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Joke synonymy sensitivity among working comedians and the General Theory of Verbal Humor HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-09-12 Kathleen Cain, Steven Gimbel, Lindsay Howard, Brittany Maronna, Sean Beirne
Ruch et al. (1993. Toward an empirical verification of the general theory of verbal humor. Humor 6(2). 123–36.) found that ordinary college students perceived joke similarity in a pattern that largely but not completely matched the pattern predicted by the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH, Attardo and Raskin. 1991. Script theory revis(it)ed: joke similarity and joke representation model. Humor
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Dog tales: second-generation joke parties on the horizon HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-09-11 Viktor Glied, Peter Szegedi
Political humour, lampooning of political figures and political satire have been part of political life since ancient times. Political parties that used humour as a means to an end in the political process emerged in the second half of the twentieth century criticizing the political elite and the electorate. This comparative paper analyses the phenomenon of modern joke/satirical parties and their use
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Traditional identity contents predict women’s amusement with sexist jokes about men through benevolent but not hostile sexism HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-08-13 Karolina Koszałkowska, Monika Wróbel
Two preregistered studies (N = 679) tested the links between women’s gender identity and their amusement with sexist jokes targeting men. We hypothesized that the interaction between the strength (i.e., level of in-group identification) and contents (traditional/progressive) of women’s gender identity would be associated with their amusement with jokes targeting men and that this relationship would
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An examination of responses to ageist jokes HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-08-13 Nathan Miczo
Ageist humor is an everyday way that negative social attitudes (i.e., ageism) are circulated. Advances in the study of disparagement humor (prejudiced norm theory, the justification-suppression model) were utilized to examine responses to ageist humor in two studies. Study 1, comparing ageist and sexist comments, found no differences in perceived funniness between statements and jokes, though jokes
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The effect of instruction on L2 learners’ ability to use verbal irony online HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-08-13 Caleb Prichard, John Rucynski, Erin Gagatko
As verbal irony, including jocular irony, is common in many cultures and since language learners have difficulty with it in the target language, L2 educators have made efforts to help learners recognize irony. However, empirical research on using verbal irony online is lacking. Using a pre-posttest, control group design, this study aimed to fill the research gap by examining the efficacy of instruction
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Banter as transformative practice: linguistic play and joking relationships in a UK swimming club HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-08-13 Sean Heath
This article investigates the multiple interpretations and uses of banter as an inclusive and exclusionary practice amongst competitive youth swimmers in the Southeast of England. As a metacommunicative act, banter is a form of linguistic play that focuses on the ways in which the words are delivered, and the social relationships involved between those engaged in banter. Through an immersive “apprenticeship”
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Israeli Nonsense: humor, globalization and vegetables during the early nineties HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-06-25 Ofer Idels, Roni Cohen
Offering an inaugural analysis of Israeli Nonsense, this article explores humor, globalization, and Israeli identity since the early 1990s. Israeli Nonsense, a particular form of humor, emerged during Israel’s rapid shift towards neoliberal privatization and globalization. Influenced by the growing popularity of standup comedy and the rise of new commercial television channels, it became a distinctive
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Party games and prejudice: are these Cards Against Humanity? HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-16 Andrew R. Olah, Ashley M. Dillard, Stephanie J. Gomez
Two experiments assess the validity of common criticisms against the popular party game Cards Against Humanity (CAH), namely that it promotes prejudice while absolving players of any moral responsibility. Study 1a (based on Prejudiced Norm Theory) finds no evidence that sexist humor in CAH encourages men to express prejudice against women. However, Study 1b (based on Social Identity Theory) provides
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Introduction to the special issue: humour and religion, ‘you must be joking?!’ HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-04 Paul S Martin, Nicole Graham, Christian F. Hempelmann
This paper considers the alleged incompatibility of humour and religion, identifies the need for a multifaceted approach to the study of humour and religion, and spotlights important scholarship on humour and religion. It also outlines how this special issue emerged from an online symposium organized by the editors (Nicole Graham and Paul S Martin) in 2020 titled: The Sacred and The Profanity: Humour
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“A devout and holy sermon”: sources of parody in sermons joyeux HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-03 Daria N. Akhapkina
