SOCIOLOGY AND HUMOR
Humor “breaks the ice” between strangers, and unites people in different hierarchical positions. It creates a sense of “shared conspiracy” as when gossiping or joking about superiors. The flip side is that those who do not join in the laughter, either because they don’t catch on, or because the joke targets them, will feel left out, shamed, or ridiculed. Joking relationships build group identity and solidarity. They promote communities over hierarchies and reveal ambiguities that enhance and subvert the expectations of people in religious and civic groups.
Laughter always ties into the humor of a particular social group—even if you are laughing by yourself at something you receive over the Internet. Some scholars argue that humor is a social corrective, linked with embarrassment. People learn what not to do when they see who gets laughed at. This goes back to the beliefs of Henri Bergson, who called humor a “social corrective…intended to humiliate.”
In the early 1980’s Emily Toth, wrote about the first “Humane Humor Rule,” “Never target a quality that a person can’t change.” Later Humane Humor Rules Include:
• Target yourself, i.e. use self-deprecating humor.
• Target your own ethnic group or gender, but no other ethnic group or gender.
• Never target the victim.
• Always target a strength so that it empowers rather than humiliates the target.
• Be sure that there is spatial, temporal and psychological distance before making fun of a tragedy.
• Remember: Tragedy + Time = Comedy
I can't agree more with the observations about social aspects of humour. I'd add to the list. Humour helps overcome sorrow and utter disappointment. I am Ukrainiian and have experience I'd rather not have. Looking back as far as one year I am now convinced that humour has helped my country to go through the tragedy of war. And still does. What else surfaced in the said period is the unexpected abundance of obscene language in induced (political, media) discourse. In those days of desperation and uncertainty it sounded somehow unbelievably comforting or so. It has been less intense after it became clear that Ukraine is going to survive with Russians having left Kyiv region in April 2022. Desperate situations which break normal course of life bring forth desperate reactions, including extreme verbal behaviour.
I think that humour almost always performs well when it subtly violates the rules - breaks Grice's conversational implicatures and works nicely in pragmatic transposition including status-role relations. When the hearer is prepared to the ordinary, normal, routine flow and .... oooops! ... here comes an unexpected bend that tears apart the predictabilities of regularized, standardized, formalized social frame.
Are social rules (Austin-Searles' speech acts, and Grice's conversational implicatures) meant to be followed, broken, or both?
My answer is: 'Both'
Lilia: You're right. Both. Because you are Ukrainian, I'm sending you a PowerPoint about "Ukrainian Satire." You're welcome to share it with your friends, colleagues, students, or anyone else who might be interested.
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