Just a bit of fun: the camouflaging and defending functions of humour in recruitment videos of the British and Swedish armed forces

Abstract

This article contributes to the growing literature regarding humor in international politics, focusing on satirical and comedic narratives in the recruitment videos of the British and Swedish armed forces. Although these official recruitment videos – published on each militaries’ respective YouTube channel – are, perhaps surprisingly, often funny and entertaining, there is little research on the roles, functions and employment of humour by actors involved in international affairs. We argue that the methodological apparatus provided by narrative analysis can provide valuable insight, and is a helpful tool for analyzing humourous audio-visual content. We show that the use of humour by the armed forces functions both to camouflage and to insulate, simultaneously obscuring and supporting a process of militarization of everyday life whilst making criticism of the videos’ political messages more difficult.