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Scrutinising intertextuality in humour: moving beyond cultural literacy and towards critical literacy

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Tsakona V.

The European Journal of Humour Research

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2020

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vol. 8

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issue 3

EN

Humourists often resort to previous texts to create their jokes, thus establishing intertextual links between them. Consequently, the processing of such jokes presupposes specific cultural literacy skills which enable speakers to recognise the allusions and interpret them in the new humorous contexts. It has, however, been suggested that speakers’ emphasis on cultural literacy skills for processing allusions and humour may discourage or even impede them from adopting a critical perspective on humorous texts and the allusions included therein. The present study explores this interplay among intertextuality, cultural literacy, critical literacy, and humour in order to underscore the need for critical approaches to humorous texts and intertextuality. It critically analyses political jokes to demonstrate how the intertextual references contributing to their humorous effect create three sets of opposing groups: (a) those who create/tell the jokes vs. those who are targeted by them; (b) the ‘culturally literate’ who employ and understand the intertextual references vs. the ‘culturally illiterate’ who cannot and/or do not do that; and (c) those who agree vs. those who disagree with the ideological presuppositions of the humorous allusions and texts at hand. Based on incongruity and superiority theories of humour, the proposed analysis intends to argue, and pave the way, for more critical perspectives on humorous genres, whether outside or inside educational settings. Such perspectives could sensitise speakers to the fact that humour and intertextuality divide them into opposing groups such as the above-mentioned ones.

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“This is not a political party, this is Facebook!”: Political jokes and political (mis)trust in crisis-ridden Greece

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Tsakona V.

The European Journal of Humour Research

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2017

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vol. 5

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issue 4

EN

The present study attempts to combine Raskin’s (1985) and Davies’ (2011) methodological approaches to political jokes to investigate Greek political jokes targeting politicians and circulated during the first 4 years of the Greek crisis. The proposed analysis identifies, on the one hand, what Greek people perceive as politicians’ main incongruities, namely their flaws that prevent them from fulfilling their roles ‘appropriately’. On the other hand, the particularities of the sociopolitical context in Greece and, most importantly, the pervasive lack of political trust among Greeks allow for an interpretation of the jokes under scrutiny as expressions of disillusionment and disappointment with politicians and the political system in general, and as manifestations of mild, playful aggression towards them. The findings of the study reveal that the accusations raised in the jokes against politicians capture and reproduce quite accurately most of the aspects and causes of political mistrust in Greece.

3

Book review. Gan, Wendy (2018). Comic China: Representing Common Ground, 1890-1945. Philadelphia: Temple University Press; and Tam, King-fai and Sharon Wesoky (2018). Not Just a Laughing Matter: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Political Humour in China. Singapore: Springer.

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Chey J. V.

The European Journal of Humour Research

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2019

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vol. 7

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issue 3

EN

This review covers two new books on Chinese humour: Wendy Gan Comic China: Representing Common Ground, 1890-1945; and King-fai Tam and Sharon Wesoky Not Just a Laughing Matter: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Political Humour in China. Gan argues that humour can moderate extreme views through sympathetic understanding of the other. Tam and Wesoky cover several aspects of mainland Chinese and Hong Kong humour usage through edited papers from a recent conference.

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Scrutinising intertextuality in humour: moving beyond cultural literacy and towards critical literacy

“This is not a political party, this is Facebook!”: Political jokes and political (mis)trust in crisis-ridden Greece

Book review. Gan, Wendy (2018). Comic China: Representing Common Ground, 1890-1945. Philadelphia: Temple University Press; and Tam, King-fai and Sharon Wesoky (2018). Not Just a Laughing Matter: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Political Humour in China. Singapore: Springer.