Black Humor Research Articles

Things That Grow by Meredith Goldstein

Reviewed by: Things That Grow by Meredith Goldstein Deborah Stevenson, Editor Goldstein, Meredith Things That Grow. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021 [336p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781328770103 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780358531807 $9.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R* Gr. 8–12 Lori is devastated when her grandmother unexpectedly dies; she has lived with [End Page 296] Grandma Sheryl in their Boston suburb ever since Grandma insisted that Lori’s flighty mother wasn’t providing the stability that Lori needed. Now she has to deal with the loss and the threat of having to move away to live with her mother instead of spending her last year of high school in Massachusetts with her best friend, partner in creative enterprise, and secret love Chris. As she negotiates her future, she, her uncle Seth, Chris, and sometimes Lori’s mother and Mom’s new boyfriend travel to various glorious garden sites to scatter the ashes of Grandma Sheryl, who wanted her remains left with “things that grow.” Lori’s characterization is pitch perfect as a fantasy-loving, goth-tending teen with a competent, smart-mouthed narration, and other characters, ranging from nearly-boyfriend Chris to loving but flawed Uncle Seth to the Garden Girls who were Grandma Sheryl’s crew, are limned with affection and dimension. There’s a reliable and cinematic quality to the four-gardens-after-a-funeral plot as the travelers haul Grandma Sheryl’s “craisins” (as Lori’s mom malapropishly terms the cremains) around New England in a Chico’s bag, contend with their loss, learn more about one another, and, in Lori and Chris’ case, consider expanding their relationship. Goldstein’s writing is lively and often hilarious (Uncle Seth requests the cremains be divided into the maximum possible boxes because “it’s the best deal, right?”), but it’s also sensitive in its exploration of character facets such as Lori’s reluctance to confess her romantic feelings to Chris, respectful in its treatment of Lori’s writing and Chris’ art, and genuinely poignant as the family grieves. Fans of Feder’s Dancing at the Pity Party (BCCB 4/20) will love the dark humor, and Nicola Yoon admirers will appreciate the realistically uncertain romance. Copyright © 2021 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

City Profile: Vienna's Summer Lit-up

city profile Vienna’s Summer Lit-up by Sylvia Petter Notebook AFTER A HIATUS since my student days in the early 1970s, I’ve been living in Vienna again since 2006. That year I became immersed in a Vienna Poetry School workshop run by singer/songwriter/novelist Ernst Molden in a brothel (Puff) on five different occasions, each dedicated to one of the senses. Ernst’s texts and renderings of songs by Bob Dylan, among others, have that Viennese tang of dark humor, melancholy , and blatant honesty. This summer will see him and his bands in open-air concerts in the city again. Indeed, during lockdown, he and his son, Karl, sang, not for their supper, but for their neighbors—from their Vienna balcony. I remember another summer when he took his class outside to the Prater and we experimented with good red wine from the Burgenland, searching for that sweet spot in writing between drunk and sober. For me this encapsulates the Vienna to which I’m drawn, which is not just about yummy cake in the Viennese cafés. The Viennese coffee house culture has become part of unesco’s inventory of intangible cultural heritage. In the 1890s young writers such as Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Karl Kraus, and Arthur Schnitzler would meet at Café Griensteidl, and this gave birth to coffee house literature. There is a certain amount of cross-pollination of the arts in this city; for example, there is currently an exhibition of Higher Powers at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, under the motto of Seeing across Cultures, running into August and including artifacts and texts sent in by the public and exhibited alongside items beyond the reach of mere mortals. Due to its history and geography, Vienna has always been on the edge, on edge, edgy, with relief sought through words and music, cabaret, and satire. Thomas Bernhard, playwright and novelist—reviled by some Austrians as having sullied his nest yet lauded by others and honored with literary prizes— was very outspoken and critical of Austria, and his works are as apt today as they were when he wrote them in the last century. For example, a quote from The Loser, a meditation on success, failure, genius, and fame, says it in a nutshell: “Whoever can’t laugh doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously . . .” Every year there are literary prizes run by the publisher Edition Exil and also open to work by writers not of the German mother tongue. In 2003 Julya Rabinowich was awarded the prize for Writing between Cultures and has since gone on to receive several awards for her writing. Her novel Splithead was published in English by Portobello Books in 2011. Summer is also the time of open-air readings such as Ö-Töne in the MQ, where in 2021 well-known writers like Friederike Mayröcker and Josef Haslinger are programmed to share the stage with newcomers like Sandra Gugić, who also began her career via the Edition Exil Prize in 2008 and attended the legendary 2006 “Puff” workshop. Having come full circle, let me now take you through Vienna’s Bermuda Triangle, where one might disappear in one of the many small bars, up past the Synagogue to St. Rupert’s, the oldest church in Vienna, to my favorite bookshop, Shakespeare & Company Booksellers, with its exclusively English-language stock and its special section on books about and set in Vienna. Not only can books be found here, but as the shop’s bookmark says, “Let yourself be found by a book.” It will help you explore hidden corners of the city, be it through Graham Greene’s The Third Man or Lewis Crofts’s The Pornographer of Vienna, relating the life of that misunderstood painter, Egon Schiele. What to Read & Listen to in a Viennese Café Lewis Crofts The Pornographer of Vienna Old Street Publishing Ernst Molden “Bubenlied” Bubenlieder (2006 album) Sylvia Petter All the Beautiful Liars Lightning Books Julya Rabinowich Splithead Trans. Tess Lewis Portobello Books Robert Seethaler The Tobacconist Trans. Charlotte Collins Anansi International Sylvia Petter, an Australian now based in Vienna, writes short, long, serious, sexy, and fun. Her debut novel, All the Beautiful Liars (2020), was...

