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Group boundaries in humor in the online public sphere

  • Anastasiya Fiadotava

    Anastasiya Fiadotava (PhD) is a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Folkloristics of the Estonian Literary Museum, Tartu. Her fields of interest include the use of humor in family communication, the spread of jokes and memes in social and mainstream media, and the reflections of current political and social issues in humor.

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    and Władysław Chłopicki

    Władysław Chłopicki is Professor at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He is the precursor of humor studies in Poland with his book O humorze poważnie (Humour taken seriously, PAN, 1995). He is a co-editor of e.g. Humorous Discourse (De Gruyter, 2017) and Handbook of Humor Research (De Gruyter, 2024), as well as of two journals: The European Journal of Humour Research and Tertium Linguistic Journal. Most recently his main focus has been humor in the public sphere (humorinpublic.eu).

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Published/Copyright: September 27, 2024

Abstract

One of the fundamental functions of humor is establishing the boundaries between groups. While it is very easy to trace this function in private settings, it often becomes more challenging in the online public sphere, where different groups of humor audiences overlap; there, using audience-restricting references can be counterproductive by establishing boundaries and preventing the efficient spread of jokes. Using the database on humor and conflicts in the public sphere, we look at how humor producers use both in-group specific and widely known humorous references (that we call universal) to create jokes and memes. Based on a corpus of Belarusian and Polish public humor, we outline the most common specific categories of references, analyze how the prevalence of certain categories and types of references depends on the nature of the controversies, and explore the connections between the types of references (verbal or visual) and their nature (in-group and universal).


Corresponding author: Anastasiya Fiadotava, Estonian Literary Museum, Tartu, Estonia; and Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland, E-mail:

Funding source: Estonian Ministry of Education and Research

Award Identifier / Grant number: EKKD 126 grant

Funding source: CELSA network project “Humour and Conflict in the Public Sphere: Communication styles, humour controversies and contested freedoms in contemporary Europe”

Funding source: Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum

Award Identifier / Grant number: EKM 8-2/20/3

Award Identifier / Grant number: EKM 8-2/23/5

Funding source: Strategic Program The Excellence Initiative at the Jagiellonian University

Award Identifier / Grant number: WFilolog.7.3.2022.75

Award Identifier / Grant number: WFilolog.7.3.2022.80(1)

About the authors

Anastasiya Fiadotava

Anastasiya Fiadotava (PhD) is a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Folkloristics of the Estonian Literary Museum, Tartu. Her fields of interest include the use of humor in family communication, the spread of jokes and memes in social and mainstream media, and the reflections of current political and social issues in humor.

Władysław Chłopicki

Władysław Chłopicki is Professor at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He is the precursor of humor studies in Poland with his book O humorze poważnie (Humour taken seriously, PAN, 1995). He is a co-editor of e.g. Humorous Discourse (De Gruyter, 2017) and Handbook of Humor Research (De Gruyter, 2024), as well as of two journals: The European Journal of Humour Research and Tertium Linguistic Journal. Most recently his main focus has been humor in the public sphere (humorinpublic.eu).

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the Strategic Program The Excellence Initiative at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland (grant numbers WFilolog.7.3.2022.75 and WFilolog.7.3.2022.80(1)), and CELSA network project entitled “Humour and Conflict in the Public Sphere: Communication styles, humour controversies and contested freedoms in contemporary Europe”, the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research EKKD126 grant and the research grants of the Estonian Literary Museum EKM 8-2/20/3 and EKM 8-2/23/5.

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Received: 2023-11-18
Accepted: 2024-07-26
Published Online: 2024-09-27
Published in Print: 2025-02-25

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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