Browsing by Subject "humor"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Contingent Effects of Humor Type and Cognitive Style on Consumer Attitudes
    (Springer, 2016) Mayer, James Mark; Peev, Plamen; Kumar, Piyush; Kelley School of Business
    In the spirit of examining humor contextually, we consider a basic question in this essay: do different humor types “play by the same rules,” cognitively speaking? We examine the relationship between humor and cognitive processing style, as operationalized through Need for Cognition. We find that humor based on disparagement processes “breaks through” the cognitive differences inherent in incongruity humor. Rather than exhibiting incongruity-based humor’s affective response transferring to attitude for low-NFC subjects, and more centrally-employing high NFC subjects’ higher tendency to dismiss the humor’s effect on overall attitude, disparagement based humor is processed the same by both low- and high-NFC respondents. Overall, our findings suggest that the relationship between cognitive processing (as operationalized through Need for Cognition) and resultant attitudes is a complicated one, strongly contingent on humor type. Were only incongruity-based humor utilized, our findings would have reinforced Zhang’s (Psychol Mark 13:531–545, 1996b) assertion that a person’s Need for Cognition will play a key role in the evaluation of humor, but our results suggest that a more complex conceptualization of the relationship between humor and attitude formation is required when humor is treated as a potentially more complicated, context-dependent construct.
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    Dick Gregory and Activist Style: Identifying Attributes of Humor necessary for Activist Advocacy
    (2013) Rossing, Jonathan P.; Department of Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts
    Human rights advocacy is often austere, if not funereal. Nevertheless, humorists have long engaged human rights activism through their art. Against claims that humor weakens action or conservatively maintains the status quo, this essay argues for humor as necessary element in human rights activism. At its best, humor awakens communities by providing new perspectives on reality and sharpening understandings of injustice. It provokes dialogue and action and humanizes all parties in a struggle. This essay explores humor as a necessary, if not sufficient, component of an activist political style through a case study of comedian and activist Dick Gregory. Using evidence from Gregory's performances and speeches as well as public discourse about Gregory, this essay establishes humor as an integral characteristic of an activist political style.
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    Prudence and Racial Humor: Troubling Epithets
    (Taylor and Francis, 2014) Rossing, Jonathan P.; Department of Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts
    Prudence is an essential virtue in a contemporary racial culture marked by the contingencies and the paradoxical in/stability of race and racism. Recurring controversies surrounding racial epithets exemplify this clash between deeply entrenched racial meanings on one hand and shifting conventions on the other. I argue in this essay that racial humor presents a valuable site for understanding and practicing prudential reasoning and performance. Analyzing three episodes from popular texts—The Boondocks, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and South Park—I illustrate the way racial humor resists prescriptive reasoning and creates possibilities for audiences to practice prudence.
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    Puppets of Terror: The Limits and Opportunities of Creating Ambiguity about Terrorists and Terrorism through Humor
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2013-04-05) Davey, Lydia
    At times of war, the rhetorical strategy of framing an opponent as a dispensible “other” and dehumanizing the enemy enables people to view other human beings as worthy of death. Since 9/11, the labels of “terror” and “terrorist” have served these rhetorical ends. This analysis explores the ways that puppetry and rhetorical strategies of humor have been used since the 9/11 attacks to create ambiguity around the concepts of terrorists and terrorism. Comedians, with the help of a small army of complex, ambivalent characters, have problematized the politics of fear and dehumanization. This research examined puppets from three sources: the satirical news program The Daily Show with Jon Stewart; the marionette movie Team America; and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham. The research draws on scholarship about the purpose and social functions of humor. Through the lens of rhetorical criticism and cultural studies, I analyzed the persona constructed by the puppets and the implications of their messages about terrorism, terrorists, and domestic policy. I suggest that the humorous use of puppets constructs a neutered terrorist threat, breaks down rigid perception barriers, and challenges visceral reactions to the words “terrorist” and “terror.” These performances also call into question the rigid and binary distinctions between good and evil that the politics of fear construct. However, even as they create ambiguity, these comic figures provide subtle strategies to deride the enemy, vent anger, and reinforce stereotypes about the threat of the “Other.” For better or worse, the use of not-quite human representatives of terror allowed America to laugh again after 9/11. Understanding the role of humor as it relates to fear, particularly regarding the sensitive and often racially charged discussion of radical Islamic fundamentalists, contributes to a refined perspective of the role of humor as a political tool.