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O’Neal

Reviewed by: Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O’Neal Kiri Palm O’Neal, Kristen Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses. Quirk, 2021 [384p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781683692348 $18.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781683692355 $11.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 9-12 Priya should be at Stanford, but instead she’s stuck at her family’s home in New Jersey, struggling with chronic Lyme disease. While her parents and siblings try to support her, it’s in her relationship with online friend Brigid that Priya feels most normal. Brigid is chronically ill, too, suffering from a mysterious condition that leaves her exhausted and weak, unable to go to college or work a full-time job. When Brigid ghosts her for several days, Priya gives in to her worry, driving across states to try to find her never-before-seen friend and make sure she’s okay. Of course, no good deed goes unpunished, and Priya reaches Brigid’s home to find a terrifying, wolf-like beast who, impossibly, walks on its hind legs. O’Neal’s debut novel is a rollercoaster of emotion, full of dark humor, heartbreaking descriptions of life with illness, hints of romance, and frightening sequences of human vs. monster. The surprise reveal of Brigid’s ailment is spoiled by the title, but there’s an odd enjoyment that comes with being in on her secret when Priya is not. Text and online exchanges allow heavy conversations to clip by with raw honesty and wry jokes that will ring true for readers with health issues of their own. At the heart of both the story is the relationship between Priya and Brigid, which beautifully illustrates the strange, codependent connection of close friends. Their love for one another is fierce, occasionally volatile, and enduring in the face of adversity while it’s also frequently at the root of the girls’ problems. Fans of fantasy, horror, and friendship will be sure to gobble this up. Copyright © 2021 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

"This is just how I cope": An inductive thematic analysis of eating disorder recovery content created and shared on TikTok using #EDrecovery.

To explore eating disorder (ED) recovery-related content created and shared on the social media platform TikTok. A systematic review and inductive thematic analysis of 150 TikTok posts catalogued under hashtag (#) EDrecovery. Two coders independently analyzed the posts and a critical peer facilitated discussions about the resulting codes and themes. Creators on TikTok used #EDrecovery to share their personal experiences with recovery through the use and cooption of popular (or viral) video formats, succinct storytelling, and the production of educational content. Five themes were interpreted across the data: (a) ED awareness, (b) inpatient story time: "ED unit tings", (c) eating in recovery, (d) transformations: "how about a weight gain glow up?", and (e) trendy gallows humor: "let's confuse people who have a good relationship with food". TikTok as a user-friendly, creative media may provide the artistic and social tools for some creators to add their distinct voice to the ED recovery narrative and foster some semblance of community. Although all of the analyzed content was catalogued under #EDrecovery, some of the posts reified the increasingly blurred boundary that exists between ED recovery and pro-ED content on TikTok.

