p>
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<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1358520749875634178"}"></div></p>
<p>How the media places blame and responsibility within a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic shapes how people <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21613380/">make sense</a> of these significant events. While an article listing venues may seem harmless (and indeed helpful), the kind of language reporters use can encourage readers to make assumptions about the infected person. </p>
<p>In one widely criticised recent article, <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/living-for-the-weekend-infected-hotel-quarantine-worker-s-busy-itinerary-20210204-p56zk0.html">The Age</a> described a COVID-positive hotel quarantine worker’s “busy itinerary” and specifically noted they visited “two different Kmarts (yes, two)”. The tone here may make us feel as though this worker was reckless or selfish, despite the fact their “jam-packed weekend” was perfectly within COVID-19 guidelines.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1357104127256371200"}"></div></p>
<p>Articles from The Daily Mail described a <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9128981/Urgent-covid-alert-issued-Sydney-infected-shopper-visited-string-venues.html">Brisbane hotel cleaner</a> “roaming” around the city before testing positive and <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9246903/Urgent-coronavirus-warning-shoppers-Melbourne-mall.html">a COVID-positive person</a> in Melbourne who “wandered shops for hours and even had a massage”. This language paints people who unknowingly go about their everyday lives, before testing positive, as foolish and self-centred. </p>
<p>Fear-driven headlines often draw a connection between the infected person and the hundreds or thousands of people who subsequently have to isolate. It’s as if that individual is personally to blame. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/queenslands-coronavirus-controversy-past-pandemics-show-us-public-shaming-could-harm-public-health-143699">Queensland's coronavirus controversy: past pandemics show us public shaming could harm public health</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What are the consequences?</h2>
<p>We know from <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/197/Supplement_1/S34/842373">research</a> on previous pandemics that stigma and shame can discourage people from getting tested, or cooperating with contact tracing. </p>
<p>Recent studies on people who had COVID-19 have found many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102187">felt stigmatised</a>, and particularly felt shame at the prospect of infecting others with the virus. </p>
<p>When people infected with COVID are ridiculed or made an example of in the media and on social media, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jia2.25504">everyone suffers</a>. People may be reluctant to get tested and subsequently to cooperate with contact tracers if they think their every movement is going to be subject to scrutiny and ridicule.</p>
<p>It’s important to note that many people identified in these news articles are frontline workers — such as <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-04/perth-covid-security-guards-speak-out/13117996">hotel quarantine staff</a> — with bills to pay and who have little choice but to put themselves at risk. The entire quarantine system relies on these workers, and this public shaming only makes an already tough job much harder.</p>
<h2>Is there a better way?</h2>
<p>As the virus keeps popping up in Australia, the reality is we are all at risk. We could be exposed the next time we dine at a cafe, do a fitness class, stop by Dan Murphy’s, or go to work.</p>
<p>But public shaming of people who test positive causes real harm. The media can reduce the judgement heaped on positive cases by:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>focusing on venues and key information rather than describing the person</p></li>
<li><p>being careful about judgemental language. Even if it seems neutral, remember emotions are running high</p></li>
<li><p>emphasising a call to action: what do people need to do to protect themselves and to comply with public health advice? For example, media coverage could remind people where and when a face mask is required.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The public can also help by focusing on the relevant facts and their own actions. Remember, this is a stressful time for everyone. We are all working towards the same goal.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-some-people-dont-want-to-take-a-covid-19-test-141794">Why some people don't want to take a COVID-19 test</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155141/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When people who test positive to COVID-19 become subject to ridicule for their activities, it could make others feel reluctant to get tested, or reveal their movements to contact tracers.Clare Southerton, Postdoctoral Fellow, Vitalities Lab, UNSW SydneyMarianne Clark, Postdoctoral Fellow, Vitalities Lab, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1551612021-02-12T12:23:33Z2021-02-12T12:23:33ZHow to write a love poem<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383998/original/file-20210212-21-1aetulr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C546%2C2446%2C1793&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pierre_Bonnard,_1906_ca_-_La_Lettre.jpg">Wikimedia/National Gallery of Art</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For many, this year’s Valentine’s Day will be like no other. If you are spending the day apart from your loved ones, and don’t fancy the card selection at your local Tesco, writing a poem can be a more personal way to reach out and connect. Indeed, to paraphrase John Donne, “more than kisses, [poems] mingle souls”.</p>
