‘Just kidding?’ – an exploratory audience study into the ways Flemish youth with a minoritized ethnic identity make sense of ethnic humor and the politics of offense
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Anke Lion
Anke Lion works as a PhD Fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) at the Department of Communication Studies (Ghent University). Her research project “Just kidding? – A qualitative research into the sociocultural role and meanings of mediated humor controversies in Flanders” aims to explore sociocultural tensions over humor and identity in a Flemish climate. Currently, she is a member of the Centre for Cinema and Media Studies (CIMS).
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Frederik Dhaenens
Frederik Dhaenens is an associate professor at Ghent University, where he teaches courses that deal with media, (popular) culture and diversity. His research is situated within the field of critical media studies and cultural studies, while focusing on queer theory, LGBTQ representation, sex and sexuality, and masculinities in relation to popular film, television and music. He co-organizes the LGBTQ forum – a Flemish network of researchers, civil society actors, and policymakers working on sexual and gender diversity.
Abstract
Recently, ethnic humor (targeting ethnoreligious identities) is increasingly questioned in European and Western countries, sparking controversy on online and traditional media platforms. Absent from the mediated and academic debate are the opinions from targeted subjects of the joke. This qualitative audience study aims to add to critical humor scholarship by providing insight into how targeted groups make sense of disputes of offense. We interviewed 35 participants (ages 15–24) with a minoritized ethnic identity (mostly a Moroccan or Turkish diasporic background) and religious identity (all identified as Muslim) on how they negotiate offensive (ethnic) humor. Moreover, we asked participants to reflect on the politics of offense (i.e. the power relations underlying the process of publicly claiming offense) and the role media play in the discussion of offended feelings in relation to (ethnic) humor. A thematic analysis of three focus groups indicates how participants’ negotiations were always influenced by contextual factors and tied to their identities, both on a sociopolitical and personal level. Further, participants were highly conscious about their minoritized position in debates on offensive ethnic humor and how this relates to societal power inequalities. As such, they recognized how the politics of offense regarding ethnic humor highlight boundaries between social groups.
About the authors
Anke Lion works as a PhD Fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) at the Department of Communication Studies (Ghent University). Her research project “Just kidding? – A qualitative research into the sociocultural role and meanings of mediated humor controversies in Flanders” aims to explore sociocultural tensions over humor and identity in a Flemish climate. Currently, she is a member of the Centre for Cinema and Media Studies (CIMS).
Frederik Dhaenens is an associate professor at Ghent University, where he teaches courses that deal with media, (popular) culture and diversity. His research is situated within the field of critical media studies and cultural studies, while focusing on queer theory, LGBTQ representation, sex and sexuality, and masculinities in relation to popular film, television and music. He co-organizes the LGBTQ forum – a Flemish network of researchers, civil society actors, and policymakers working on sexual and gender diversity.
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© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Full Length Articles
- “Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup!”: tipping behavior in restaurants as a function of food servers’ humor, opinion conformity, and other-enhancement
- ‘Just kidding?’ – an exploratory audience study into the ways Flemish youth with a minoritized ethnic identity make sense of ethnic humor and the politics of offense
- Sexist jokes don’t appear to increase rape proclivity among men high in hostile sexism: Evidence from two pre-registered direct replications of Thomae and Viki (2013)
- Clown doctors virtualized: hospital professionals’ perception regarding online visits during confinement in Portuguese public hospitals
- Humor style predicts sarcasm use – evidence from Turkish speakers
- What makes Mormons laugh
- The role of humor in social, psychological, and physical well-being
- Book Reviews
- Judith Yaross Lee and John Bird: Seeing Mad: Essays on Mad Magazine’s Humor and Legacy
- Rachel Trousdale: Humor, Empathy, and Community in Twentieth-Century American Poetry
- Conners, Carrie: Laugh Lines: Humor, Genre, and Political Critique in Late Twentieth-Century American Poetry
- Wiggins, Bradley: The Discursive Power of Memes in Digital Culture: Ideology, Semiotics, and Intertextuality
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Full Length Articles
- “Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup!”: tipping behavior in restaurants as a function of food servers’ humor, opinion conformity, and other-enhancement
- ‘Just kidding?’ – an exploratory audience study into the ways Flemish youth with a minoritized ethnic identity make sense of ethnic humor and the politics of offense
- Sexist jokes don’t appear to increase rape proclivity among men high in hostile sexism: Evidence from two pre-registered direct replications of Thomae and Viki (2013)
- Clown doctors virtualized: hospital professionals’ perception regarding online visits during confinement in Portuguese public hospitals
- Humor style predicts sarcasm use – evidence from Turkish speakers
- What makes Mormons laugh
- The role of humor in social, psychological, and physical well-being
- Book Reviews
- Judith Yaross Lee and John Bird: Seeing Mad: Essays on Mad Magazine’s Humor and Legacy
- Rachel Trousdale: Humor, Empathy, and Community in Twentieth-Century American Poetry
- Conners, Carrie: Laugh Lines: Humor, Genre, and Political Critique in Late Twentieth-Century American Poetry
- Wiggins, Bradley: The Discursive Power of Memes in Digital Culture: Ideology, Semiotics, and Intertextuality