The Laughter of Other Places

The paper employs Michel Foucault’s ideas on heterotopias, outlined in his essay Of Other Spaces (1984), to analyse the interaction of humour and spaces in Edward Gorey’s works, with special emphasis on the book The Evil Garden (1966). Foucault’s theory of heterotopias is used to provide an understanding of Gorey’s fusion of sombre places and macabre tales with his characteristically dry humour and to examine what Gorey’s heterotopias can tell us about the problem of the categorisation of Gorey as an author of children’s literature. In the reading of The Evil Garden, the paper illustrates how Gorey’s disturbing heterotopias achieve a hybridity of spaces, genres, tones, and reader roles in order to encourage polyvalent readings. Gorey plays with the juxtaposition of various heterotopias, destabilising the reader’s position through recurring motifs and intertextual allusions, but the one element that is represented in all those “other” places is invariably humour in all its different forms. It is precisely at the intersection of the various spaces which collide in heterotopias that Gorey’s dark humour emerges and performs its subversive function.

Банкси – творец, бунтар и провокатор

Banksy is an anonymous England-based street artist, vandal, political activist, and film director, active since the 1990s. His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. His works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world.Over the last few years, Banksy‘s name has become increasingly popular, especially through his recent, highly provocative works and appearances. In 2018, at Sotheby‘s Auction House, his famous work „The Girl with the Balloon“ was auctioned at $ 1.4 million. As the lead auctioneer‘s hammer hit, a beeping sound caught everyone‘s attention to Banksy‘s work, which slowly began to slide down and shredded narrow long strips in front of the astonished glances of onlookers. The scandal has aroused great public interest. On the next day, Banksy posted on Picasso a social media quote – „The urge to destroy is also a creative urge“. A few days later, the owner of the shredded work exhibited it in the museum, already renamed „Love is in the Bin.“ The work is currently worth twice as much in its present form, as a concept contemporary work, of its original value. Who is Banksy – a rebel art creator or just a provocateur with quality PR?

Preparing student paramedics for the mental health challenges of the profession by using the wisdom of the experienced

Given the significant mental health issues affecting our paramedics, there exists an urgent need to promote positive mental health and well-being among future cohorts of student paramedics. This study investigated the preparedness of student paramedics for the mental health challenges of the profession and explored the coping strategies used by experienced paramedics.The study was conducted in two parts. Part A comprised of two surveys which were developed and administered to 16 course coordinators and 302 students of the 16 accredited undergraduate paramedicine courses across Australia and New Zealand. The survey aimed to identify the perceived need for preparation within the curriculum. In addition, the anticipations, confidence and fears of student paramedics, Course Coordinators and paramedics were also collected as a means to explore the preparedness through self-evaluation, reflection and discussion.Part B included twenty semi-structured interviews with experienced paramedics, from Australia and New Zealand. The interviews were conducted to gain an understanding of their experiences and the mental health coping strategies they employed, as well as capture the advice they would give to student paramedics. Results from the interviews were validated by three focus groups comprised of six paramedics each, representative of the geographic spread.Results suggest there is widespread recognition for the need to include preparation for the mental health challenges of the profession, within accredited undergraduate paramedic courses, with 100% of course coordinators and 97% of students recognising this need.The interviews with paramedics provided valuable insights into the experiences and strategies used to aid the survival of the paramedics throughout their careers. Within the interviews, 70% of participants expressed a sincere love for the paramedic role, and 70% identified black humour as the coping strategy most used by themselves and colleagues. In addition, extensive advice was given to students based upon the paramedics’ lived experiences. This advice comprised of three themes; support, health and the profession. These findings were mapped against the aims of Australia’s current Mental Health Policy to provide evidence-based and policy-informed guidelines for the integration of positive mental health strategies into undergraduate paramedicine curricula.Preparing student paramedics for the mental health challenges of the profession could be advantageous. One way to achieve this is through the inclusion of key content within the undergraduate curriculum by utilising the relatable data collected on anticipation, confidence, fears and the advice offered by the veteran paramedics can be integrated. These lived experiences are highly credible and an opportunity for veterans to contribute positively to the future of paramedicine.

