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P036


This is not a joke. Humour, laughter and the political present 
Convenor:
Mirco Göpfert (Goethe University Frankfurt)
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Format:
Workshop
Transfers:
Open for transfers

Short Abstract:

Humour has become a key (and perhaps common) practice of engaging with the political present. Does humour “common” critique and imagination? How do humourists address dissonances, reveal absurdities, and anticipate tipping points? We invite papers and creative experiments on these questions.

Long Abstract:

Political satire, comedic journalism and (meta)political memes are gaining more and more traction; the slippages between parody and sincerity, play and earnestness, real and fake, ridicule and seriousness have proliferated at a dizzying rate. In the face of global crises and contested political spaces, humour emerges as a key practice for engaging with and making sense of the political present. In weird ways, humour appears to “common” political critique and imagination, offering ways to address and process uncomfortable knowledge that challenges dominant narratives and reveals the ambivalences, dissonances and absurdities of our time.

Aligning with the conference’s focus on commoning and uncommoning, we welcome explorations of how humour contributes to the creation of political and social un/commons, offering spaces for solidarity but also exclusion. After all, humour can resist the co-option of political spaces by hegemonic forces, enabling new forms of collaboration and collective knowledge; but it can do that also on the extreme right.

This workshop invites contributions that explore humour as an epistemic tool for grasping, critiquing and imagining the political present. We are particularly interested in papers that investigate how satire, political humour, comedic journalism, stand-up and other comedic practices serve to address, disrupt or spawn political imagination, question normative frameworks, and create alternative forms of knowledge. We invite papers and creative experiments that address how humour sharpens political dissonances, reveals absurdities, and anticipates political tipping points. Contributions from diverse global contexts and disciplines are welcome.

Accepted contributions:

Session 1
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