Jokes Told Research Articles

Production and reception of Fathers' construction of their daughter’s sexuality on Twitter

ABSTRACT Research has found humour and gender to be linked (Davies, 2006, Gendered sense of humor as expressed through aesthetic typifications. Journal of Pragmatics, 38(1), 96–113. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2005.06.006; Kotthoff 2006, Gender and humor: The state of the art. Journal of pragmatics, 38(1), 4–25. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2005.06.003), specifically within languages/cultures (see Thielemann, 2011, Displays of’ new’ gender arrangements in Russian jokes. In M. Dynel (Ed.), The pragmatics of humour across discourse domains (pp. 147–172). John Benjamins, for jokes in Russian). In this respect, women are often subject of jokes and, in some cases, this reproduces the gendered imbalance of suitable roles in private and public spaces. In this paper, I examine the message of two jokes told by Italian fathers policing their daughters’ sexuality, as well as the interactions between myself and these fathers on Twitter. Using Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (Lazar, 2007, Feminist critical discourse analysis: Articulating a feminist discourse praxis. Critical Discourse Studies, 4(2), 141–164. doi:10.1080/17405900701464816; Lazar, 2018, Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis. In J. Flowerdew, & E. J. Richardson (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies (pp. 372–387). Routledge), Social Media Critical Discourse Studies (KhosraviNik, 2018, Social Media Critical Discourse Studies (SM-CDS). In J. Flowerdew, & E. J. Richardson (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies (pp. 582–596). Routledge) and through adapting a framework designed to approach sexist jokes (Sunderland, 2007, Contradictions in gendered discourses: feminist readings of sexist jokes? Gender & Language, 1(2), 207–228. doi:10.1558/genl.v1i2.207), I discuss: (a) the ‘who/what the text is about’, and (b) a desire to a traditional fatherhood emerging from the interactions in it’s just banter and the good and happy father. Specifically, I discuss fatherhood as linked to an ontological desire (Kiesling, 2011, The interactional construction of desire as gender. Gender and Language, 5(2), 213–239. doi:10.1558/genl.v5i2.213) in connection to an alleged transition from old to new fatherhood (Cannito 2019, Beyond ‘Traditional’ and ‘New’: An Attempt of Redefinition of Contemporary Fatherhoods through Discursive Practices and Practices of Care. Men and Masculinities, 1–19; Magaraggia, 2013, Tensions between fatherhood and the social construction of masculinity in Italy. Current Sociology, 61(1), 76–92. doi:10.1177/0011392112464231) in Italy.

The Anthroposemiotics of Jokes in Funeral Rituals

AbstractAt the present time in Venezuela a practice commonly occurs at funerals celebrated at funeral chapels or in family houses that certainly can be said to have already become part of the funeral ritual: Those attending the funeral tell jokes. Although it seems a contradiction because a funeral is a serious event where people have lost a loved one, the jokes have come to acquire a symbolic range within that ritual. This paper aims to explain precisely, from an anthroposemiotic perspective, the presence of jokes at funerals as a mask for the human being before the phenomenon of death. The theoretical and methodological contributions of Van Gennep (2008), Peirce (1987), Auge (2000), Turner (1988), and Freud (2005) are used, as well as the technique of participant observation from the ethnographic method (Mauss 1947; Guber 2006; Kottak 2007), based on an introspective-experiential epistemological approach (Padrón Guillen 2001, 2003). In conclusion, it can be said that jokes told in thesenon placescan be translated as a mask, which has become another symbol of the funeral ritual, the unconscious intentionality of which reveals the fear of humankind before a natural and inevitable phenomenon that is a reminder of the finiteness of human beings and expresses the desire to break the directdeath/pain/depressionrelation.