COVID-19 in modern Russian laughter discourse: psycholinguistic method of devaluation of danger as an effective method of psychological protection

The mysterious Russian soul is always looking for non-trivial aspects of a problem. The modern coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has become the subject of ridicule in the everyday laughing practices of Russian people. In this case, the laughing discourse acts as a form of psychological defense and struggle against the inevitable evil. The importance of the research is due to the lack of knowledge of the communicative and cognitive aspects of laughter discourse and the need to study the modern anecdote on the topic "coronavirus pandemic" in the aspect of forming the stability of the human psyche in the conditions of pandemics and isolation. The relevance of this work is also determined by the fact that it expands the empirical base of discourse linguistics, LSP theory and practice, motivology and emotive linguistics, whose interests include consideration of the problem of the influence of emotions on language. The relevance of the work also lies in the fact that special attention is paid to the little-studied phenomenon of "black humor", which is vividly represented in the laughing discourse about coronavirus. Unfortunately, today Russia occupies the leading positions in terms of the number of people infected with virus COVID-19. Archetypal fear of unknown Evil, of invisible death evoke chthonic experiences of the unconscious from the depths of the subconscious, actualizing the laughable techniques of devaluing danger as one of the effective methods of psychological protection. The world stereotype defines Russian people as frowning and unsmiling, extremely hostile to the world around them. The article reveals the specifics of modern Russian anecdotes about COVID-19. This allows the reader to understand what the stress resistance and resilience of the Russian person in a situation of degenerate press of negative information in various media is. This situation is complicated by fake news stories about the pandemic. What are Russian people laughing at during the pandemic? What helps them survive and stay mentally healthy in this situation? What is the specifics of Russian jokes about the pandemic? How do these anecdotes structure a person's inner space in a new way? What Parallels can we find in a laughing culture that plays up the stigmatized situations of tragedies, wars, and epidemics? This article is intended as an attempt to answer these and other questions.

‘PANDEMIC’ OF CORONAVIRUS CARTOONS

Many cartoons of artists from many countries around the world associated with the coronavirus pandemic have appeared in a short period of time. The purpose of this article is to analyze the semantic content and artistic level of such cartoons. Thus, cartoonists reacted unusually quickly and smoothly to the coronavirus pandemic. Many ‘pandemic’ cartoons were created by artists in just a few months. These cartoons reflected all the vicissitudes of the struggle of mankind with a pandemic from the first shock, pessimism, to preparedness for the fight and belief in victory. The cartoon art brilliantly fulfilled its social satirical duty to humanity. However, coronavirus was a serious test not only for humanity, but also for the art of cartoon. A coronavirus pandemic swept the inquisitive minds of artists around the world. ЃePandemicЃf drawings sharply reflected the crisis, which is increasingly manifested in the art of cartoon in recent years. This crisis was identified by the appearance of many cartoon clones, similar in their messages to the audience and similar visually. Coronavirus, this spherical object with short processes, has become a very attractive way to create typical cartoons. Well-known techniques for creating comic effects in ironic graphics are easily traced in the ЃepandemicЃf cartoons. The art of cartoon fulfilled its social role expressed in responding to the coronavirus pandemic by means of humor and satire. Cartoonists embraced almost all stereotypical images with their ЃecoronavirusЃf creativity. The coronavirus pandemic laid bare the crisis inherent the art of cartoon in recent decades, like by x-rays which cartoonists managed to ridicule at after their discovery. Cartoonists around the world created similar cartoons, not really caring about heuristic. Therefore, we see so many works repeating each other. As we see, cartoons are becoming more ЃelightЃf, superficial. The cartoons created in the early period of the appearance of coronavirus had a panic character, were saturated with black humor. However, then the artists began to urge humanity to fight the pandemic through cartoons, thereby fulfilling their humanistic mission in their messages. And at the same time, ЃepandemicЃf cartoons showed that there was practically no heuristic in the works by witty artist in most cases, they were mainly built on the expected stereotypical images.

Learning to Live with the Virus

Learning to Live with the Virus

Black Humour in COVID-19 As a Comic and Irreverent Analysis

This paper aims to investigate the funny stories and jokes coined by people during the spread of the corona virus. Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) first appeared in China as a viral pneumonia in late 2019, and quickly identified as a global pandemic throughout the most countries of the world by March of 2020. The spreading and transmitting the virus was so rapid that surprised the world, and it appeared in a time whenever the world was not ready to stop this virus. The negative impact was astonishing and shocking as the virus caused a huge fatality. Furthermore, the lack of a vaccine to stop the virus, and the imposed situation of the home quarantine psychologically caused great stress, hesitation and fear among the societies. Despite the trauma and fear, which were caused by the virus, some sort of jokes and funny stories were narrated and coined among the different cultures. In this paper, the researchers are going to use the literary device ‘black humour’ as a genre of comic irreverence to analyse those jokes, and to show the effects of them in the different cultures. The data, which are going to be analysed depending on the literary device ‘black humour’, include some selected jokes that have been coined during the spread of the corona virus by the people of Kurdistan-Iraq and some other countries around the world. The data comprise flippant examples of political and social affairs. Research Question How are the funny speeches represented during the serious and fatal period of COVID-19 outbreak? To what extent can the literary device ‘black humour’ illustrate the cultural background behind those jokes?

