Send message to Authors

Paper short abstract

The study explores whether the same humour mechanisms are used in climate change memes and in humorous climate protest posters. The analysis reveals that both datasets use juxtapositions, witty cultural references, and visual humour, but only posters use word play and self-deprecation.

Paper long abstract

As climate changes, so does humour - from satirical posters at School Strike 4 Climate (SS4C) protests to internet memes on social media. This presentation builds upon the research on common humour mechanisms in SS4C posters (Hee et al., 2022), according to which humorous posters often employ such mechanisms as wordplay, juxtapositions, witty cultural references, visual humour and personification, and self-deprecating humour. The current study explores whether the same mechanisms create humorous effects in climate change memes. The analysis of 130 humorous memes posted on Instagram, Facebook and Reddit between 2019 and 2025 reveals that adding witty cultural references, playing with visuality and creating juxtapositions (both verbal and visual) are among the most common mechanisms in the dataset. However, both wordplay and self-deprecating humour were rather marginal. The discrepancy can be explained both by the different formats of humorous data (i.e., visuality was much more prevalent in humorous memes than in SS4C posters) and by the different nature of communication in street protests and among online groups. While the protest participants clearly positioned themselves as climate change activists and could thus afford self-deprecation without the fear of being misinterpreted, climate change internet memes have to express their stance less ambiguously to avoid being used by climate change skeptics.

Reference:

Hee, M., Jürgens, A. S., Fiadotava, A., Judd, K., & Feldman, H. R. (2022). Communicating urgency through humor: School Strike 4 Climate protest placards. Journal of Science Communication, 21(5), A02.