Sexual Humor Research Articles

Hahaha! Unmasking sexual humour in some Ghanaian and Nigerian YouTube comedy skits

ABSTRACT This study examines sexual humour in some Ghanaian and Nigerian YouTube comedy skits through the theoretical lens of social semiotics. It focuses on two YouTubers, Jeffrey Nortey from Ghana and Viper the Wiper from Nigeria, purposively sampled for their extensive use of sexual humour. Analysis reveals that they employ intertextuality, exaggeration, and dramatic irony as their key communicative strategies. Intertextuality draws on folk knowledge, the Bible, social, and religious issues. Exaggeration is used to depict actions that are humanly impossible, while dramatic irony introduces unexpected twists. The effectiveness of these strategies is evident from the numerous views and comments their skits receive, highlighting their successful engagement with the taboo topic of sex. However, the study also notes the potential negative impact of some sexual jokes, which may reinforce harmful stereotypes about men and women. It underscores the importance of responsibly portraying human sexuality in humour, advocating the avoidance of perpetuating damaging societal norms through comedic narratives.

Edible Bodies? Conspicuous Consumption, Women’s Bodies and Postcolonial Masculinities in Fast-Food Advertisements in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT While existing scholarship has primarily focused on examining how women are often objectified and sexualised in fast-food marketing advertisements, this article shifts the focus to demonstrate how such advertisements reveal the construction, performance and negotiation of precarious masculinities. By concentrating on advertisements from a Zimbabwean fast-food chain, Mambo’s Chicken, this article argues that advertisements framing women as edible items offer insights into how precarious masculinities are constructed, performed and negotiated within the postcolonial context of Zimbabwe. Specifically, it examines the use of sexual humour, banter and innuendo in advertisements from Mambo’s Chicken, considering the complex issues inherent in conspicuous consumption and how they illuminate multifaceted insecurities that men navigate as they attempt to assert their dominance. This negotiation of masculinity occurs within a paradoxical context characterised by excessive consumerism and precarious economic conditions.

Persepsi Mahasiswa tentang Humor Seksis sebagai Bentuk Kekerasan Seksual secara Verbal

The rise of sexist humor, which is a form of verbal sexual violence, is one of the important things that needs to be studied. Students as figures who will have an important role in society need to have a proper understanding of forms of sexual violence, such as sexist humor. Therefore, it is important in the end to know how students perceive sexist humor as a form of verbal sexual violence. This research uses a descriptive method with a qualitative approach. Data collection techniques were carried out by observation, interview, documentation, and literature study. The subjects in this study were 5 students who are currently actively studying in higher education who were determined using purposive sampling technique. The results showed that there are two main perceptions of sexist humor, namely sexist humor as a form of verbal sexual violence and sexist humor as a form of joke. The researcher also found that the determination of perceptions was motivated by gender factors and the closeness between the perpetrator and the victim.

Party games and prejudice: are these Cards Against Humanity?

Abstract Two experiments assess the validity of common criticisms against the popular party game Cards Against Humanity (CAH), namely that it promotes prejudice while absolving players of any moral responsibility. Study 1a (based on Prejudiced Norm Theory) finds no evidence that sexist humor in CAH encourages men to express prejudice against women. However, Study 1b (based on Social Identity Theory) provides evidence that sexist humor in CAH cues women to anticipate such discrimination. CAH’s reputation does not appear to contribute to these results. Exploratory analyses further reveal that, consistent with criticisms, people do allocate moral responsibility for offense differently in CAH than in traditional verbal exchanges of humor; however, this moral allocation is generally unrelated to prejudiced outcomes. Implications and future directions for refining these theories and understanding the intergroup functions of humor in party games are discussed in light of the studies’ mixed support of CAH’s criticisms.