The sermon joyeux is a polemical and frivolous genre of late medieval French literature that parodies religious sermons. These humorous writings in verse transcended the canons of propriety and soon gained popularity across Europe, surviving even after the Middle Ages. This article, concentrating on the sermons joyeux that represent the lives of false saints, analyses three main sources of parody for
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Laughing and unlaughing at religion-related fake news in Estonia HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-02 Liisi Laineste, Anastasiya Fiadotava, Tõnno Jonuks
Contemporary contacts and interactions with religion are often mediated by mass and social media. These sources vary in their reliability and some are known for their use of humor as a communicative strategy. In this article we analyze how humorous religion-related news triggers reactions to and discussions about the intertwined issues of humor, religion, history and ethnic identity. First, we look
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Humor, emotion, and interpretive communities in the controversy over Jerry Springer: The Opera HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-02 Paul S Martin
Satires that tackle religion have always courted controversy. When Jerry Springer: The Opera was originally aired on the BBC in 2005, the show received 63,000 complaints and Christian Voice attempted to prosecute Mark Thompson (the Director General of the BBC) for blasphemy for airing the show. In this article I draw on the work of Stanley Fish and Gerben van Kleef to argue that interpretive communities
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Unraveling the seriousness fallacy: a case for (the study of) humor and religion HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-02 Nicole Graham
This article establishes and demonstrates the importance of the topic of humor and religion. It traces the evolution of the existing scholarship on humor and religion, from its emergence in the 1960s, to its revival in the 1990s, and its latest resurgence in recent years. To overlook the presence of the comic, humor, and laughter in religious traditions is to overlook something significant. This article
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Laughing and humor in ancient Egyptian monasticism HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-02 Ingvild Sælid Gilhus
The goal of this article is to analyze laughter and humor in the Egyptian monastic and ascetic movement in the 4th and 5th centuries with a special focus on solitary and non-humorous laughter. The article argues that laughter and humor were part of a strict emotional regime. It shows that several of the monastic stories include a laughter which is not humorous and where no one else laughed apart from
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Conventional metaphorical scenarios of humor in Romanian HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-01-05 Mihaela-Viorica Constantinescu
The way humorous verbal communication is construed in a linguaculture can be analyzed within the framework of cognitive metaphor theory and its more discursive and cultural developments. Cognitive/conceptual metaphors are instrumental for framing humor as a communicative form which goes beyond mere aesthetic experience. This article focuses on the conceptualization of verbal forms of humor in Romanian
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Mock impoliteness in Spanish: evidence from the VALESCO.HUMOR corpus HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-01-04 Leonor Ruiz-Gurillo
Mock impoliteness is defined as a specific form of politeness, one in which participants in a conversation perceive acts such as jocular mockery, insults and banter as non-impolite (Haugh, Michael & Derek Bousfield. 2012. Mock impoliteness in interactions amongst Australian and British speakers of English. Journal of Pragmatics 44. 1099–1114). Following the model of the third wave of politeness and
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Why cartoons make (some of) us smile HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-01-04 Robin I. M. Dunbar, Emma Stirling-Middleton
Pocket cartoons are a regular feature of most contemporary newspapers and magazines. As such, they represent a way of conveying complex social and political commentary in a simple visual form. How well we enjoy verbal (oral) jokes depends on the number of mindstates in the joke, and here we ask whether this is also true of visual cartoons. We use survey data from a sample of 3,380 participants attending
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From I to we in humor research: a systematic review of the antecedents and consequences of humor in groups HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-01-04 Andreea Gheorghe, Petru Lucian Curșeu
While most of the literature has focused on the individual-level effects of humor, the number of studies addressing and analyzing humor in its social context as a group-level phenomenon has also started to increase. Yet there is still increased heterogeneity of results, as well as problems regarding conceptualization and measurement of humor in groups. To further our understanding of humor as an emergent
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Stand-up for integration: stand-up comedy and its effects on social integration of expats and other migrants HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-01-04 Olivera Tesnohlidkova
This paper explores the effects that stand-up comedy performed by expats and other migrants can have on social integration of migrants. The study is situated in the Czech Republic where migrant population is growing fast and the necessity for exploring successful integration strategies increases. The study is designed as ethnographic research which relies on participant observations – attending and
