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Form, Function and Audience: Thinking about Humor in Social Movements

Tue, August 19, 12:30 to 2:10pm, TBA

Abstract

Humor is a common and important part of social movements. The affiliative effects of humor are important for group cohesion and collective identity and seem to be universal to movements. Humor as a communication strategy and tactic, however, is highly dependent on organizational ideology and political opportunity structures. Yet, when is it deployed as a communication strategy (in tactics and frames) humor is often used as a tool to strategically challenge hegemonic norms among movement actors as well as broader audiences. This paper offers an account of humor that emphasizes the significance of audience by distinguishing between humor directed internally within social movement organizations and externally as a communication strategy. To illustrate these analytical distinctions and theoretical claims, the paper uses archival data from the second wave women’s movement to provide examples of internal humor directed at shaping a feminist collective identity as well as external humor intended to challenge a broader audience to question patriarchal norms. Extrapolating from both the literature and the data, I observe several patterns in the use of humor. First, both internal and external humor appears to be more common in less institutionalized organizations. Second, external humor may be more common among peripheral or radical organizations and those focused on cultural (rather than political-legislative) change. Third, humor may be more common in organizations with intense emotional cultures, even when the dominant emotions are negative, specifically I identify a synergy between anger and humor.

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