Unruly Women and Carnivalesque Counter-Control: Offensive Humor in Mediated Social Protest

Graefer, Anne; Kilby, Allaina; Bore, Inger-Lise Kalviknes

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-17574-0_4

Cited by 1 publication

(4 citation statements)

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“…However, if taken within a historicaltheoretical perspective and considered beyond the content of a single joke, then online laughter is a serious public expression with a distinct critical edge. My argument is that today's popular laughter not only involves particular expressive forms (Graefer et al, 2018;Philips, 2015) but importantly, a critical potential at play that does not rely on the dominant forms of deliberation and modes of contestation.…”

Section: The Power Of a Laughing Chorusmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With the social media affordances for humorous interactions, researchers examine the everyday ideological work of humour, be it in relation to symbolic boundaries – gendered, classed, racialised identities and social hierarchies, or issues of national policies and global politics (e.g. Davis et al, 2018; Graefer et al, 2018; Shifman and Lemish, 2010; Weaver, 2011).…”

Section: Theoretical Background: Studying Laughter As a Social Phenomenonmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Taking laughter seriously as a discursive matter reveals the plurality of expressive forms and voices of multiple publics that otherwise might be concealed or excluded by the dominant forms of deliberation (Graefer et al, 2018; Obadore, 2009). Arguably, we see a widening of discursive contestation as the official public sphere seizes upon these forms and voices (Fraser, 1990).…”

Section: Two Laughs In April: a Discursive Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bakhtin (1984) provides us with a sense that popular laughter can be an end in itself, an inalienable part of culture. All uncrowning notwithstanding, laughter is ambiguous (Graefer et al, 2018; Obadare, 2009). However, following Zupancic (2008), I suggest that we might be looking at the wrong place for a critical edge of laughter when we focus on content, intent or even outcomes.…”

Section: The Power Of a Laughing Chorusmentioning

confidence: 99%

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It’s no joke: The critical power of a laughing chorus

Kravets

2021

Marketing Theory

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There is no known time in history, nor known human community without laughter. Laughter imbues our social life. Laughter dominates our daily interactions, perhaps more visibly so on social media, where it is now a weapon wielded frequently against marketers. Yet, marketing theory paid little attention to laughter as a social phenomenon or a collective consumer (re)action. This article begins to address this neglect through an integrative review of theories of laughter and specifically by introducing Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of a laughing chorus. I engage the notion as a way to understand the internet publics’ rowdy laughter directed at marketing. I show that seemingly nihilistic, irresponsible and discordant laughter is nonetheless an efficacious and notably polyvocal social commentary. To probe further the power of a laughing chorus, I draw on the works of Henri Bergson and Alenka Zupancic and elaborate on laughter as a form of expression that does not depend on reason and argumentation for its effects. I contend that a critical impetus of a laughing chorus may not always be in its content, but in the comic element, centred on repetition. That is, collective, excessive laughter involves a distinct mode of critique, which is not premised on discursive deliberation. I conclude with a reflection on theoretical and methodological opportunities in taking laughter seriously in marketing and consumer culture studies.

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Section: The Power Of a Laughing Chorusmentioning

confidence: 99%