Paper short abstract:

On and offstage, stand-up comedians will defend their offensive material by reaffirming the “role” of the comedian as inveterate truthteller, permitted to leave no topic unexplored. In dialogue with a stand-up comedy artworld, this comprises an effort to define both comedy and the comedian.

Paper long abstract:

Building on the tacit assumption that the “role” of the stand-up comedian is in part to be an inveterate truthteller, and as such has tacit permission to leave no topic unexplored, comedians who have been called to account for offensive material have taken the opportunity to reaffirm this role, in turn attempting to define both comedy and the comedian. This occurs both on and offstage: that is to say, in fora where the comedian is in a ludically-framed imbalanced dialogue with a co-present audience where the primary demonstration of cognitive and aesthetic appreciation is laughter, and those where laughter is not the primary objective and the relationship with the audience is notably different. Critics from within and without the stand-up comedy artworld engage in similar and complementary discussions, in turn invoking and (re)shaping these definitions. Finally, transgressions may not be onstage verbal performances but offstage real-world actions which, in turn, can become partly accounted for through direct or indirect allusion to the character of “stand-up comedian.” This paper is an early effort to frame the issue of “going too far” within both the vernacular and academic literatures on comedy and taboo.

Paper short abstract:

The paper aims to analyse one particular, puzzling, humorous anecdote of a "rape", an intercourse between a Soviet soldier and a Hungarian woman as told by an old lady at a family gathering. I wish to contextualize this one story in the wider context of local narratives of war and sexual violence.

Paper long abstract:

The paper aims to present, contextualize and interpret a humorous rape story collected as part of an ethnographic research that was conducted in the Aranyosvidék region of Transylvania, Romania. I wish to present an understanding of this field experience and narrative event, when a similar story was told by a woman at a family gathering and provoked laughter. When one researches military stories they often encounter stories of sexual violence committed by the invading or liberating Soviet forces. These stories - mostly told by elderly women in private, after long conversations - echo biased, uneven gender relations and lack of agency: women are passive actors, hidden by men from the armed forces of the enemy just as the other valuables of the family. According to the narratives, most of the rapes occurred as consequence of women trying to act on their own accord. Yet, these stories are never linked to the storyteller or her family, only to other unnamed locals or neighbours. It seems, that actual events cannot be communicated, the traumatic experience is depersonalized and integrated as an element to the collective, victimized self-image of the local Hungarian minority. This is the general narrative, thematic context in which this shocking story was told. Through contrasting this one particular story with the block of mainstream narratives I argue that these two models of speech, the depersonalized, traumatic, dialogical and the personal, humorous, public ones echo the same sexual imaginary and gender relations narrated in relation to events of war.

Paper short abstract:

In my ongoing dissertation project I am investigating how Swedish stand-up comedians and their audiences both challenge and recreate cultural notions and norms. This paper will focus on how stand-up comedians reason about how to joke about various sensitive subjects.

Paper long abstract:

Stand-up comedy has become increasingly popular in Sweden in the last decades. The jokes of stand-up comedians reflect prevailing cultural notions and norms. But stand-up comedy can also be seen as a form of cultural free zone where one is allowed to express oneself in ways that are not possible in other public contexts. According to humor scholar Joanne R. Gilbert, stand-up comedy is a forum where hierarchies can be turned upside down, power relations are overthrown and social critique can be disguised as entertainment (2004: xii).

In my paper I will present my ongoing dissertation project investigating how Swedish stand-up comedians and their audiences challenge and recreate cultural notions and norms. By applying an intersectional perspective, I analyze how various power structures interacts and strengthens each other, but also are undermined, through humor. The main empirical material consists of observations at different stand-up comedy clubs, interviews with stand-up comedians and interviews with focus groups involving people who have been in the audience at stand-up comedy clubs.

The paper will focus on how stand-up comedians reason about how to joke about various sensitive subjects. How does this relate to cultural notions and norms? How do they mean that their performances are affected by their background and experiences?

REFERENCES

Gilbert, Joanne R. (2004). Performing marginality: humor, gender, and cultural critique. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press.

Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the breaking and bending of civil discourse that ´disaster humour’ allows, its uses and abuses in negotiating morality and making sense of unprecedented experiences within everyday life brought on by global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Paper long abstract:

From its initial, localised emergence to its full-blown global disruption of social and cultural norms the COVID-19 pandemic was met with a barrage of humorous public response. From internet memes to workplace jokes, a varyingly ambivalent and transgressive gallows-humour emerged across the spectrum of oral and digital folklore. Humour in times of calamity has long been a subject of folkloric research. Whether springing from natural or man-made disasters, terrorism or economic catastrophes, folklorists have studied the practice of humour in exoticizing and othering victims, to mediating disparate views and processing overwhelming emotions as well as analysing the role of media in its expression and distribution. In discussion with these approaches this paper focuses its attention on the breaking and bending of civil discourse that calamity allows. It asks how narratives and visual folklore encompass negotiations of morality and prudence in collective action. The paper questions the uses and abuses of humour in social media in making sense of unprecedented everyday experiences and reacting to discursive shifts, or rather tremors, brought on by global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. It also discusses challenges and possible innovations in collecting and researching online expressions of humour in times of calamity.