Land of Disenchantment: Latina/o Identities and Transformations in Northern New Mexico (review)

Reviewed by: Land of Disenchantment: Latina/o Identities and Transformations in Northern New Mexico Silvia Spitta Keywords Michael L. Trujillo, Silvia Spitta, Land of Disenchantment, New York socialites, foreign artists, intellectuals, Española, drugs, tricultural harmony, folk life, Marco Cholo, poverty, violence, drug abuse, migration, genizaro, trickster, jokes Trujillo, Michael L. Land of Disenchantment: Latina/o Identities and Transformations in Northern New Mexico. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 2009. 265 pp. Michael L. Trujillo's engaging study Land of Disenchantment is an extended meditation on and important debunking of the notion of New Mexico as an enchanted space. The view of an exotic New Mexico was created in large measure by New York socialites and foreign artists and intellectuals who settled there from the 1920s on. This migration would only increase exponentially between the world wars. The artworks this group produced, the important collections of Hispanic and pueblo Indian folk arts they amassed, and the museums they founded, all led to the establishment of New Mexico as a magical place. This idea, underpinned by visions of tricultural harmony, has spread to the entire US, and New Mexico is now seen (and increasingly marketed) as a place that does not correspond to the space and time of the greater US. The result is that New Mexico's exoticism is so often confused with Mexico's alleged exoticism that the state's license plate has to clarify: "New Mexico, USA: Land of Enchantment." Trujillo grapples with an ethnographic tradition that—inadvertently, perhaps—reproduces the idea of New Mexico as an enchanted space when it focuses on village and folk life. This privileging of the idyllic, magical aspects of the state stands in stark contrast to the dearth of anthropological studies of Española and other poorer cities in the Greater Española Valley. It is reflected in the marketing of Taos and Santa Fe as tourist destinations while poor areas are marginalized from this circuit, thereby reinforcing cycles of poverty. Trujillo's focus on Española and his alternative ethnography is informed not only by the stories he grew up hearing at home in centralWashington state of what life had been like in New Mexico for his parents and parts of his extended family, but also by several years spent in New Mexico working variously as a reporter for the newspaper The Rio Grande Sun; a detox attendant and facilitator of drug rehabilitation groups in Española; and at the University of New Mexico in a drug treatment study. These experiences with what largely constitutes the negative, disenchanted [End Page 162] underside of New Mexico overlooked by promoters of its enchantment inform the main chapters in the book, making it very readable (and fun to read). Indeed, this ethnography's focus on what Trujillo theorizes as the "negative" is perhaps best embodied by jokes told in the area that go like this: "Who discovered Española?" And people reply, "Marco Cholo." But the negative is also most visible in the shocking statistics that show Rio Arriba County, which is the focus of his study, to be one of the "poorest counties in New Mexico," and what is perhaps even more troubling, that the entire state of New Mexico "maintains some of the worst poverty rates in the United States" (11). As Trujillo explains, jokes bracket his ethnography, introducing and ending it, because jokes ensue precisely in those spaces where, as Mary Douglas pointed out, deep disparities rub up against one another. Indeed, the poverty and crime rates of the state serve as a form of disenchantment of the enchanted. Trujillos's Española, therefore, "is a place where discourses of tradition and the most painful aspects of modernity seem to intermingle, boil, and saturate the landscape" (3). The chapters that conform this image of a disenchanted New Mexico focus on the terrible poverty, violence, and drug abuse that permeate the area. The first chapter traces the history that would lead to the dismemberment of the foot of a prominent statue to Oñate (conqueror of New Mexico in the 16th century). The second is on the celebration of Holy Friday in Chimayó when a terrible murder that shakes the region is...

Humour appreciation and comprehension in children with intellectual disability

Data on typically developing children show that humour development starts from an early age. Studies investigating humour in children with intellectual disability (ID) are few and have generally focused on identifying differences between this population and other groups of children. This study focuses on children with ID as a heterogeneous group and seeks to answer the following questions: (1) what kinds of humour do children with ID appreciate most in a video cartoon? (2) How does the mode of presentation of jokes influence humour comprehension? This study examines humour appreciation and comprehension in school-aged children (n = 9; chronological age: 7-11 years) with mild/moderate ID. Specific tools were developed to explore each aspect. Participants rated short scenes from a video cartoon to show their appreciation for different kinds of humour. A set of video-recorded jokes, with different modes of presentation, were used in the comprehension task. The greatest appreciation was expressed for physical and visual humour. Non-specific scenes (i.e. scenes with no particularly funny elements) were also rated highly. Jokes presented with gesture were understood more than jokes told without supports. These differences in comprehension, arising from supported/unsupported jokes, were statistically significant within the group studied. The context of humour (e.g. being part of a video cartoon) is important in determining what children with ID find funny. The significant difference in comprehension brought about by a change in mode of presentation (i.e. supported/unsupported joke telling) suggests that humour comprehension can be facilitated.

