Age and gender differences in meme humor: a multimodal variationist mixed-method approach

Abstract

Digital humor expressed through memes plays a vital role in facilitating social interaction in online environments. This paper reports on age and gender-related differences in multimodal digital meme humor from users aged 14 to 93. Its aim is to investigate how visual and textual elements, psychological humor types and digital humor types vary among smartphone users of different age and gender groups. The multimodal corpus was compiled from memes that were shared by 250 BA English and senior citizen students at a German university and their relatives and friends. The memes were annotated with the Covid-19 topic (e.g. lockdown, mask requirement, vaccination) and the sources of visual origin (e.g. cartoon characters, animals, politicians). Also, a previously non-multimodal psychological humor framework (Martin, Rod A., Patricia Puhlik-Doris, Gwen Larsen, Jeanette Gray & Kelly Weir. 2003. Individual differences in uses of humor and their relation to psychological well-being: Development of the Humor Styles Questionnaire. Journal of Research in Personality 37(1) 48–75) was applied to the memes. To determine the linguistic multimodal digital humor types, Vásquez, C. 2019. Language, creativity and humour online. London). Terminology was employed for annotation. The statistical analysis reveals only slight gender differences concerning all variables. Significant differences were found concerning both multimodal humor frameworks, language usage, canvas and humor themes across all age groups. The interconnectedness of the codes is captured in a qualitative analysis of select memes to underscore the semiotic dynamics of multimodal humor.