Introduction

This chapter talks about the utility of ridicule and how this can help in building community. It discusses John Hobbes' view of ridicule and refers to it as 'Hobbesian,' an understanding of laughter as an expression of prideful superiority. To look at ridicule through a Hobbesian lens is to call into doubt the very possibility of a safe or inoffensive jest. For Hobbes, then, the problem was not that the strong would constantly laugh at the weak but that vainglorious mockers would provoke angry retaliation from those whose dignity they managed to offend. The chapter also discusses the Shaftesburian view of ridicule as a contrast to the Hobbesian view. Shaftesburian laughter could be more easily shared in company without anyone present feeling slighted or diminished. No philosophy that grounded laughter in individual self-glory could account for how shared laughter forged friendship and conviviality. Ridicule, on this view, was effective against vice because, once exposed, vice naturally inspires contempt in anyone with an uncorrupted moral sense. For Shaftesburians, certain behaviours and traits were intrinsically ridiculous, meaning that any properly constituted mind should dismiss them with laughter once exposed. On the Shaftesburian view, the element of contempt that had been so central to the Hobbesian view could never be disavowed completely. On the contrary, it was from contempt that ridicule derived both its danger and its practical efficacy as an instrument of enlightenment. The chapter presents the argument that declaring ridicule uncivil is to deny its sociable and emancipatory potential.

Laughter and Short-Term Blood Pressure Reactivity in Spousal Support Interactions

Individual effects of laughter in reducing stress are well-documented. However, no research has examined dyadic associations between laughter and blood pressure in spousal support interactions. This study examined the hypotheses that individual and shared laughter would be associated with lower blood pressure and distress during a support interaction for both the “support-seeker” and the “support-provider”. Two hundred and seventy-one older adult couples were video-recorded and their blood pressure was monitored during a baseline, a discussion about the support-seeker’s greatest fear related to aging, and while playing a game in the laboratory. Both spouses reported their distress after the support interaction. Laughter was coded by trained observers. According to the Actor Partner Interdependence Models, the more the support-seeker laughed, the lower the support-provider’s systolic blood pressure was during the support interaction (partner effect). Also, laughter was associated with less distress for both spouses during the support interaction (actor effects). Part of a symposium sponsored by Dyadic Research on Health and Illness Across the Adult Lifespan Interest Group.

HUMOR WITHOUT BOUNDARIES? A TYPOLOGY OF GLOBALLY SPREAD HUMOR ON TWITTER

Our study examines user-generated global humor through an analysis of comic items spread on Twitter. By addressing the inherent conflict between the locality of humor and the globalizing digital participatory sphere, we aim to uncover the features of global user-generated humor. A long-term sample of humor keywords in multiple languages was used to locate 734 items reaching global audiences, which were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively (a subset of 143). We found that such items focused on “the universal,” rather than a multicultural exchange. Additionally, the texts were characterized by five types of comic failures, each accompanied by some form of redemption: $2 – slapstick acts featuring shortcomings in basic human behavior but accompanied by daring attitudes; $2 , displaying “backstage” unattractive behavior but enjoying an aura of authenticity; $2 – lacking popularity or charisma but inviting sympathy; $2 – misinterpreting the world and your place in it but compensating through basic human communicability; and $2 – using nonsense humor that is nevertheless appreciated through communal understanding. Our findings chart the meaning of human failure in the digital age as a balancing act: while individuals fail in fundamental aspects of life, shared laughter through social media offers collective ways for overcoming their failures. This dynamic exists in a liminal space, seeming to existing both everywhere and nowhere. By building on globally recognizable content and situations, global humor evokes empathy or identification from broad crowds without committing to specific identities.

Adding shared laughter to optimise shared medicine.