Not Just Rapids: Navigating Gendered Performance in the Whitewater Rafting Industry

Summary Ideal archetypes of outdoor guides often conjure images of strong men with beards and flannel. While guiding industries are, in fact, man-dominated, many women have been successful in gaining and maintaining employment in outdoor professions. Feminist scholars have outlined concepts of gender performances. Within guiding industries, many women have been adapted by performing masculinity. This case study stems from a larger project examining gender dynamics and issues of harassment within the whitewater raft guiding community. We outline the specific ways in which a dominant masculinity is described by interviewees and the subsequent practices they adopt. Specifically, we discuss how women have enacted masculinity through toughness, assertive communication, and sexual humor. We highlight how these expectations are exclusionary and can be opposed. Through these examples and related literature, we re-envision work cultures that no longer require the additional labor of navigating masculinist environments in order to be accepted and successful. Information © CAB International 2024

Investigating Gender-Based Humor In Punjabi Stage Dramas In The Digital Age

This research focuses on the prevalence and implications of gender-based humor in Pakistani stage dramas and its role in perpetuating misogyny and sexism. The current study aims to enhance the understanding of how sexist humor in stage dramas can jeopardize women's image in Pakistan. Our media has fostered a typical image of a woman, and society gradually considers females who deviate from the image unacceptable. Through our research, we argue that the propagation of sexist comedy undermines and endangers women's social identities and diminishes their self-value. The phenomenon not only damages the credibility of the female gender but also restricts opportunities and mobility of women in society and reinforces stereotypes and gender inequity. We used qualitative content analysis of Pakistani Punjabi stage dramas of the last five years to study gender-based humor. After analyzing the content, we found that most of the stage dramas’ content is gender biased. Women are predominantly targeted and subjected to several forms of mockery. Harmful stereotypes are reinforced and perpetuated through the content. These plays not only belittle women by portraying them as laughingstock but also highlight traditional gender norms and downplay their worth and potential.

‘Just relax and ram it in’: Dimensions of power in workplace sexual humour

Sexual humour has been observed in organisations where it is actively encouraged and in organisations where it is officially proscribed. In this paper, we use Interactional Sociolinguistics to analyse fifteen ‘live’ recordings of walkie-talkie radio conversations in a Finnish restaurant where sexual behaviour was officially proscribed. Our findings illustrate how sexual humour can function as a means of ‘bonding’ or ‘biting’ in a mixed-gender work community, with each exchange carrying distinct power implications. Theoretically, we build on Butler’s notion of ‘linguistic injury’ by proposing that the nature and extent of the ‘injury’ associated with sexual humour varies depending on the function, target, initiator and response. We develop a conceptual framework that positions sexual humour within its interactional, organisational and societal context and which illuminates the distinct power relations enacted by sexual humour involving resistance, subjugation and exclusion.

Sexual jokes in Nigerian stand-up comedy

Nigerian stand-up comic artists explore emerging social, religious, and political issues as materials for comic entertainment within their performance space and community of practice. One of the resources for comic performance is the recourse to sexual contents which are deployed to reduce apprehension around stereotyped norms about sex and sexuality in the Nigerian sociocultural context. Drawing on ethnographic qualitative data using social media skits, audio-visual disks and semi-structured interviews, this article examines sexual jokes as ideological texts and rhetorical devices that embody the struggle between conservatism and postmodern conceptions of sex and sexuality. It highlights the recurrent themes and creative discourses of sexual humour which stand-up comedy performers exploit as artistic tools for the engagement of gender roles, sexual myths, sexual politics and social contradictions within a vulnerable socio-political and economic context. We adopt social relief theory and incongruity theory of humour comprehension to provide a nuanced understanding of sexual jokes and the sociocultural inhibitions that surround them. The dominant themes in these jokes include male sterility, faking orgasm, commodification of sex, prostitution, rape, and the use of aphrodisiac. The results indicate that sexual jokes are circulating within the comedy performance space as forms of protest against stereotyped sexual culture. In this way, male and female comedians, working with the tools and ideology of postmodernism, help to satirise conventional sexual values and radicalise their audiences against normative construction of sex and sexuality.