Late-Night Iraq: Monologue Joke Content and Tone From 2003 to 2007

The current study examines late-night comedy about the war in Iraq. Specifically, a content analysis was conducted to examine late-night comedy jokes from March 2003 to March 2007. Results indicate jokes told (N = 986) about Iraq were anti-war, had a negative tone, and depicted the U.S. government negatively. The most common type of comedy employed to discuss Iraq was informative. The topics discussed in the jokes varied. The study also found differences in comedian ideology (anti-war), tone, and depiction of the U.S. government over time.

Getting a Grip on Governance

COMMENTS ON ORLIKOFF'S ARTICLE In his feature article, Building Better Boards in the New Era of Accountability, Orlikoff again shows us why he is the dean of governance consultants in healthcare. He lays out the current issues for boards and addresses why chief executive officers (CEOs) need to be concerned about governance. Orlikoff believes that hospital governance is at a tipping point, and he strives to tip us in the right direction. In doing so, he takes us on a detailed journey of all of the factors affecting hospital governance, paying special attention to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and encouraging boards to on with adopting its provisions. Community Connections Versus Competency Orlikoff is on the cutting edge when he talks about the failure of the community-based model of governance, which is a basic approach to how we structure our hospitals' boards. In most communities, the hospital or healthcare system is the largest employer. Its economic effect on the community is huge, and yet we continue to select our board members based merely on their connection with the community. A similar business in the same community would get its board members from the community, the region, and probably the nation. We need to focus on the skills that a person brings to the board and seek those skills wherever we can find them. The social pressures on a board to make a certain decision, especially when the decision concerns physicians, are real and can influence the board to make the popular decision instead of the right one. Board Compensation Once you go down the road of having board members from outside the community, you naturally move to having to compensate them. When you add up all the risk, the possible social pressure, the complexity of the issues, and the need for great talent, compensation seems like a good idea. Finding and Retaining Good Board Members Generally speaking, finding good people for any endeavor requires work, so it would naturally follow that finding good board members is hard. Orlikoff fails to mention one way of keeping good board members once you find them: abolish term limits. Term limits for board members garner mixed results, and boards often institute them as a substitute for effective board evaluations. We believe that because good board members are hard to find, you need to keep the ones who are really effective and quickly get rid of those who are ineffective. Dismissing board members can lead to awkward situations, but having to work around difficult and ineffective board members and waiting for their term to expire before adding a capable replacement are equally difficult. Using an outsider to help you evaluate the board can take some of the heat off of the endeavor and give you an unbiased view of how the board is functioning. Level of Involvement Orlikoff warns against the board becoming compliant custodians because of pettifogging activities, and we worry, correspondingly, about the possibility of a hebetudinous board. We have found that an even greater risk is that the board becomes too involved in trying to make management decisions rather than compliantly rubber-stamping the recommendations of management. Our experience with boards does not lead us to the same conclusions that were reached by Orlikoff. We address this further in our comments on Middleton's feature article later. Formula for Effective Board Meetings Orlikoff is at his best when he makes recommendations as to what a CEO should do to help the board govern successfully. We concur and enthusiastically endorse his suggestions and so have only a few suggestions of our own to add. First, we believe that board meetings should be fun affairs. Birthdays and anniversaries should be celebrated and some jokes told. A small amount of foolishness can help the time pass in an enjoyable way. This does not mean that the meeting should turn into a party, but it should not be ponderous either. …