43 Background: Most people are familiar with the expression "laughter is the best medicine". By triggering endorphin release and strengthening relationships, it can be considered a perfect holistic care-approach. We explored the occurrence, acceptability, and functions of humor and laughter in patients with incurable cancer. Methods: We performed 16 in-depth interviews with patients with incurable cancer at the day-care unit of a Dutch comprehensive cancer hospital. We further performed and online questionnaire-study among 33 oncologists (41% of 81 approached) about experiences with humour and laughter in breast, lung, head and neck, or urological cancer. Results: Nearly all oncologists reported using humour (97%), and all reported to sometimes laugh during consultations; 83% reported experiencing a positive effect of laughter. These results were in line with patients’ experiences: Patients noted that humor always stayed alive, despite having incurable cancer. Apart from this human aspect, patients also used humor to broach difficult topics and to downplay challenges. Some patients explicated that the appreciation of humor was dependent on the type of humor, since humor is rather personal. Patients and oncologists acknowledged that using humor is delicate, and sometimes inappropriate, partly because they did not always share the same type of humor. Laughter, in contrast, was regarded as ‘lighter’ than humor, and could, accordingly, more easily be implemented. However, both patients and specialists cautioned against patients using laughter to avoid uncertainty or broach difficult topics. Conclusions: Our results suggest that patients and healthcare professionals can benefit from humour or laughter. Many conversations were joyful, even in the midst of medical challenges. Although humor is personal, laughter can be applied more easily. Healthcare professionals therefore need to have a basic comprehension of the impact of laughter to facilitate discussions, improve the doctor-patient relationship, and identify underlying wishes. If applied appropriately, shared laughter will possibly add to optimise shared medicine.

Functions of laughter in English-as-a-lingua-franca classroom interactions: a multimodal ensemble of verbal and nonverbal interactional resources at miscommunication moments

This study qualitatively examines possible communicative functions of laughter in English-as-a-lingua-franca (ELF) interactional contexts. It particularly focuses on the sequences when students and their instructors deal with miscommunication in multilingual writing classrooms at a US university. Adapting perspectives from the multimodal turn, I conceive of laughter as part of the diverse multimodal interactional resources that speakers in ELF contexts can coordinate with speech and other nonverbal, embodied actions (e.g. smile and body orientation), but that are distinct resources from speech. Combining sequential, multimodal analysis with ethnographic information, the data analysis reveals that laughter can have various functions in ELF classroom interactions at miscommunication moments. Laughter often subtly signals nonunderstanding, which can then lead to interactional repair. Other possible functions of laughter include pre-empting miscommunication by marking a speaker’s problem related to vocabulary; teasing specific interlocutor(s); and building solidarity through shared laughter. Based on the analysis in this article, it can be argued that laughter may in fact be counterproductive in resolving misunderstanding in ELF classroom interactions due to its ambiguous, implicit nature. Findings suggest that ELF researchers benefit from developing a multimodal orientation by integrating nonverbal interactional resources into their discourse analyses in order to examine interlocutors’ complex communicative strategies in a way that meaningfully coordinates various semiotic modes such as laughter and smile. Such an approach would provide a more robust conceptualization of communicative competence or practice of interlocutors in ELF contexts.

Solo or shared laughter in coparticipant criticism in Japanese conversation

This study employs conversation analysis to examine solo production and sharing of laughter in the delivery and reception of coparticipant criticism in Japanese conversation. I argue that whilst laughter is routinely used by either the deliverer or recipient of criticism, it may be dispreferred for laughter to be shared by both parties with reference to a given criticism. Moreover, whereas solo laughter by either the deliverer or recipient of criticism tends to lead to a relatively speedy resolution of a criticism sequence, shared laughter between deliverer and recipient may signal interactional trouble and take considerable work to resolve. Such patterns suggest that even though criticising is itself a dispreferred action, shared laughter by both parties is potentially markedly dispreferred. Preliminary results of this investigation point to the possibility that interactional work performed by laughter may be more widely shared across different cultural and linguistic environments than previously assumed

“How is these kids meant to make it out the ghetto now?” Community cohesion and communities of laughter in British multicultural comedy

This article uses readings of Mark Mylod’s Ali G Indahouse, Joe Cornish’s Attack the Block, and Chris Morris’s Four Lions to argue against a political trend for laying the blame for the purported failure of British multiculturalism at the hands of individual communities. Through my readings of these comic films, I suggest that popular constructions of “community” based on assumptions about cultural and religious homogeneity are rightly challenged, and new communities are created through shared laughter. Comedy’s structural engagement with taboo means that stereotypes which have gained currency through media and political discourse that seeks to demonize particular groups of young men (Muslims and gang members, for example) are foregrounded. By being brought to the forefront and exposed, these stereotypes can be engaged with and challenged through ridicule and demonstrations of incongruity. Furthermore, I suggest that power relations are made explicit through joking structures that work to include or exclude, meaning that the comedies can draw and redraw communities of laughter in a manner that effectively challenges notions of communities as discrete, homogeneous, and closely connected to cultural heritage. The article works against constructions of British Muslims as the problem community par excellence by using multicultural discourse to contextualize the representation of British Muslims and demonstrate how the discourse has repressed the role of political, social, and economic structures in a focus on “self-segregating” communities.