The seriousness of ethnic jokes: Ethnic humor and social change in the Netherlands, 1995–2012
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Giselinde Kuipers
Giselinde Kuipers is professor of cultural sociology at the University of Amsterdam. She has published widely on the sociology of humor, popular culture, media, beauty and cultural globalization, and is the author of
Good Humor, Bad Taste: A Sociology of the Joke (Berlin/Boston 2006/2015).
und
Barbara van der Ent
Barbara van der Ent is a graduate student and junior lecturer at the Department of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam. She was affiliated with the Dutch Social and Cultural Planning Office, where she conducted research on ethnic relations and discrimination.
Abstract
How serious are ethnic jokes? This article investigates this question by looking at the relation between ethnic jokes and ethnic relations in the Netherlands. It analyzes two corpora covering the range of ethnic jokes collected using an (almost) identical survey among high school students in 1995 (N=248) and 2012 (N=312). Finding a complex pattern of overlapping and shifting scripts, we identify three main categories of jokes with different dynamics. The first and second category, jokes about national groups and regional minorities, and sick ethnic jokes, are both in decline. The third category, jokes about ethnic minorities, is prominent in both years, and the most important category in 2012. Jokes about minorities show considerable variation and a “lag” in their reflection of societal changes. They refer to the most prominent ethnic stereotypes and ethnic discourse, and reflect the Dutch ethnic hierarchy and changes in ethnic relations over time. We argue that a single theory or approach is not sufficient to explain all ethnic humor or to assess its seriousness – or lack thereof. We conclude by suggesting two criteria to assess the seriousness of ethnic humor: the relation between jokes and actual hostility and exclusion; and the harshness of a joke cycle.
About the authors
Giselinde Kuipers is professor of cultural sociology at the University of Amsterdam. She has published widely on the sociology of humor, popular culture, media, beauty and cultural globalization, and is the author of Good Humor, Bad Taste: A Sociology of the Joke (Berlin/Boston 2006/2015).
Barbara van der Ent is a graduate student and junior lecturer at the Department of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam. She was affiliated with the Dutch Social and Cultural Planning Office, where she conducted research on ethnic relations and discrimination.
Acknowledgements
The authors want to thank Jan de Wolf and Theo Meder for their support in the first wave of this study, and Herman van de Werfhorst and Poul Holleman for their helpful suggestions during the second wave. We are greatly indebted to Christie Davies for his support and inspiration from the early 1990s to this date. Finally, we are grateful to the reviewers for their excellent comments, and to René Proyer for his willingness to handle the review process, and for his detailed and thoughtful comments.
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©2016 by De Gruyter Mouton
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- The role of economic conditions on humor generation and attitude towards humorous TV commercials
- A Semiotic Analysis of Political Cartoons in Jordan in Light of the Arab Spring
- Bridging notions of language play and language awareness
- The development of a humor styles questionnaire for younger children
- A humor typology to identify humor styles used in sitcoms
- The seriousness of ethnic jokes: Ethnic humor and social change in the Netherlands, 1995–2012
- Book Reviews
- Moira Marsh: Practically Joking
- Daniel Bowles: The Ends of Satire: Legacies of Satire in Postwar German Writing
- Gian Luigi De Rosa, Francesca Bianchi, Antonella De Laurentiis, and Elisa Perego: Translating Humor in Audiovisual Texts
- Erratum
- Erratum to: Faith and laughter: Do atheists and practicing Christians have different senses of humor?
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- The role of economic conditions on humor generation and attitude towards humorous TV commercials
- A Semiotic Analysis of Political Cartoons in Jordan in Light of the Arab Spring
- Bridging notions of language play and language awareness
- The development of a humor styles questionnaire for younger children
- A humor typology to identify humor styles used in sitcoms
- The seriousness of ethnic jokes: Ethnic humor and social change in the Netherlands, 1995–2012
- Book Reviews
- Moira Marsh: Practically Joking
- Daniel Bowles: The Ends of Satire: Legacies of Satire in Postwar German Writing
- Gian Luigi De Rosa, Francesca Bianchi, Antonella De Laurentiis, and Elisa Perego: Translating Humor in Audiovisual Texts
- Erratum
- Erratum to: Faith and laughter: Do atheists and practicing Christians have different senses of humor?