<p>Here are some poems to take inspiration from, as well as some prompts to help you get that first line on the page.</p>
<h2>Make a list</h2>
<p>In her sonnet, <a href="https://nationalpoetryday.co.uk/poem/how-do-i-love-thee-sonnet-43/#:%7E:text=by%20Elizabeth%20Barrett%20Browning&text=For%20the%20ends%20of%20being,as%20they%20turn%20from%20praise.">How Do I Love Thee</a>, Elizabeth Barrett Browning demonstrates the effectiveness of staying power when it comes to writing romance. After setting out to count the ways, the poem sticks determinedly to its opening concept – how do I love thee – answering the question from every possible angle, reaching to “the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/poems-for-long-distant-loves-in-lockdown-155004">Poems for long distant loves in lockdown</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>How do I love thee demonstrates how incorporating a list within a poem can make for a persuasive and intimate piece of writing. We see this again, in an altogether sillier way, in <a href="https://www.heralindsaybird.com/ways-of-making-love.html">Ways of Making Love</a>, by Hera Lindsay Bird. In her poem, Bird unfolds a surprising and decidedly unsexy list of similes to “answer” the instructional title of the poem:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Like a metal detector detecting another metal detector.<br>
Like two lonely scholars in the dark clefts of the Cyrillic alphabet.<br>
Like an ancient star slowly getting sucked into a black hole. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Whether it’s heartfelt or more lighthearted, a list poem is an opportunity to remember the quirks that make up a relationship. Half prayer, half receipt, it can quantify the seemingly unquantifiable, as the need to find the next answer to the opening question forces you to think creatively and explore beyond the obvious.</p>
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</figure>
<p>Why not begin with a title like “Each Thing You Do”, and challenge yourself to at least forty lines. Or perhaps you might want to answer Barrett Browning’s original question in light of our 2021 reality:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I love you further than two metres;<br>
I love you beyond the limits of my daily walk.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Embrace desire</h2>
<p>Ways of Making Love might not live up to the eroticism of its title, but Selima Hill’s <a href="http://howto-write.info/indites/bookshelf/poetry/desire.html">Desire’s a Desire</a> certainly delivers:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It taunts me<br>
like the muzzle of a gun;<br>
it sinks into my soul like chilled honey<br>
packed into the depths of treacherous wounds;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this variation of the list poem, Hill takes longing as her starting point and recounts its effects in sensual, almost painful detail. Similarly, in Kim Addionzo’s <a href="https://genius.com/Kim-addonizio-for-desire-from-poetryfoundation-annotated#:%7E:text=For%20Desire%20(from%20poetryfoundation)%20Lyrics,holding%20it%20there%20before%20swallowing">For Desire</a>, the poet celebrates what it is to want without restraint or guilt, whether that’s “the strongest cheese”, the “good wine”, or “the lover who yanks open the door / of his house and presses me to the wall”. In <a href="https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/fucking-in-cornwall/">Fucking in Cornwall</a>, Ella Frears embraces the less-than-glamorous realities of sex and desire:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The rain is thick and there’s half a rainbow<br>
over the damp beach; just put your hand up my top.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It may not be the stuff of the big-budget period drama, but it’s joyful in its nostalgia for the awkward fumbling of first love, as well as of the rainy delights of the English seaside.</p>
<p>Each of these poems celebrates the power of declaring longing and need; of articulating the body and what it wants.</p>
<h2>Be playful</h2>
<p>Perhaps you’ll notice something familiar about the opening lines of Harryette Mullen’s <a href="https://sites.northwestern.edu/jac808/2014/01/29/harryette-mullens-dim-lady/">Dim Lady</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My honeybunch’s peepers are nothing like neon. Today’s special at Red Lobster is redder than her kisser. If Liquid Paper is white, her racks are institutional beige. If her mop were Slinkys, dishwater Slinkys would grow on her noggin.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this fast-paced ode, Mullen takes Shakespeare’s famous <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45108/sonnet-130-my-mistress-eyes-are-nothing-like-the-sun">Sonnet 130</a> (“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”) — itself a parody — and effectively scribbles all over it. While she maintains the style of the original, she substitutes almost every word with a contemporary reference to mass consumer culture, rendering the whole declaration — and the love industry — joyfully ridiculous.</p>
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</figure>
<p>Dim Lady demonstrates the power of the re-write and celebrates the fact that poetry – like love – can be a playful and adaptable collaboration. Like the Zoom pub quiz and online escape room, Mullen’s word substitution is a game that can be played at whatever distance. </p>
<p>Why not each take Sonnet 130 and come up with your own versions using a different frame of reference. Types of plant? TV programmes? Biscuit brands? Then swap and compare results.</p>