Toward a Theoretical and Analytical Framework for the Study of Sexual Humour in Chaucerian Fabliaux

The present study offers an examination of laughter in comic texts from a range of fabliau in The Canterbury Tales, framing them within discussions of medieval views of eroticism that draw from religion, medicine, philosophy, and literature. These texts feature males and females who laugh and make jokes in sexual themes and plots which involve deception and sexual misbehaviour. First, the article explores medieval attitudes toward laughter in religious, medical treatises and literature. It then discusses a number of predominant themes in the Reeve’s Tale, the Miller’s Tale, the Merchant’s Tale and the Shipman’s Tale in the context of Chaucer’s the Canterbury Tales to try to tease out how these particular themes may have worked to bring erotic pleasure to the reader of the comic texts. The comic themes discussed in this article are briefly cuckoldry, culinary humour, exposure of the genitals and farting. These subjects and how they are represented are very different from modern erotic representations. They are based both on a different understanding of the body and on a different social and cultural landscape, and their complexity resists simple interpretations about misogyny or functionality that are suggested by feminist perspectives on sexual humour. All quotations from the Canterbury Tales are taken from The Riverside Chaucer, edited by Larry D. Benson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).

Chukwimah, Ignatius: Sexual Humour in Africa: Gender, Jokes, and Societal Change

Article Review of Sexual Humour in Africa: Gender, Jokes and Societal Change, edited by Ignatius Chukwumah. Published by Routledge (Routledge Contemporary Africa Series) 2022 was published on January 17, 2023 in the journal HUMOR (volume 0, issue 0).

Stereotyping and vilifying the other behind the mask of humour – when a chicken smells of fear

Audiovisual texts are social semiotic constructions that arbitrate reality according to a set of discursive patterns and established beliefs. Therefore, it is natural for translators to re-create and manipulate audiovisual texts to overcome challenges pertaining to religion, culture, and politics, which are the three intrinsic determinants of positioning in any translation project. Leaning on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as a methodological approach, this paper aims to investigate how stereotypes and disparagement humour about Arabs and Muslims are dealt with in translating a segment from Family Guy into Arabic. The focus of the paper is on examining ideology-related shifts, and how and to what degree the students manipulated or mitigated religio-cultural barriers, as well as on assessing the role of visuals in the decision-making process. The students’ translations denote the inextricable intertwining of their authoritative voices and the act of translation, that is, some students consciously attempted to expose the writers’ intentions, while others subverted the text as a protective and resistive measure against the anti-Islamic, racist, sexual humour of the show.

Effective connectivity of the amygdala during the consumption of erotic, sexual humor, and monetary rewards with a DCM-PEB approach.

While a large body of research exists on the processing of monetary rewards, less is known about sexual reward processing. This study aimed to identify effective connectivity for the consumption of sexual (erotic and sexual humor) and non-sexual (monetary) rewards, using dynamic causal modeling and parametric empirical Bayes with subjective hedonic ratings included. Our results support the importance of the amygdala for sexual humor amusement, the nucleus accumbens (NAc) for monetary rewards, and the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC) for erotic pleasure. The amygdala, NAc, and lOFC are major dopaminergic targets with known roles in the reward circuitry. Appreciating sexual humor was associated with ventral tegmental area (VTA) to amygdala connectivity. Enjoying monetary gains was associated with VTA-to-NAc and amygdala-to-NAc connectivity. The mesolimbic dopamine system originates in the VTA and sends major projections to the amygdala and NAc. Specifically, sexual humor appreciation was associated with effective connectivity from the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) to the amygdala, suggesting that subjective pleasure triggers activation of the vmPFC which exerts an excitatory influence on the amygdala. Unexpectedly, processing pleasure from monetary gains was linked to VTA-to-vmPFC connectivity, rather than the expected vmPFC-to-NAc connectivity. Importantly, we identified core roles for the amygdala. Sexual humor appreciation was associated with VTA-to-amygdala and vmPFC-to-amygdala effective connectivity, while we found amygdala-to-lOFC connectivity for erotic pleasure and amygdala-to-NAc connectivity for pleasure from monetary gains. Our findings represent an important step in understanding how effective connectivity in the mesocorticolimbic-amygdala circuitry differs for processing the consumption of sexual and monetary rewards.