Caddy Master

When he hits off the tee, eyeson the ball until it stops. Mark it, anynear object, a small pine, a hedge, a dipin the rough. Players don’t lose golf balls,caddies do. Fairways are easy, slicesand hooks are when you earn your tips.Guy throws his club, you don’thave to get it, but that’s where you earnyour tip. Drunk guy yells at you,report it to me, but . . . tips, right?Guy curses high heaven, that’s golf.On the greens, tread lightly. That’swhen the money’s won or lost.Don’t rattle the bag, lay it down gently,and hand him his putter, grip-first.Never step in the line of a guy’s putt.Step over it and say, Excuse me.Better yet, walk around it. You! Putdown that Moon Pie when I’m talking!On a long putt, hold the pin at the topand grab the flag. Take it outjust after he putts. I see you lay a pinon a green, you’re fired. Smooth anyball-marks on the green. Easea tee under the little knuckle of grassand lift. I’ll show you in a moment.I get a complaint, I’ll defend youto a point, but the golfer’salways right, even when he’s wrong.He’s your boss for 18 holes. So, Sirevery time, and keep your mouth shut.Guy tells you a dirty joke, laugh.Guy breaks his club against a tree, don’tlaugh, even though it’s the funniestthing you’ll see out there.

الخصائص الفنیة فی القصة القصیرة جدا دراسة لمجموعتی (قال کل شیء فی الظلام، کحل عینیک صار خالاً) للکاتب السعودی فهد إبراهیم البکر

الخصائص الفنية في القصة القصيرة جدا دراسة لمجموعتي (قال کل شيء في الظلام، کحل عينيک صار خالا) للکاتب السعودي فهد إبراهيم البکر أسماء بنت صالح بن مطلق العمرو تخصص البلاغة والنقد، الأقسام الأدبية، کلية العلوم والآداب، جامعة القصيم، المملکة العربية السعودية البريد الإلکتروني: Asmaomro@gmail.com ملخص البحث القصة القصيرة جدا هي لون أدبي جديد لاقى شهرة، وانتشارا کبيرا بين أوساط الکتاب والمثقفين؛ وشهدت الساحة الأدبية السعودية، والعربية نموا مضطردا لهذ اللون ؛ لذا حاول النقاد وضع الأسس الحاکمة لهذا الجنس الأدبي الجديد، و الذي نشأ کنتاج للکثير من التغيرات الحادة التي أصابت العالم بسبب ذلک التسارع التکنولوجي المحموم على کافة الأصعدة سواء أکانت سياسية أو اقتصادية أو اجتماعية أو ثقافية؛ ومن ثم تبع ذلک بالضرورة تغير في أشکال التعبير الأدبي، والأدب بوجه عام أحد أهم المکونات التي أصابها هذا التغيير، وکانت القصة القصيرة جدا أحد أبرز إفرازاته. لذا کانت هذه الدراسة للکشف عن الخصائص الفنية والجمالية في القصة السعودية القصيرة جدا، ومصادرها التي انتزعت منها، وتسليط الضوء على تقنيات القصة القصيرة جدا التي تفردت بها من ناحية استلهام التراث، الاقتصاد اللغوي/التکثيف والمفارقة وقد تم اختيار مجموعتي (قال کل شيء في الظلام، کحل عينيک صار خالا ) للکاتب السعودي فهد إبراهيم البکر– کعينة محدودة للبحث- لأنها تمثل المستوى الفني الناضج للقصة السعودية القصيرة جدا، وفهم حدودها النوعية والفنية، وقد نجح الکاتب د. فهد البکر في استخدام أساليب بلاغية وأسلوبية في الکتابة کتکثيف الصور واللحظات، والإيجاز، والتلميح، والتناص، والسخرية، الکوميديا السوداء والتي تعد أحد المکونات البلاغية للصورة القصصية القصيرة جدا بسبب طاقتها التعبيرية والإيحائية والرمزية، کما برع الکاتب في اختيار عناوين قصصه، وانتقاء مفرداته إذ جاءت هذه العناوين رمزية وموحية. The Technical Characteristics of the very Short Story, a Study of the two Collections (He Said everything in Darkness & The Blackness of your Eyes has become a Beauty Spot) by Fahd Ibrahim Al- Bakr; a Saudi Author By: Asmaa Bint Saleh Bin Mutlaq Al- Amro Majored in Rhetoric and Criticism Literary Departments College of Science and Arts Qassim University Kingdom of Saudi Arabia E-mail: Asmaomro@gmail.com Abstract The very short story is a new literary genre that has become widely popular with the communities of writers and intellectuals. Lately, the Arabic and Saudi literary scene has experienced growing development of such genre and that is why the critics have tried to lay the governing principles of this new literary genre which appeared as a result of variable changes that came over the world in consequence of the rapid technological advancement in all respects be they political, economic, social or cultural. Hence, a new change, necessarily, took place in the literary expression. In general, literature is one of the constituents that have been affected by such change. The very short story was one of the most outstanding by- products of that change. Accordingly, this research is designed to highlight the technical and poetic characteristics of the Saudi very short story, its sources and its unique style of inspiration derived from the literary heritage and the economy of language / the paradox of intensification. The two collections, (He Said everything in Darkness and The Blackness of your Eyes has become a Beauty Spot) by the Saudi author Fahd Ibrahim Al- Bakr, have been selected as a study sample in this research because they embody the mature literary example of the Saudi very short story in its artistic and technical attire. The author Dr. Fahd Al- Bakr has succeeded in utilizing rhetorical and stylistic techniques of writing as an intensification of images, moments, brevity, allusion, intertextuality, irony and dark comedy which is one of the rhetorical constituents of the narrative form of the very short story because of its expressionistic, suggestive and symbolic capabilities. Moreover, the author excelled in selecting titles for his collections as well as selecting the items of vocabulary as seen in the symbolic and suggestive titles.