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Humor styles in the classroom: students’ perceptions of lecturer humor HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2024-01-04 Lucy Amelia James, Claire Louise Fox
Previous research has shown that humor can have an impact on people’s interpersonal relationships and the way they are perceived by others. In addition, it has been suggested that use of humor by teachers can be positive, but also negative. The aim of the research was to examine students’ perceptions of lecturers described as using different ‘humor styles.’ Using an online study, a sample of undergraduate
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From humor to political dispositions: effect of disparagement humor on perceptions of political identity HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-09-28 Willam E. Rice, Thomas E. Ford
An experiment (n = 202; 136 women; 66 men) demonstrated that people use implicit theories about liberals and conservatives to guide their impression of another person based on their humor, specifically, the degree to which their humor violates the individualizing and binding moral foundations described by Moral Foundations Theory (e.g., Graham, Haidt and Nosek 2009. Liberals and conservatives rely
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Animated satire and collective memory: reflecting on the American “history wars” with The Simpsons HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-09-13 Olli Hellmann
Driven by the knowledge that how societies remember their past matters in the present, the field of collective memory studies has paid significant attention to the media’s role in contributing to the production of socially shared representations of history. The genre of satire, however, has so far remained largely neglected. My paper addresses this gap and argues that, compared to other forms of media
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Humor as a source for collaborative storytelling: perspectives on dynamic and static stories HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-09-12 Juli-Anna Aerila, Marja-Leena Rönkkö, Tuula Stenius
In this article, we investigated a creative learning process aimed at a shared story with humor in a group of 7- and 8-year-olds. In this integrated learning process, children first created an individual drawing and a guided writing assignment on a character that would make others laugh and then placed these characters in a story. The stories were collected via collaborative storytelling and the activity
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A general mechanism of humor: reformulating the semantic overlap HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-09-08 Javier Martínez
This article proposes a cognitive mechanism of humor of general applicability, not restricted to verbal communication. It is indebted to Raskin’s concept of script overlap, and conforms to the incongruity-resolution theoretical framework, but it is built on the notion of constraint, an evoked correspondence between sets of data. Under this view, script overlap is an outcome of a more abstractly described
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The Humor Styles Questionnaire: a critique of scale construct validity and recommendations regarding individual differences in style profiles HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-09-08 Graeme Galloway
This paper examines the construct validity of the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) – that is, whether scores on the scale adequately reflect adaptive or maladaptive humor use which is causally related to psychosocial well-being, and considers how research on distinct groups of people defined in terms of their style profiles can clarify the nature of the styles. A number of concerns about scale content
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Sexist jokes don’t appear to increase rape proclivity among men high in hostile sexism: Evidence from two pre-registered direct replications of Thomae and Viki (2013) HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-07-24 Neil McLatchie, Manuela Thomae
Thomae and Viki (2013) reported that increased exposure to sexist humor can increase rape proclivity among men who score high on measures of Hostile Sexism. Here we report two pre-registered direct replications (Total N = 530) of Study 2 from Thomae and Viki (2013) and assess replicability via (i) statistical significance, (ii) Bayes factors, (iii) a small-telescope approach, and (iv) a mini meta-analysis
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Clown doctors virtualized: hospital professionals’ perception regarding online visits during confinement in Portuguese public hospitals HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-07-07 Inês Peceguina, Iêda Alcântara, Anabela C. Santos, Flávia Diab, Sílvia Carvalho
Clown doctors’ artistic interventions directed to hospitalized children in the Portuguese public hospitals have been performed over the last 20 years, uninterruptedly. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the doctor clowns’ visits were interrupted, but soon after resumed in some hospitals, by means of visits online. The present study evaluates hospital professionals’ perception (n = 152) regarding clowns’
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‘Just kidding?’ – an exploratory audience study into the ways Flemish youth with a minoritized ethnic identity make sense of ethnic humor and the politics of offense HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-06-26 Anke Lion, Frederik Dhaenens
