Keywords
conflict
internet
memes
digital age
How to Cite
Abstract
This special issue examines how humour and conflict intersect in the digitally networked public sphere. Building on work that has grown out of various research projects, a 2023 conference, and recent trends in humour studies, the contributions to this special issue explore how a variety of humorous objects and practices—from memes and stand-up comedy to cartoons and other forms—shape and are shaped by the communicative logics of the internet. These contributions study diverse geopolitical contexts, revealing humour’s dual capacity to inflame conflict, through misinterpretation, decontextualised circulation, and the strategic use of irony by extremist groups, and to mitigate it, by fostering critique, solidarity, and democratic engagement. The digital age amplifies these dynamics, accelerating the spread of humorous content, intensifying interpretive ambiguity, and transforming local disputes into transnational controversies. By analysing humour’s political, legal, and affective affordances, this special issue highlights humour’s ambivalent role as both a catalyst of polarisation and a resource for counter-speech, civic participation, and democratic awareness in typically fraught online environments.
References
Abedinifard, M. (2016). Ridicule, gender hegemony, and the disciplinary function of mainstream gender humour. Social Semiotics, 26(3), 234–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2015.1134817
Adriaensen, B., Bricker, A. B., Godioli, A., & Laros, T. (2023). Humor and the law: Laughter as critique/the limits of laughter. Law, Culture and the Humanities, 21(2), 163–174. https://doi.org/10.1177/17438721231177647
Alemanno, A., & Organ, J. (2021). The case for citizen participation in the European Union: A theoretical perspective on EU participatory democracy. European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR). http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3627195
Attardo, S. (2023). Humor 2.0: How the internet changed humour. Anthem Press.
Attardo, S. (2020). Linguistics of humour. Oxford University Press.
Basu, S. (2024). ’Laughing at us’: humour, humiliation, and Trump’s public. The European Journal of Humour Research, 12(1), 15–40. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2024.12.1.833
Berlant, L., & Ngai, S. (2017). Comedy has issues. Critical Inquiry, 43(2), 223–249. https://doi.org/10.1086/689666
Billig, M. (2005). Laughter and ridicule: Towards a social critique of humour. Sage.
Bricker, A. B. (2025). Satire. In R. Spoo & S. Stern (Eds.), The Elgar concise encyclopaedia of law and literature (pp. 427–430). Edward Elgar. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803925912.ch111
Brison, S., & Gelber, K. (Eds.). (2019). Free speech in the digital age. Oxford University Press.
Capelotti, J. P. (2024). Leo Lins’ stand-up comedy routines: between censorship and hate speech. The European Journal of Humour Research, 12(3), 110–125. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2024.12.3.982
Chagas, V. (2024). Quiddity and universality: the transnational origins of humorous far-right memes. The European Journal of Humour Research, 12(3), 88–109. https://europeanjournalofhumour.org/ejhr/article/view/871
Cohen, T. (1999). Jokes: Philosophical thoughts on joking matters. University of Chicago Press.
Dahl, R. (1989). Democracy and its critics. Yale University Press.
