‘Have we lost our sense of humour?!’ Affective senses of racial joking in Danish schools

Abstract

ABSTRACT Posing the rhetorical question ‘Have we lost our sense of humour?’ this article analyses senses of racial humour through the use of affect theory. Despite the common use of the idiom ‘a sense of humour’ within everyday speech, there is a lack of social and cultural analysis of the senses that guide understandings of whether or not something is funny. Through the lens of affect theory, this article explores sensory experiences of humour, showing how senses of humour are both affective corporeal experiences – such as laughter – and an affective relational flow between and among bodies. Drawing on interview material gathered in diverse schools in Denmark, the article analyses how students negotiate the use of racial humour with particular focus on tonalities of humour and the affective stakes involved in laughter and unlaughter. The article argues that affect theory can help bridge a gap in the literature on humour, which either reduces humour to bodily, mental and cognitive predispositions, or to social and cultural functions.