Poster #137 - Introducing the Jabs, Offensive Kracks, and Extremist Satire (JOKES) Database

• In Event: ASC Poster Session II

Abstract

This poster introduces Jabs, Offensive Kracks, and Extremist Satire (JOKES), a new qualitative database designed to capture and analyze humor-based discourse that reflects or reinforces ideologies of race, gender, nationalism, violence, and extremism. The database includes materials drawn from mass-market joke books published between the 1980s and early 2000s, as well as examples of humor embedded in extremist propaganda, including print literature, video recordings, and audio broadcasts. By focusing on both mainstream and fringe sources, JOKES enables researchers to examine the role of satire, mockery, and dark humor in signaling group membership, softening extremist rhetoric, and facilitating the diffusion of hateful or exclusionary messages. This poster outlines the project’s inclusion criteria, coding framework, and emerging insights, offering a window into how humor operates as a cultural and ideological force in both mainstream and extremist contexts.

Authors

• Ethan Dwynn Mitchell, University of Arkansas

• Steven Windisch, University of Arkansas