SEXIST HUMOR AS A FORM OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND PREVENTION EFFORT FROM AN ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE

The emergence of several phenomena of sexual violence on television media between lecturers and students raises concerns for all circles in the campus environment. Unfortunately, most of the student victims are unaware that they are getting sexual harassment, especially verbally. One form of verbal abuse is sexist humor. This study aimed to find about what makes sexist humor a form of sexual violence and what we can do to prevent and control it at UIN Raden Fatah Palembang. This study used a qualitative research method. In collecting the data, a quantitative method was used by distributing the questionnaires, and qualitatively, by conducting in-depth interviews. The theory used was the theory of Communication Privacy Management (CPM). The findings and results of this study concluded that this sexist humor will continue to occur if there is no prevention and proper handling on campus, mainly because there are no institutions that can act as bridges for students to report, consult and protect victims. Another thing that is also a concern is the lack of understanding and information about sexual violence, both verbally and non-verbally, among students.

‘An Impromptu’, Thomas Stretser and Sterne’s Bawdry

Sterne’s Miscellaneous Works present some under-explored opportunities for new discoveries. ‘An Impromptu’ provides the focus of this piece, which re-examines Sterne’s bawdry in the context of the sexual humour demonstrated by contemporary publications, including Thomas Stretser’s A New Description of Merryland (1740) and Merryland Displayed (1741).

Do you know when you are the punchline? Gender-based disparagement humor and target perceptions

PurposeThis paper aims to draw upon extant theory and research to delineate the fundamental factors that impact how women evaluate disparaging humor directed at them. The conceptual framework presented outlines the most fundamental organizational-, interpersonal- and individual-level factors that influence the accuracy of such evaluation.Design/methodology/approachThis is a conceptual paper that offers both a review of extant humor and gender research and theory and the presentation of a theoretical model that classifies sources of influence on evaluations of sexist humor from the perspective of the target.FindingsOrganization-, interpersonal- and individual-level factors are identified as sources of influence on women’s perception and evaluation of sexist humor leveled at them. This classification identifies factors including organizational power dynamics, egalitarian norms, interpersonal trust, target self-esteem and feminist identity.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper offers a conceptual framework to guide future studies in more systematically examining the sources of influence on female targets’ capacity to recognize when they are the “punchline” of sexist humor.Practical implicationsThe conceptual model developed in this paper offers important implications for managers and leaders in organizations in assisting targets to recognize instances of sexist humor directed at them. The aim is to arm potential victims with the knowledge necessary to foster awareness of their treatment in the workplace and to improve the accuracy of evaluation of workplace attitudes that may often nurture a sense of approval or apathy regarding displays of sexist humor.Originality/valueThis paper presents a novel classification of sources of influence on female targets’ evaluation of sexist humor in the workplace.

Delegitimizing a woman politician through sexist humor in online public discourse: A discursive analysis using positioning theory

This study explores the use of sexist humor targeting a woman politician in public comments online. We examine the case of a Philippine woman senator and analyze jokes about her alleged sex video that was raised in a state congressional proceeding and became the object of public talk in media and online spaces. Using Positioning Theory as a discursive approach to conceptualize sexist humor, we understand sexist jokes as acts of positioning that evoke storylines, construct identities, and claim rights and duties. We argue that sexist humor as used in a political context has a social force of not only maligning a woman but also of delegitimizing her as a woman politician. We identified two sets of storylines within sexist jokes in relation to the alleged sex video, positioning her as an “animal” and making her the object of disgust and positioning her as a “moral threat” and questioning her moral capacity and legitimacy. The woman politician consequently lost the right to be respected as a woman, as a person, and as a politician, whereas the public gained the right to be sexist and denigrate women. We discuss implications of sexist humor in online public discourse and pose questions on the possibility and difficulty of counter-talk.