Recently, ethnic humor (targeting ethnoreligious identities) is increasingly questioned in European and Western countries, sparking controversy on online and traditional media platforms. Absent from the mediated and academic debate are the opinions from targeted subjects of the joke. This qualitative audience study aims to add to critical humor scholarship by providing insight into how targeted groups
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Humor style predicts sarcasm use – evidence from Turkish speakers HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-06-21 Katarzyna Branowska, Duygu Kandemirci-Bayız, Yasemin Abayhan, Büşra Akdeniz, Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak
Humor and sarcasm are closely related – sarcasm is often identified with aggressive humor or humorous mockery. Research in this area is common in Western European languages, but not in non-WEIRD populations. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between humor styles and sarcasm use in the Turkish-speaking population. We also attempted to predict the use of different sarcasm types (general
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What makes Mormons laugh HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-06-12 Adrian Hale
As a minority in the USA and globally, Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is also known as the ‘Mormon Church’, and its members are typically called ‘Mormons’, ‘Latter Day Saints’ or ‘LDS’. This paper uses its preferred abbreviations – ‘the Church’ and ‘Latter-day Saints’) and their distinctive religious doctrines/practices have for 190+ years been publicly ridiculed. Typically
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“Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup!”: tipping behavior in restaurants as a function of food servers’ humor, opinion conformity, and other-enhancement HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-06-12 John S. Seiter, Harry Weger
The purpose of this field experiment was to examine whether food servers who used other-enhancement, opinion conformity, or humor would be rewarded with higher tips from restaurant customers than food servers who did not use such ingratiation tactics. Consistent with predictions, humor and simple opinion conformity resulted in significantly higher tip percentages compared to the control condition.
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The humor transaction schema: a conceptual framework for researching the nature and effects of humor HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-04-02 Jessica Milner Davis, Jennifer Hofmann
This article presents a schema describing the ‘humor transaction,’ that is, the processes by which what is generally called humor is created, communicated, experienced, responded to and used. It describes in three stages the rich creative process shared between a humorist and an audience. This starts with the perception and/or formation of an amusing stimulus by a humorist and passes in a second stage
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Differential effects of affective arousal and valence on humor appreciation in female university students HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-03-27 Hugo Carretero-Dios, Elena Delgado-Rico, Raúl López-Benítez, Alberto Acosta
The aim of this experimental study was to clarify whether affective states with different arousal and valence levels influence the perceived funniness and aversiveness shown as a response to humor stimuli. We used the International Affective Picture System, IAPS (Lang, Peter J., Margaret M. Bradley & Bruce N. Cuthbert. 1999. International Affective Picture System (IAPS): Technical manual and affective
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Introduction to the “Festschrift for Willibald Ruch” HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-03-20 Sonja Heintz, Jennifer Hofmann, Tracey Platt, René T. Proyer
This introduction to the “Festschrift for Willibald Ruch” outlines his impressive achievements in humor research, especially in the areas of measurement, individual differences as well as models and theories. Though mostly focusing on the psychology of humor and the sense of humor, Willibald also pioneered interdisciplinary and cross-cultural humor studies. This Festschrift comprises seven invited
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Computational research and the case for taking humor seriously HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-03-17 Roddy Cowie
Computational research underscores the complex abilities underlying humor. Two decades of work have achieved substantial progress in some areas, notably systems that make jokes; detecting and generating laughter; and using irony in interactions. Sophisticated evaluations clarify both strengths and limitations. The achievements illuminate specific abilities, but also expose unsolved problems. The way
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Differentiation of dispositions toward ridicule and being laughed at in their relationships to self-reported eye contact aversion HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-03-17 Jorge Torres-Marín, Rocío Vizcaíno-Cuenca, Hugo Carretero-Dios
This investigation examines the associations of three dispositions toward ridicule and being laughed at with individuals’ self-reported aversion to making eye contact (EC) across different interpersonal scenarios. Data were obtained in a sample of 226 adults (53.5% women). Our results showed that the fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia) and the joy in laughing at others (katagelasticism) were positively
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Part 1: Festschrift Commentaries HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-03-17 Sonja Heintz
In this first part of the “Festschrift for Willibald Ruch”, we collated seven commentaries, from board members and attendees of the Humour Summer School, Colin Cooper, Alyona Ivanova, Martin D. Lampert, Rod A. Martin, Paul E. McGhee and Frank ‘Appletree’ Rodden.