<p>And remember, whatever style you decide to try this Valentine’s Day, keep in mind the poet <a href="https://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/murray-les/poems/twelve-poems-0617218">Les Murray’s</a> sage advice:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The best love poems are known<br>
as such to the lovers alone.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When it comes to writing your own verse, remember, it’s the thought that counts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155161/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah Copley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>They can seem daunting to write but are wonderful to receive so here are a handful of tips to write your own love poem.Hannah Copley, Lecturer in Creative Writing, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1425362020-12-06T13:17:39Z2020-12-06T13:17:39ZWill Ferrell’s ‘Eurovision Song Contest’ movie is the laugh we need this holiday<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366472/original/file-20201029-15-1ezyy7l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C13%2C1258%2C703&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rachel McAdams and Will Ferrell in 'Eurovision Song Contest' will inspire viewers with more than keeping up fashionable appearances through December holidays in lockdown.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Netflix)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you missed the Netflix debut of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8580274/"><em>Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga</em></a>, there are reasons to watch it now that go beyond being inspired to keep up fashionable appearances through a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/coronavirus-covid19-canada-world-november-23-1.5812272">winter in COVID-19 lockdown</a> or dreaming about travelling to beautiful Icelandic landscapes. </p>
<p>The movie <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/06/eurovision-netflix-will-ferrell-review">starring, co-written and produced by the hilarious Will Ferrell</a>, is about the most popular song contest in the world that is watched across <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-worlds-most-popular-s_b_9252196">Europe and beyond</a>. Although many in North America only learned recently of Eurovision, it has been an all-consuming obsession for many Europeans since 1956.</p>
<p>The film is a popular exploration of what I have examined as an education researcher: “<a href="https://theconversation.com/street-art-personal-creations-get-political-with-public-messaging-115945">pop-up pedagogy</a>” — when a person doesn’t plan to take part in educational activities but ends up gaining knowledge unexpectedly anyway. This type of learning through <a href="http://journaldialogue.org/issues/learning-about-people-places-and-spaces-of-the-world-through-informal-pedagogy-socio-intercultural-constructions-and-connections-to-popular-culture/">popular art forms and media isn’t any less meaningful to people than what’s gained through formal education</a>. </p>
<p>As I learned as a young person who immigrated to Portugal in my early youth, the televised song contest suggests the ways that sharing song and media in popular culture can be accessible ways of inviting people <a href="https://theconversation.com/schlager-scandi-pop-and-sparkles-your-guide-to-the-musical-styles-of-eurovision-96268">into new artistic, musical</a> and cultural forms across borders and might even prompt changes in how we relate. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DPT1AiXH5Xk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for ‘Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Origins of the contest</h2>
<p>In 1956, the European Broadcasting Union, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/eurovision-2019-song-contest-what-is-the-point-purpose-pop-history-a8916801.html">an alliance of public broadcasters from different countries, first ran Eurovision Song Contest as a way to promote co-operation among countries</a>. </p>
<p>Since that time, 52 countries, not all from Europe, have entered original songs that <a href="https://eurovision.tv/story/182-million-viewers-2019-eurovision-song-contest">end up being heard by millions of people around the world during the yearly live show</a>.</p>
<p>Despite much of the media coverage of the contest falling on its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/gallery/2014/may/08/eurovision-song-contest-eye-catching-outfits-in-pictures">over-the-top fashion</a>, its <a href="https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1141-10-wonderfully-weird-eurovision-performances/">unusual performances</a> and <a href="https://eurovision.tv/gallery/the-memorable-props-of-the-eurovision-song-contest">stage props</a>, Eurovision’s enthusiastic showcase of diversity is a great way to learn about cultural traditions and languages from different countries. </p>
<p>At Eurovision, every year, there are entries sung entirely or partially in languages other than English. Of course, a person isn’t going to learn a new language just by watching Eurovision (although they might be inspired to), but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2019.104644">research shows that when a person is exposed to multiple languages they are able to learn a new one more easily</a>.</p>
<p>Researchers have linked <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/108648220000500505">learning about diverse perspectives</a>
with <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00221546.2012.11777232">improved critical thinking</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022110361707">creativity</a>. More importantly, exposure to different cultures can lead <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10643-010-0401-5">to interacting with people from different backgrounds in more positive ways and increased openness to differences</a>.</p>