Men’s Language and Masculine Identity Construction in Sexist Jokes

<em>The power imbalance between men and women in society is reflected in their language use and it may be reinforced in sexist jokes. This is a sociolinguistic study on men’s language in sexist jokes on the Internet. This study is aimed at investigating men’s linguistic features and the masculine identities represented by those features. This is a descriptive qualitative study with complementary quantitative analysis. The theories of Tannen’s men language (1990) and Kiesling’s masculine identities (2007) were used as references to analyze the data. The results show that men’s identity of competing for solidarity embodied in discourses of insults, teasing, and joking is the most dominant identity represented in sexist jokes. This is in line with the main intention of sexist humor to laugh at women’s inferiority. Meanwhile, men’s dominance realized in report talk becomes the second most prevalent identity. The identities of politeness oaf, indicated by direct command, and freedom, shown by swearing and taboo words, are not influential as both do not contribute to the making of humorous expressions. These imply that context and communication purposes motivate speakers to use gender-related features. Reflecting that most of the masculine identities and the language features in sexist jokes represent men’s superiority, this kind of humor can be a way to maintain gender asymmetry in society. Besides, although humor leads to laughter and is considered healthy, sexist humor is dangerous as the expressions subordinate women. Therefore, being critical when reading the jokes and trying to avoid such jokes in communication is suggested.</em>

Would you share that? How the intensity of violent and sexual humor, gender and audience diversity affect sharing intentions for online advertisements

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to understand the effect of increasing the intensity of sexual or violent content on consumer responses to online video advertisements, with a particular emphasis on sharing intentions.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a between-subjects experimental design across two studies using new to the world online video advertisements as stimuli.FindingsStudy 1 finds that increasing the intensity of sexual and violent humor improves advertisement effectiveness amongst men but leads to significantly more negative attitudes toward the advertisement and brand amongst women. Study 2 identifies gender and humor type as moderators for sharing intentions in the presence of audience diversity. While men are more likely to publicly share sexual and violent humor advertisements, social anxiety mediates intentions to share sexual humor advertisements in the presence of greater audience diversity.Practical implicationsThe paper offers insights to practitioners regarding the use of risqué forms of humor as part of a digital marketing strategy.Originality/valueDrawing on and extending benign violation theory, the paper introduces and verifies a theoretical model for understanding consumer responses to the use of risqué forms of humor in online advertisements. It identifies how audience diversity affects sharing intentions for sexual and violent humor-based advertisements on social media.

Differential neural substrates for responding to monetary, sexual humor, and erotic rewards

Sexual humor involves neural mechanisms related to both humor and sexual arousal. However, evidence on the role of the amygdala in processing sexual humor is lacking. Unlike erotic stimuli that directly involve a biological drive, sexual humor gains its value through learned associations. Processes related to responding to erotic versus monetary rewards have been identified in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC) along a postero-anterior axis, but it is less clear whether these processes are also active during the appreciation of sexual humor. Results showed the processing of sexual humor appreciation in the amygdala. Psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis further identified functional connectivity in the amygdala-midbrain coupling during sexual humor versus monetary gains appreciation. The present study provides evidence demonstrating roles for the posterior OFC (pOFC) and anterior OFC (aOFC) in distinguishing between sexual (sexual humor and erotic) and non-sexual (monetary) rewards. The experience of sexual pleasure induced by erotic rewards involves phylogenetically and ontogenetically older regions in the pOFC, while the experience of receiving monetary gains involves the aOFC. This study also provides additional insights into sexual humor appreciation in the pOFC, with findings of a postero-anterior dissociation in the processing of sexual humor appreciation. PPI analysis revealed functional connectivity in the pOFC-amygdala coupling in response to both types of sexual rewards versus monetary rewards. Together, our results suggest that the amygdala serves as a reward hub, especially in processing sexual humor versus monetary gains appreciation. Functional connectivity analysis showed amygdala-midbrain and pOFC-amygdala coupling during the appreciation of sexual humor.

Anti-value dimension of "The Leather Special" by Amy Schumer

This article analyzes the humorous aspect of the main anti-values in "The Leather Special" by Amy Schumer. The author identifies the following main ridiculed anti-values which are actualized in this humorous work: unattractiveness, drunkenness, lust and selfishness. In addition, the author also highlights the main characteristics of these ridiculed concepts. It should be noted that the majority of jokes in this stand-up special is devoted to sexual humor.