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Humor comprehension and appreciation: an analysis of Italian jokes HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-03-16 Sonja Heintz, Giovannantonio Forabosco, Alberto Dionigi, Filippo Cioni
Humor comprehension and appreciation are two basic domains of humor research and central stages in humor processing. In the present study, 238 Italian adults rated 20 jokes to investigate how a humor comprehension task influences subsequent funniness ratings. Additionally, the relationships between humor comprehension and funniness were investigated for the total set of jokes, for individual jokes
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The state-trait model of cheerfulness and social desirability: an investigation on psychometric properties and links with well-being HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-03-16 Chloe Lau, Catherine Li, Lena C. Quilty, Donald H. Saklofske, Francesco Bruno, Francesca Chiesi
Ruch and colleagues (Ruch, Willibald, Gabriele Köhler & Christoph Van Thriel. 1996. Assessing the “humorous temperament”: Construction of the facet and standard trait forms of the state-trait-cheerfulness-inventory — STCI. Humor 9(3–4). 303–340) postulated high cheerfulness, low seriousness, and low bad mood contribute to exhilaration and enjoyment of humor. Although robust findings have corroborated
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The fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia) in adults and children: testing trait-congruent false memories in the Deese–Roediger–Mcdermott paradigm HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-03-09 Kay Brauer, René T. Proyer
The fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia) is an individual differences variable characterized by negative reactions to laughter. Based on the theory of trait-congruent information processing, we conducted a series of experiments to examine a gelotophobia-related memory bias toward laughter in the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm. The DRM is a reliable method to provoke false memories (FM)
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Age differences in using humor to cope during a pandemic HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-02-10 Anthony Villalba, Jennifer Tehan Stanley, Michael T. Vale, Jennifer R. Turner, Michelle Houston
Using humor can be beneficial for coping with stress. Humor can elicit positive emotions, which can bolster cognitive, social, and physical resources. Individuals who use humor to cope with negative affect report more positive well-being. However, it is less clear whether there are age differences in using humor to cope with an acute stressful event (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic). We investigated whether
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Satire without borders: the age-moderated effect of one-sided versus two-sided satire on hedonic experiences and patriotism HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-01-30 Mark Boukes, Heather L. LaMarre
The differential satire effects across domestic and foreign audiences are largely unknown; yet, this is of growing relevance as political satire increasingly reaches international audiences. A two-country experiment was conducted in which satirical stimuli from the Netherlands with either a one-sided (only targeting the United States) or two-sided humorous message (targeting both the U.S. and the Netherlands)
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Low system justification drives ideological differences in joke perception: a critical commentary and re-analysis of Baltiansky et al. (2021) HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-01-26 Harry R. M. Purser, Craig A. Harper
A recent study by Baltiansky et al. (2021), which was published in HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research tested two hypotheses related to system justification and the perception of stereotypical humor. They reported to have found evidence for a cross-over interaction, with judgments of jokes being contingent on a combination of the social status of the targets of jokes and raters’ system justification
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Semantic components of laughter behavior: a lexical field study of 14 translations of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-01-24 Elisa Gironzetti, Christian F. Hempelmann, Adel Aldawsari, Sarvenaz Balali, Władysław Chłopicki, Hilal Ergül, Meichan Huang, Liisi Laineste, Shigehito Menjo, Ksenia Shilikhina
This paper builds on a novel methodology of lexical semantics exemplified on lexical field theory by using several translations of Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The present study, a large-scale collaboration, presents and compares the results for laugh, smile, grin, giggle, and other words for laughter behaviors across 14 languages and in extensive detail. The key results answer the