Dickey, B. (2023). Transphobic truth markets: Comparing trans-hostile discourses in British trans-exclusionary radical feminist and US right-wing movements. DiGeSt - Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies, 10(2), 33–47. https://doi.org/10.21825/digest.85311
Fielitz, M., & Ahmed, R. (2021). It’s not funny anymore: Far-right extremists’ use of humour. European Commission, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs. https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/whats-new/publications/far-right-extremists-use-humour-2021_en
Fielitz, M., & Thurston, N. (Eds.). (2018). Post-digital cultures of the far right: Online actions and offline consequences in Europe and the US. Transcript Verlag. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839446706
Gibson, J. J. (2014). The ecological approach to visual perception (Rev. ed.). Psychology Press. (Original work published 1979)
Godioli, A., Jacques, S., Young, J., & Matamoros Fernandez, A. (2025). What’s in a joke? Assessing humor in free speech jurisprudence. Forum for Humor and the Law / Columbia Global Freedom of Expression. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15383543
Goodall, H. L., Jr., et al. (2018). Rhetorical charms: The promise and pitfalls of humour and ridicule as strategies to counter extremist narratives. Perspectives on Terrorism, 12(6), 70–79. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26298556
Goktas, H. (2023). Stand-up comedy and trans subjectivity: An analysis of the work of Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais. Canadian Journal of Media Studies, 19(1), 43–70. https://uottawa.scholarsportal.info/ottawa/index.php/CJMS-RCEM/article/view/6981
Gordon, J., & Arafa, H. (2014). “Stuck with him”: Bassem Youssef and the Egyptian Revolution’s last laugh. Review of Middle East Studies, 48(1–2), 34–43. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2151348100056809
Gruber, C. (2019). The praiseworthy one: The Prophet Muhammad in Islamic texts and images. Indiana University Press.
Habermas, J. (2022). [1962]. The structural transformation of the public sphere: An inquiry into a category of bourgeois society. Polity Press.
Habermas, J. (1992). Further reflections on the public sphere. In C. Calhoun (Ed.), Habermas and the public sphere (pp. 421–461). MIT Press.
Hare, I., & Weinstein, J. (Eds.). (2009). Extreme speech and democracy. Oxford University Press.
Heinze, E. (2016). Hate speech and democratic citizenship. Oxford University Press.
Henderson, J. (1991). The maculate muse: Obscene language in Attic comedy (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Herkman, J., & Koivukoski, J. (2024). Humour scandals in the Finnish political public sphere in 1990–2020. The European Journal of Humour Research, 12(1), 73–100. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2024.12.1.831
Hoefel, D., Capelotti, J. P., & Date, R. (Eds.). (2024). Humour and conflict in the Global South [Special issue]. The European Journal of Humour Research, 12(3), 1–125. https://europeanjournalofhumour.org/ejhr/issue/view/48
Hoefel, D., & Baltar, M. (2024). Bacurau: humour and speculative fiction in contemporary Brazilian cinema. The European Journal of Humour Research, 12(3), 67–87. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2024.12.3.924
Holm, N. (2024). Deadpan humour, the comic disposition and the interpretation of ironic ambiguity online. New Media & Society, 26(1), 253-270. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211054011
Holm, N. (2017). Humour as politics: The political aesthetics of contemporary comedy. Palgrave Macmillan.
Hyttinen, A. (2024). Possibilities and limits of political humour in a hybrid regime: a visual ethnographic study of the Hungarian Two-Tailed Dog Party. The European Journal of Humour Research, 12(1), 171-193. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2024.12.1.849
Jones, W. R. (2010). The Bishops’ Ban of 1599 and the ideology of English satire. Literature Compass, 7(5), 332–346. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-4113.2010.00701.x
Koivukoski, J. (2022). Political humour in the hybrid media environment: Studies on journalistic satire and amusing advocacy [Doctoral dissertation, University of Helsinki]. http://hdl.handle.net/10138/349760
Kuipers, G. (2017). Good humour, bad taste: A sociology of the joke (Rev. ed.). De Gruyter Mouton. (Original work published 2006)
Kuipers, G., Zijp, D., Chłopicki, W., & Chiaro, D. (Eds.). (2024). Humour and the public sphere [Special issue]. The European Journal of Humour Research, 12(1), 1–255. https://europeanjournalofhumour.org/ejhr/issue/view/45
Kuipers, G., & Zijp, D. (2024). Humour and the public sphere. The European Journal of Humour Research, 12(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2024.12.1.937
Laineste, L., & Fiadotava, A. (2024). Polarised but similar: Russian and Belarusian pro- and anti-democratic humour in the public sphere. The European Journal of Humour Research, 12(1), 194-215. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2024.12.1.835
Lion, A. (2025). “Just kidding?” — Humour, power, and identity in Flanders: A critical study into (mediatised) humour controversies and the politics of offence [Doctoral dissertation, Ghent University].