With dark humor about a dark future

Abstract This article analyses the relationship between black humor and dystopian literature. In dystopia, humor can appear on the surface as language or situational comics, but there is also a deeper link between these two literary phenomena: they confront the reader with an unexpected notion in order to bring him to a critical reflection. There are many dystopias in the Nordic literature that use comic elements. Three of them are discussed in this article: Axel Jensens Epp (1965), Lena Anderssons Duck City (2006) and Kaspar Colling Nielsens Den danske borgerkrig 2018–24 (2013). The analysis shows that classic black humor is enriched with other tragicomic, satirical or surrealistic elements and significantly contributes to the critical tone of the text. In all cases humor is used for the same purpose, and this is a critique of superior power (the so-called superiority theory). Therefore, humor can be considered not only as a stylistic means, but also as a principle of construction of the dystopian works.

Funny but aversive: A large-scale survey of the emotional response to Covid-19 humor in the Italian population during the lockdown

We often see an upsurge of humor inspired by tragic circumstances: this happened also during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) outbreak. However, little is known about the emotional response to tragedy-triggered humor, let alone Covid-19 humor. With a large-scale survey completed during the early stages of Italy's lockdown, we studied the appreciation (funniness and aversiveness) of different formats of Covid-19 humor shared on social media. Results of an analysis of the role of demographic, personality, and psychological distance factors with linear mixed models showed that Covid-19 humor lacks a “signature” of funniness, but displays a mark of aversiveness. Among demographics, age and gender were key factors: with increasing age and in women, Covid-19 humor was judged as more aversive. Individuals using humor to cope with uneasy circumstances judged Covid-19 humor as funnier and less aversive. Furthermore, the perceived risk of infection amplified Covid-19 humor aversiveness, while kilometrical distance from the first Italian contagion hotspot raised the amusement in global terms. These findings expand our knowledge about dark humor and should raise awareness of the great variation in the emotional impact of Covid-19 humor and of the need to ponder where and with whom to share the laugh about the pandemic.