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A leader or a comedian? Perceptions of politicians based on their use of humor on Twitter HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-01-20 Andrés Mendiburo-Seguel, Hannah Buie, Stéphanie Alenda, Patricio Navia
Politicians are tasked with both holding expertise and being relatable to the general population they are representing. Accordingly, politicians strategize their communication style to achieve both aims. One strategy they implement is using humor in their communication to constituents. But is this an effective strategy across humor styles? Does political affiliation or gender of the politician impact
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Laughing to love science: contextualizing science comedy HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-01-17 Edward Thomas Bankes
Over the last fifteen years, there has been growing interest in the use of comedy within science communication. This paper seeks to contextualize the emergence of science comedy, analyzing the construction of comedy within academic literature as a means for bolstering the cultural authority of science. Drawing specifically from Mikhail Bakhtin’s work on power and language, academic constructions of
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Apples versus oranges, normative claims, and other things we did not mention: a response to Purser and Harper (2023) HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2023-01-16 Dean Baltiansky, Maureen A. Craig, John T. Jost
In a previous article, we observed that system justification was positively associated with the appreciation of humor targeting low-status groups (Baltiansky, Craig, & Jost, 2021). We are pleased to learn that other researchers took interest in our study, reanalyzing the data set we made publicly available and writing a commentary. We are also pleased that, using Bayesian statistical analyses, Purser
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The relationship between humor and women’s body image concerns and eating behaviors HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2022-10-01 Fabio Fasoli, Jane Ogden, Susie Johnson
Humor is considered a coping strategy that is associated with well-being and positive self-esteem. The role of humor in relation to body image and eating behaviors has rarely been investigated. This cross-sectional study (n = 216) examined the relationship between general coping humor and humor styles targeting the self, namely self-enhancing and self-defeating humor, and body image and eating behaviors
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Organizational humor as making our work more meaningful: mediation by crafting job resources HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2022-09-24 Neslihan Turnalar-Çetinkaya, İrem N. Keskin, Gamze Bora, Reyhan İkan, Şeyma Gümrükçü
In the present study, we examined the impact of humor’s positive functions on the perception of a job’s meaningfulness. We argued that liberating and stress-relieving humor act as job resources enhancing job crafting to increase social and structural resources to experience meaningfulness. We hypothesized that crafting the job to increase structural and social resources would mediate the link between
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Humor and resilience: relationships with happiness in young adults HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2022-09-23 Shelia M. Kennison
Prior research has shown that more resilient individuals report higher levels of happiness. Other research also shows that those who use positive humor styles (i.e., self-enhancing and affiliative) more often and use negative humor styles (i.e., aggressive and self-defeating) less often report higher levels of happiness. Resilience research has characterized resilience as involving multiple protective
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Prosodic markers of satirical imitation HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2022-09-22 Saskia Leymann, Tomas O. Lentz, Christian Burgers
Satirical imitation is a popular format of late-night comedy shows and can provide political entertainment and education. However, little research has been conducted on how satirists mark their satirical intent to clue audiences in on their intended messaging. This study investigates the prosodic marking of satirical imitation and contrasts it with prosodic marking of irony. We conducted a detailed
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Humor and fear of COVID-19 in Polish adults: the mediating role of generalized anxiety HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2022-08-20 Paweł Brudek, Stanisława Steuden
Since the end of 2019 to the present day, the COVID-19 pandemic has been affecting the functioning of countries, institutions and individuals. So far, despite the increasing number of studies, little is known about the effects of the pandemic on the psychosocial well-being of a person. Research results obtained to date suggest that the fear of COVID-19 may be reduced by humor. However, to be able to