<h2>Language and community preservation</h2>
<p>Some of the songs showcased through Eurovision have presented opportunities to learn about history and language preservation. For example, <a href="https://elalliance.org/languages/celtic/breton/">Breton, a Celtic language spoken in northwestern France</a>, was heard at the 1996 Eurovision contest, when guitarist <a href="http://www.danarbraz.com/">Dan Ar Braz</a> of Brittany with L'Héritage du Celtes performed <a href="https://youtu.be/DqIRYrzHoJo">a song called Diwanit Bugale</a>. </p>
<p>Breton is a language that has <a href="https://globaljournalist.org/2015/01/disappearing-languages-get-lifeline-technology">seen a decrease in speakers over the years</a>. When Dan Ar Braz performed on a world stage, it was an opportunity for people to not only hear Breton but to learn about the struggle to keep the language alive. </p>
<p>More recently, Norway’s 2019 entry <a href="https://youtu.be/3EmUmbhDRiY">by the band KEiiNO</a> showcased <a href="https://eurovision.tv/story/keiino-sing-and-joik-in-the-first-rehearsal-of-norway">the Sámi language</a> spoken by the <a href="https://www.iwgia.org/en/sapmi.html">Sámi, an Indigenous people of the northern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula and the Kola Peninsula in the far north west of Russia</a>. KEiinO is a trio that includes <a href="https://eurovision.tv/participant/keiino">Sámi rapper Fred Buljo</a>. Their song also featured joik, a traditional form of Sámi music that is part of the <a href="http://vejournal.org/index.php/vejournal/article/view/1">traditional culture that earlier generations were prohibited from practising</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://eurovision.tv/story/182-million-viewers-2019-eurovision-song-contest">With an audience of 182 million tuning in in 2019</a>, many people had an opportunity to learn about an Indigenous language through a song presented at Eurovision. </p>
<h2>Bringing people together</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372369/original/file-20201201-17-11n5wn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372369/original/file-20201201-17-11n5wn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372369/original/file-20201201-17-11n5wn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372369/original/file-20201201-17-11n5wn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372369/original/file-20201201-17-11n5wn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1033&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372369/original/file-20201201-17-11n5wn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1033&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372369/original/file-20201201-17-11n5wn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1033&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Will Ferrell with wife Viveca Paulin arrive at the 2019 LACMA Art + Film Gala Presented By Gucci.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On the surface, this comedy is not about the political transformation that can happen through exposure to new cultural exchange; it’s rather about the small personal changes that can shift through being open to new dimensions of relationships and seeing ourselves in new ways. </p>
<p>But let’s not forget the movie also offers a kind of meta-commentary on the Donald Trump years in the United States. </p>
<p>This comes in hilarious doses such as when we see (the American) Ferrell in <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/movies/a32980239/eurovision-song-contest-review/">role as an Icelander screaming at American tourists: “Go home and build your wall!”</a> Ferrell learned <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/6569694/will-ferrell-wife-viveca-paulin-eurovision/">about Eurovision through his wife, Viveca Paulin, who is Swedish</a>.</p>
<p>Traditional education has begun to recognize how learning opportunities provided by the Eurovision Song Contest are vast. The <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/eurovision/euphoria-eurovision-is-now-a-degree-course-at-the-university-of-melbourne-10307565.html">University of Melbourne has offered a course where students learn about the history of Europe through Eurovision</a> and the <a href="https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/uncommon-blog/uncommon-class-eurovision-song-contest">University of Chicago has also offered a course on the famous song contest</a>.</p>
<p>For those who prefer a more informal approach to learning, the Eurovision Song Contest returns in May 2021, but don’t worry if that’s too long to wait. </p>
<p>The movie is on Netflix along with all of its wackiness, like <a href="https://youtu.be/mr0n-pr_m4Q?t=24">Ferrell running in a gigantic hamster wheel while singing Euro-pop in a flashy, silver outfit</a>. Frankly, if you’re in Canada, facing three more months of dark, <a href="https://bc.ctvnews.ca/home-for-the-holidays-how-new-travel-restrictions-could-impact-christmas-1.5195271">cold days along with COVID-19 restrictions</a>, this sort of humour may be just what the doctor ordered.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142536/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Augusto Rodrigues does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The movie is indeed a silly look at how sharing song and media in popular culture can affect how we relate as individuals and nations but it also carries deeper insights.Anna Augusto Rodrigues, Faculty Development Officer, Teaching and Learning Centre, Ontario Tech UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1473112020-10-01T18:57:55Z2020-10-01T18:57:55ZFrom Mafalda with love: three lessons from the late Quino and his immortal creation<p>Millions of readers across the world are familiar with the dark-haired, impertinent, soup-hating, diabolically smart and terribly funny little girl named Mafalda. She was imagined by the Argentinian cartoonist Joaquin Salvador Lavado Tejon, known to all as Quino, <a href="https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/culture/joaquin-quino-salvador-lavado-the-creator-of-mafalda-dies-at-88.phtml">who passed away September 30 at age 88</a>.</p>