Lion, A., & Dhaenens, F. (2023). “Just kidding?”: An exploratory audience study into the ways Flemish youth with a minoritized ethnic identity make sense of ethnic humour and the politics of offense. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 36(3), 375–395. https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2022-0119
Lobanov, N. (2024). From London Bridge to the Finsbury Park Mosque: humour and hate crimes. The European Journal of Humour Research, 12(1), 157–170. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2024.12.1.834
Lockyer, S., & Pickering, M. (Eds.). (2005). Beyond a joke: The limits of humour. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230236776
Lyotard, J.-F. (1988). The differend: Phrases in dispute (G. Van Den Abbeele, Trans.). University of Minnesota Press.
Madenga, F. Z. (2024). Mimicking power: visualizing satire as journalism in Zimbabwe. The European Journal of Humour Research, 12(3), 9–35. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2024.12.3.930
Makwambeni, B., & Matsilele, T. (2024). Comedy as journalism in Zimbabwe. The European Journal of Humour Research, 12(3), 36–52. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2024.12.3.926
May, R., & Feldman, M. (2018). Understanding the alt-right: Ideologues, “lulz” and hiding in plain sight. In M. Fielitz & N. Thurston (Eds.), Post-digital cultures of the far right (pp. 25–36). Transcript Verlag. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839446706-002
McCabe, R. A. (1981). Elizabethan satire and the Bishops’ Ban of 1599. Yearbook of English Studies, 11(2), 188–193. https://doi.org/10.2307/3506267
Mchangama, J. (2022). Free speech: A history from Socrates to social media. Basic Books.
Mouffe, C. (1999). Deliberative democracy or agonistic pluralism? Social Research, 66(3), 745–758. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40971349
Neiwert, D. (2017). Alt-America: The rise of the radical right in the age of Trump. Verso.
Nieuwenhuis, I., & Zijp, D. (2022). The politics and aesthetics of humour in an age of comic controversy. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 25(2), 341–354. https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494221084118
Nieuwenhuis, I. (2024). From mocking pastors to roasting politicians: humour scandals, media dynamics and cultural change in the Netherlands, 1963–2021. The European Journal of Humour Research, 12(1), 101–115. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2024.12.1.887
Norman, D. (2013). The design of everyday things. Rev. ed. Basic Books. (Original work published 1988 as The psychology of everyday things)
Obenchain, K., & Pennington, J. (2015). Educating for critical democratic literacy: Integrating social studies and literacy in the elementary classroom. Routledge.
Pérez, R. (2022). The souls of white jokes: How racist humour fuels white supremacy. Stanford University Press.
Phillips, W., & Milner, R. M. (2017). The ambivalent internet: Mischief, oddity, and antagonism online. Polity.
Raskin, V. (1985). Semantic mechanisms of humour. Reidel.
Rushdie, S. (1988). The Satanic verses. Viking.
Szakolczai, A. (2013). Comedy and the public sphere: The re-birth of theatre as comedy and the genealogy of the modern public arena. Routledge.
Suciu, P. Is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the first social media war? (2022, March 1). Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2022/03/01/is-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-the-first-social-media-war/
Tsakona, V. (2024). Liquid racism in Greek online satirical news. The European Journal of Humour Research, 12(1), 135–156. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2024.12.1.825
Tsakona, V. (2020). Recontextualizing humour: Rethinking the analysis and teaching of humour. De Gruyter Mouton.
Vashisht, N. W. (2024). Puns and pain in Palestine: black comedy as cultural resistance in Ahmed Masoud’s The Shroud Maker. The European Journal of Humour Research, 12(3), 53–66. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2024.12.3.929
Weaver, S. (2016). The rhetoric of racist humour: US, UK and global race joking. Routledge.
Zijp, D. (2024). Comic innocence. The European Journal of Humour Research, 12(1), 116–134. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2024.12.1.837
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2025 The European Journal of Humour Research