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Cartoons on trial: a case study integrating discursive, legal and empirical perspectives HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2022-08-02 Ana Pedrazzini, Tjeerd Royaards
This paper focuses on two controversial cartoons that elicited debates around the conflicts between freedom of expression and the right to satire on the one hand, and the protection of the reputation or rights of others on the other. Paying special attention to genre-related aspects, we adopt a comprehensive approach that combines a discourse analysis of the cartoons, the analysis of the legal cases
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The (Ab)use of freedom of speech and the 1788 Ismaël-controversy: the legal limitations and affordances of a parodic periodical in the Dutch Republic HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2022-08-02 Emanuel van Dongen, Martine Veldhuizen
This article highlights a fascinating legal wrestling match over the legal limits of free speech through humorous artistic works in the late eighteenth century – just before freedom of speech became a constitutional right. It concerned the parodic item “Reports from Babel” in an issue of the anonymous Dutch journal Ismaël from 15 September 1788. The city of Utrecht and specific authorities were allegedly
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Imagining interdisciplinary dialogue in the European Court of Justice’s Deckmyn decision: conceptual challenges when law and technology regulate parody HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2022-08-02 Kelly Breemen, Vicky Breemen
In Deckmyn v Vandersteen, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) defined parody as an “autonomous concept of EU law” with certain “essential characteristics.” The case revolved around a parodic drawing modeled after a cover of the well-known Suske & Wiske comic book series. Building on literary theory on parody, including the work of Genette, this paper will analyze both the ECJ’s reasoning in Deckmyn
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Santa Banta jokes: the intersection between humor, religion and the law HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2022-08-02 Shivangi Gangwar
Santa and Banta jokes are the mainstay of most Indian childhoods. Santa and Banta were used as stage names by the comedian duo Gurprit and Prabhpreet Singh but somewhere along the line, they turned into fictional characters in their own right and acquired pan-Indian fame. The defining characteristics of Santa and Banta jokes are that both are simple-minded middle-aged men belonging to the Sikh religious
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“This does not interest the court!”: the 1966 Soviet Satire Trial and its persistent legacy HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2022-08-02 Elisa Kriza
Soviet writers Yuli Daniel (aka Nikolay Arzhak) and Andrey Sinyavsky (aka Abram Tertz) published several satires anonymously in capitalist countries during the Cold War. In 1965 both writers were arrested in the Soviet Union and they were put on trial in February 1966. They were charged under Article 70 of the Penal Code that criminalized libel and defamation of the state and agitation with the aim
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Different systems, similar challenges: humor and free speech in the United States and Europe HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2022-07-18 Alberto Godioli, Laura E. Little
The United States and Europe are often contrasted with each other regarding their approach to freedom of expression. Yet, despite the differences between their respective judicial systems, courts from both regions inevitably face similar interpretive challenges when dealing with humor. Our paper conducts a comparative discussion of humor-related jurisprudence from the US and Europe, mostly (but not
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Humor and hierarchy: an experimental study of the effects of humor production on male dominance, prestige and attractiveness HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2022-07-12 Ali Giritlioglu, Nikhil Chaudhary
We conducted a cross-cultural experiment on a sample of 230 participants, to examine how listening to an audio recording of a male telling a joke followed by either laughter (humorous condition) or an unimpressed murmur (non-humorous condition) affected participant ratings of that male’s social status, dominance, prestige and attractiveness. The experiment followed a between-subjects design. The sample
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Comedy Bootcamp: stand-up comedy as humor training for military populations HUMOR (IF 1.2) Pub Date : 2022-04-27 Andrew R. Olah, Janelle S. Junkin, Thomas E. Ford, Sam Pressler
This paper details the results of an 18-month program impact evaluation (n = 72) on Armed Services Arts Partnership’s “Comedy Bootcamp,” a popular stand-up comedy course specifically tailored to military veterans. Based on literature around the benefits of sense of humor and humor training (e.g., 7 Humor Habits), we anticipated that participants in Comedy Bootcamp would show greater well-being relative