<p>The Mafalda comics ran from 1964 to 1973 and are the most widely known of Quino’s works – they’ve been translated into multiple languages, including braille, and were also turned into an <a href="https://www.quino.com.ar/animacion">animated series</a>. His legacy also includes numerous other black-and-white comic strips, often wordless and composed of single vignettes.</p>
<p>Through his art, Quino engaged in pointed social critique on a wide range of topics – the state of the world, politics, cliches and prejudices, the middle-class family, social relationships, food and art – where visual and verbal humour played a central role.</p>
<h2>Humour as a window into the soul</h2>
<p>I personally owe much of the awakening of my political consciousness and rebelliousness to Quino’s black-and-white comic strips. While the meaning of most was obscure to me at first, progressively I found them disturbingly funny over the years, and ultimately this helped trigger my scholarly interest in the use of two powerful tools in the social sciences, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzcMEwAxSP8">drawing and humour</a>, and in <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-affect-theory-reader">affect theories</a> that seek to understand the deep emotional and embodied dimensions of our lives.</p>
<p>The word <em>affect</em>, from the Latin <em>afectus</em>, is often understood in its verb form “to affect” someone or something (actively or instrumentally) or “to be affected” (passively) by someone or something. In an <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334851417_The_Affectivity_Gap_in_Stakeholder_Theory">ongoing project, my colleagues and I</a> have stressed how this narrow definition considerably limits our understanding of <em>affect</em> in its noun form (affect, affectivity) and the even richer problematisations of its verb form. Our findings highlight three detrimental consequences.</p>
<p>First, it privileges a limited anthropological assumption of humans reduced to abstract labels (such as “stakeholders” or “employees”), depersonalised ties based on interest, and roles. Second, it hinders our ability to foster deeper relations, where others are ends in themselves instead of means. Third, overall, this leads to weakened ethical engagement in the world we all share.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Mafalda in the subway station" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361160/original/file-20201001-19-anejh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361160/original/file-20201001-19-anejh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361160/original/file-20201001-19-anejh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361160/original/file-20201001-19-anejh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361160/original/file-20201001-19-anejh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361160/original/file-20201001-19-anejh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361160/original/file-20201001-19-anejh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mafalda in the subway station.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/violinha/3192511233">Violina/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>To counter this, humour proves a powerful tool to bring affectivity back in. It triggers emotional and embodied responses such as laughing, which becomes even more powerful when shared with others.</p>
<p>For instance, research has shown that shared humour fosters <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amle.2013.0368">socialisation and integration into a group</a>. In my own work, I’ve analysed how shared moments of humour also have the capacity to create empathy and solidarity, allowing a group threatened by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1350508414558726">violence and injustice</a> to revolt against them.</p>
<p>Quino’s brilliant use of humour can teach us at least three lessons to help us reconnect with our inner affective lives and with others – a deeply needed capacity in an age of social distancing. First, that humour can trigger critical thinking. Second, that humour can foster ethical relationships to others. And third, that humour can powerfully encourage resistance to oppression.</p>
<p>To reuse one of his album’s titles, it is high time for some <a href="https://www.amazon.fr/Quinoterapia-Quinotherapy-QUINO-JOAQUIN-SALVADOR/dp/8426445373">“Quinotherapy”</a>.</p>
<h2>Triggering critical thinking</h2>
<p>Mafalda’s constant insubordination and (often impertinent) questions leave her friends and particularly her middle-class parents speechless.</p>
<p>In his preface to a 10th-anniversary edition, <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2020/09/30/le-dessinateur-argentin-quino-papa-de-l-heroine-mafalda-est-mort_6054266_3382.html">Umberto Eco noted</a> that Mafalda, as a young girl, has the privilege of childhood innocence, allowing her to question the world. This in turn triggers deeper questions in adults about how they’ve abandoned their ability to be imaginative and reflexive.</p>
