Abstract Despite its cultural reach and influence, comedy may not be well-understood in communication and public engagement efforts for social justice challenges. Research about comedy’s influence in social issues exists across disciplines and lacks common language. This article creates a practical framework toward the understanding of mediated comedy in social change communication by presenting a typology of distinct formats of comedy – scripted entertainment, satire news, humorous ads, and stand-up comedy – and synthesizing multidisciplinary scholarship that deals with the role of comedy in audience understanding of civic and social issues. The resulting framework for comedy’s influence in social justice includes: attracting attention, persuasion, offering a way into complex issues, dissolving social barriers, and encouraging message sharing. Implications for leveraging comedy in social change public engagement efforts, as well as directions for future innovation and research, are discussed.

中文翻译：

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一个有趣的事情：建立一个框架来理解喜剧在社会变革中的作用

摘要 尽管喜剧具有文化影响力和影响力，但在应对社会正义挑战的交流和公众参与努力中，人们可能并不了解喜剧。关于喜剧对社会问题影响的研究跨学科存在，缺乏共同语言。本文通过呈现不同形式的喜剧类型——剧本娱乐、讽刺新闻、幽默广告和单口喜剧——并综合处理角色的多学科学术研究，为理解社会变革传播中的中介喜剧创造了一个实用框架。喜剧在观众对公民和社会问题的理解中。由此产生的喜剧对社会正义的影响框架包括：吸引注意力、说服、提供解决复杂问题的途径、消除社会障碍和鼓励信息共享。