Volume 26, Issue 2

This paper analyzes The New Yorker 's July 2008 cover, “The Politics of Fear”, as well as reader responses to it, using a model for satirical discourse proposed by Simpson (2003). This cartoon, representing Barack Obama as a Muslim and Michelle Obama as a Black militant, was at least ostensibly intended to satirize various beliefs and rumors circulating about the Obamas during the 2008 presidential election. The analysis shows how strategies of verbal irony related to Simpson's model are manifest in this visual satire. Additionally, it investigates the satirical uptake of the image, analyzing how participants in an online discussion account for their interpretations of whether the image succeeded or failed as satire. Most participants did not perceive the image to be successful and their responses are explained in terms of Simpson's model of satirical discourse processing in conjunction with rhetorical accounts of irony. In sum, this analysis shows that pragmatic theories of verbal irony and Simpson's discourse model of satire can be applied fruitfully to purely visual, as well as verbal and visual-verbal, ironic satire.

The paper discusses the current state of research and thinking about humor in organizations and the workplace. Perhaps constrained by rationalist assumptions and conceptions of work and organization as domains of the serious, humor in organizations has received relatively little attention in management and organization studies. Such relative neglect notwithstanding, there has been a steady stream of work over the last 50 years, increasing somewhat latterly. The paper reflects, firstly, on this neglect in the face of the pervasiveness and significance of humor in life and in organizations. Next it considers more orthodox, functionalist research on humor in organizations, noting that this is the dominant stream of work. Whilst of value, this work offers a limited and partial perspective: we therefore address alternative, non-functionalist approaches that have emerged latterly, some of which take us towards a more radical view of humor in the workplace as resistance and subversion. This work is a caution against adopting a narrow functionalist view of humor and its appropriation for a managerialist agenda. In this critical evaluation of the literature humor is shown to be heterogeneous, both in its forms and effects and there is a need of better theorization that acknowledges that and which properly contextualizes humor in relation to the specific dynamics and complexities of work and organizations.

The present study examines the extent to which the impression of funniness conveyed by political jokes is influenced by the disparaging contents of the jokes. Jokes directed against conservative politicians and jokes directed against left-wing politicians were judged by 152 participants of different ages and political orientations. As content predictors of joke judgment, measures of political orientation were collected, including conservatism, party preference and perceived likeability of conservative and left-wing politicians. Furthermore, the appreciation of different structures of humor was determined using the 3 WD humor test (Ruch 1995). The results of structural equation analyses provide evidence for a strong and substantial influence of political orientation on the preference of anti-left-wing jokes compared to anti-conservative jokes. The direction of this influence is in accordance with the predictions of the disparagement theories of humor. This study supports the impact of disparaging humor contents on the perceived funniness of political jokes.

An experiment supported our hypotheses about the relationship between the social context in which sexist humor is delivered and the adoption of a non-critical humor mindset to interpret it. First, a professional workplace setting implied a local norm that is more prohibitive of sexist jokes than the general societal norm, whereas a comedy club implied a local norm of greater approval of sexist jokes. Second, offensiveness ratings revealed that participants were less likely to adopt a non-critical humor mindset to interpret sexist jokes delivered in a professional workplace setting and more likely to do so in a comedy club setting, compared to a setting governed by only the general societal norm. Finally, meditational analyses revealed that participants used the local norm of acceptability of sexist jokes to determine whether they could interpret the jokes in a non-critical humor mindset.

The adult Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) assumes that humor can be both adaptive (“self-enhancing” and “affiliative”) and maladaptive (“aggressive” and “self-defeating”). The aim of the research was to develop a reliable and valid scale to assess adaptive and maladaptive humor in children – an adaptation of the adult HSQ. Over two studies, 1187 UK school children aged 9–15 years completed the 24-item adapted child HSQ. In the second study the children completed the questionnaire on two occasions, one week apart, and also measures of psychosocial adjustment. For children aged 11 years and upwards there was a clear four factor structure to the questionnaire with all sub-scales showing acceptable levels of internal and test re-test reliability. As predicted, affiliative humor and self-defeating humor were associated with all four measures of psychosocial adjustment. Aggressive humor was associated with lower anxiety and higher self-perceived social competence for boys, and with lower global self-worth and higher depression for girls. Longitudinal research is needed to disentangle the causal pathways and examine further the links between children's humor styles and their social competence.

Four experiments explored the effect of humor expectancy on the cognitive evaluation of jokes. Participants read jokes purportedly delivered by celebrity comedians or celebrity non-comedians. Participants reported jokes in the comedian condition to be significantly more amusing (Experiment 1). Furthermore, this effect was repeated in a within-participants replication where celebrity comedians and celebrity non-comedians were matched on positive evaluations (Experiment 2). This indicates that the findings cannot be explained via differential positive attitudes towards the celebrities in each condition. In Experiment 3, different types of jokes (incongruency/nonsensical) and humor levels (high/low) were compared. The expectancy effect was found to be more pronounced for nonsensical jokes. This was argued to be due to nonsensical jokes being more uniquely associated with comedians, whereas the ubiquity of incongruency jokes dilutes any effect of expectancy. However, Experiment 4 demonstrated that the expectancy effect is contingent on the name of the comedian being observed. In summary, it is argued that prior exposure to the named comedian primes an expectancy of forthcoming humor; this expectancy influences humor ratings. These findings are consistent with Wimer and Beins (2008), who showed that priming humor expectations through joke ratings can influence cognitive humor. The current study may explain why new comics need to “win over the audience” whereas established comedians can rely upon the expectation of humor derived from past exposures.

Recent research has suggested that humor styles of individuals may be a significant issue within group functioning (e.g., Grisaffe et al. 2003; Priest and Swain 2002). The current study focused on humor styles as a predictor of athletes' satisfaction of their experiences in team sports. One hundred and forty-eight team sport athletes completed modified versions of the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) and the Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire (ASQ). The results of multiple linear regression models revealed that positive humor style was the sole significant predictor for athlete satisfaction with respect to both team task contributions and team integration. These results showed that humor styles may be a significant, if minor, constructive element within sport, as they are in other team contexts.

The supposed benefit of humor for the relief of distress has not been demonstrated with certainty amongst Chinese people. In particular, an empirical study of this benefit is necessary in order to clarify the differential effects of different styles of humor, after controlling for optimism. With this aim, the present study investigates the effects based on data from 493 university students in three Chinese cities, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Macau. Results reveal some negative and positive effects of different humor styles on distress, independently of effects due to optimism. These effects did not vary among the three cities. Nevertheless, some limitations of the effects of humor are notable.

The international fame of the “starving Armenians” has overshadowed this biblical nation's ardent love for humor and wit. The geography and distinctive language of the Armenians have also veiled the Armenian humor mind from international humor scholarship. In the present article, contemporary Armenian humor forms and expressions of Armenian humor in literary work (fable, satire and dark humor) and the internet are described. This illustration of Armenian humor forms and means of communication is informed by contemporary Western humor theory and research. The analysis of Armenian humor dispels the stereotype of the Armenian as poor and starving and reveals a rich culture full of varied forms of humor from ancient times to the internet age. A contemporary Armenian humor mind that is open to humor appreciation and expression is reflected in the designation and veneration of Gümri as the humor capital of Armenians, and the recognition of April 1 as a national day of humor and wit.