<p>Mafalda makes us question what we take for granted, and in a very touching way expresses her dissatisfaction with what she calls the “disastrous” state of the world. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361162/original/file-20201001-18-75n1xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361162/original/file-20201001-18-75n1xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361162/original/file-20201001-18-75n1xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=175&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361162/original/file-20201001-18-75n1xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=175&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361162/original/file-20201001-18-75n1xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=175&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361162/original/file-20201001-18-75n1xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=220&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361162/original/file-20201001-18-75n1xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=220&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361162/original/file-20201001-18-75n1xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=220&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Mafalda reads the definition of the word democracy: ‘Democracy (from the Greek, <em>demos</em>, people and kratos, <em>authority</em>): government in which the people exercise sovereignty.’ Her reaction is laughter, so little does the world resemble that definition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/38256002@N06/3714127590">iii/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>By using satire, Quino often leaves us with open, provocative and often desolating questions, where Mafalda wonders why reasoning and common sense are so hard to find. In so doing, she highlights how being “rational” is not only – as we are made to believe – to be self-interested and calculating. Reason is not opposed to emotion and affectivity, and there are <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/project/The-rational-is-relational">other forms of rationality that foster relationality</a>.</p>
<p>This joins the general aim of <a href="https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199275250.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199275250-e-4">critical scholars</a>, who seek to uncover the mechanisms of domination and exploitation that control not only our societies, but more importantly the production of knowledge itself.</p>
<p>It is through such critical thinking that as individuals and as social groups we can imagine alternative ways of living our lives <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0170840618815519">instead of having them being dictated by institutions</a>.</p>
<h2>Fostering ethical relationships to others</h2>
<p>The ability to question the world and society through critical thinking is often present in Quino’s drawings regarding the ways in which we relate to each other : such relationships are often odd, problematic, messy, unbalanced, but in the end that is what makes them undoubtedly human.</p>
<p>More importantly, Quino often points to the deeply human need to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1350508420956321">connect with others, of developing empathy and care</a>, or simply of recognising a familiar face in an anonymous world.</p>
<p>Following phenomenologists such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508414558726">Michel Henry</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0018726717741530">Emmanuel Levinas</a>, this need for connection – or in philosophical terms, this “embodied affectivity” – is what creates a fruitful and ethical bond between humans. In the words of <a href="https://www.seuil.com/ouvrage/soi-meme-comme-un-autre-paul-ric-ur/9782020114585%22">Paul Ricoeur</a>, it is what makes us “aim for a good life, with and for others, in just institutions”.</p>
<p>Maybe this is why Quino’s life-long editor <a href="https://twitter.com/DanielDivi1/status/1311310205750214657">Daniel Divinski tweeted</a> that his passing would be mourned by all the “good people in the country and in the world”.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1311310205750214657"}"></div></p>
<h2>Sparking resistance</h2>
<p>Comics and cartoons have a long tradition in <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137573452">fostering social critique and stirring up activism</a>, and for me it is one of Quino’s most powerful legacies.</p>
<p>When I left home and moved to a far-away university to study philosophy, among the books that came with me was the Mafalda album <a href="https://www.amazon.com/grite-Dont-Scream-Hardback-Spanish/dp/B00FBBPBCK"><em>A mi no me grite!</em> (“Don’t you scream at me!”)</a>, which I discovered as a child on my father’s desk. True to this tradition, in one of his final public appearances, Quino lifted a banner reading “Je suis Charlie” following the 2015 terrorist attack on the offices of the French satirical weekly <em>Charlie Hebdo</em>.</p>
<p>Mafalda and Quino’s other characters question social problems that are still with us today – the feminine condition, nuclear power, political abuse, overpopulation, capitalism, authoritarianism and more. His subtle and poignant humour continues to speak to audiences across the world, and remains a strong call that urges us to resist oppression and to work together to improve our shared condition. Even as Quino rests in peace, he inspires us still.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147311/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mar Pérezts is member of OCE Research Center (Organizations: Critical and Ethnographic perspectives) of EM Lyon Business School. </span></em></p>Through his work, the Argentinian cartoonist Joaquin Salvador Lavado Tejon, known to all as Quino, engaged in pointed social critique on a range of topics that are even more relevant today.Mar Pérezts, Associate professor, EM Lyon Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.