Funny as hell: The functions of humour during and after genocide

Abstract

The history of genocide is replete with various humorous treatments by different actors with distinctive objectives. This type of dark humour treats the topic, which is usually enveloped with solemnity, in a satirical manner. This essay aims to study the functions of humour by comparatively examining victimized individuals' and groups' use of humour during and after violent episodes such as genocide. Why do victims use humour under conditions of extreme peril, threats to life, and fear? It draws on published and unpublished memoirs, pamphlets, video clips, and most importantly victims' artistic and literary responses to the Nazi repression and the mass violence in Bosnia (1992-1995) and Syria (2011-2013). The essay argues that dark humour seems to be widespread among victims and survivors, as it functions as a complex mechanism for coping with anxiety and fear, group cohesion and critique of perpetrators. Our conclusions suggest that victimological approaches in genocide studies can benefit considerably from focusing on oppressed groups' humoristic responses to mass violence.

Humour in online comments regarding Montenegro’s accession to NATO

“…In this sense, contribution of this paper was to shed light on Montenegrin mentality and employ humour theory to reveal peculiarities of Montenegrin nation usually linguistically labelled as "a country in the Balkans", its humour so far under-examined in academic research. Recently, Balkan wars have become popular topics of stand-up comedians, along with jokes about ex-Yugoslav people (Üngör & Verkerke 2015). Undoubtedly, a linguistic survey of humour in online comments as an emerging genre represents a valuable resource of future folk linguistic and pragmatic analysis.…”

Origins of Bosnian humor and its role during the siege of Sarajevo

“…However, why is this specific self-humiliating strategy collectively employed? Üngör & Verkerke (2015) argue that some groups, such as European Jews, for example, assign negative stereotypical qualities to themselves, and the case of Bosnian humour may represent a similar phenomenon. What remains unclear is if those stereotypes were initially ascribed by the Jews and Bosnians to themselves or assigned by outsiders and later accepted and internalised.…”

“…One of the common implicit assumptions in the literature on humour in Bosnia during the war is that it has changed and became more aggressive, and that the target of the jokes became the other instead of the self, which is generally an uncommon practice in Bosnian humour culture. Üngör & Verkerke (2015) highlight jokes directed at Serb nationalist leaders responsible for the war and atrocities, such as Slobodan Milošević and Radovan Karadžić. The authors are not wrong; such jokes indeed existed.…”

Towards a typology of humorous wartime tweets

“…In this light, wartime humour is traditionally treated either as a form of resistance or as a tool of political agitation. In the attempts to resist the enemy, the destruction and grief, humour and laughter, on the one hand, proved to be a good strategy for survival (Le Naour 2001;Carpenter 2010;Üngör & Verkerke 2015) and a means of selfprotection (Robertshaw 2001;Dunne-Lynch 2007). On the other hand, humour was widely studied as a means of increasing recruitment and civilian involvement in the war, i.e.…”