No Laughing Matter? The Potential of Political Humor as a Means of Nonviolent Resistance

The manifold functions of humor to generate relief, superiority and incongruity have been extensively studied. Building on this, the article is dedicated to exploring the role of humor as a means of nonviolent resistance. In a case study on Syria, it traces the evolution of the forms and functions of humorous production, following the stages of Bakhtin’s medieval carnival: from the pre-revolutionary “gallows humor”, over increasingly biting attacks against the Assad regime after the 2011 uprising, to the symbolic “de-crowning of the dictator”. Examples of cartoons, songs and sketches illustrate the role of humor as a resistance tool, across the four dimensions of non-violence by Vinthagen: dialogue facilitation, power breaking, normative regulation and utopian enactment. Despite the escalation and looming failure of the Syrian uprising, the article finds that humor has maintained its importance as a means of nonviolent resistance.

“Good Comedy Can Upset People”: A Conversation with Bobby Wilson of the 1491s

ABSTRACT In this interview Bobby Wilson (Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota) of the comedy group The 1491s shares stories about life as an Indigenous comic artist. Tongue-in-cheek and often sarcastic, Wilson talks about turning tragedy into dark comedy in the play Between Two Knees (2019), the artistic merits of humor, and the intersections of politics, activism, and comedy. Part personal history, part origin story of the comedy group, the interview covers a host of different topics, ranging from the significance of colonial trauma to the ability to poke fun at themselves.

Playful Metaphors in Sex Jokes and Socio-Cultural Implications

ABSTRACT This study investigated the interconnected relationship between playful metaphors and sex jokes at the linguistic, conceptual, and discourse levels. Two ontological conceptual metaphors and two specific-level metaphors emerged. They demonstrated that variations in the form of empty metaphors and the creative invention of metaphors are still fundamentally iconic. The conceptual representation of sex acts is closely related to the cultural and ethnic specificity embedded in folk knowledge, such as food culture, the broader context of the physical environment and historical traditions, and the conception of family relationships. Metaphors in sex stories showed that the shared values of Hakka people have pragmatic and socio-cultural implications. Seen as an in-between other by their blood family and their in-laws’ family, Hakka women are under dual strict cultural disciplines for their expected behaviors as women and for their expected roles as daughters-in-law. Metaphors in sex jokes serve as covert and humorous carriers to get around the uneasiness of socially tabooed and embarrassing topics regarding Hakka women and at the same time maintain relational and social harmony.

Similarities And Differences Of War Depiction In J.Heller’s Novel “Catch 22” And Shukhrat’s Novel “Shinelli Yillar”

This article is devoted to the similarities and differences of the American writer Joseph Heller’s novel “Catch-22” and prominent Uzbek writer Shukhrat (Gulom Aminov)’s novel “Shinelli yillar”. While comparing these two novels, we can see some similar war actions at the same time it is clearly evident the differences between works. As a member of the Beat Generation and the post-World War II era, Heller developed a very satirical approach towards institutions, particularly the national government and the military. He was deeply cynical of war, which was best exemplified by the "black humor" of Catch-22, and he explored the difficulties of Jewish experience in postwar America. However, Shukhrat’s involment in the Second World War, seeing the ruined cities and villages, defeat and victory, prompted him to record a great novel by “Shinelli Yillar” in 1958.

WHY COVID-2019 JOKES ARE NOT A BLACK HUMOR?

The article addresses the question of the extent to which jokes about COVID2019 relate to black humor. The discussion on the subject field of black humor is being updated. The semantic field of this phenomenon is compared in Englishlanguage and Russian-language scientific literature. It is concluded that in Russian-language literature, black humor is more often determined by its thematic focus, and in English-language – by stylistic features. Two types of humor that have death as their subject can be distinguished: humor, in which there will be normativity, and humor, in which there are no moral norms (comedy of entropy). We cannot attribute jokes about COVID-2019 to black humor, given that these jokes are not about illness or death, but about the social aspects of the pandemic, which are conceptualized in terms of a certain normative character. This could happen if the danger of a pandemic is not understood. It could also become part of the resistance of the media, in which the reality of the pandemic was constantly emphasized. Secondly, the almost complete absence of death and “entropy” in jokes about COVID-2019 could be caused, on the contrary, by an increased fear of a new threat. In this case, the humorous social aspects of the pandemic temporarily distracted the recipients from the anxiety state. At the same time, the quarantine topic has become a prism for a latent rethinking of this new threat, its rise above it