Paper short abstract:

The article explores how political humour constitutes a different kind of social protest. This is linked with breaking rules (transgression). To laugh in the face of power is not to say: “I oppose you” but rather it is to assert: “your power has no authority over me.” This article explores relationships between humor, social engagement and discursive practices, using an interdisciplinary approach.

Paper long abstract:

The rapid development of social media in recent years has led to the emergence of new forms of political communication, in particular visual communication, represented by the genres “cartoons” and “memes”. These genres are the subject of many different disciplines: cultural studies, communication/media studies, media linguistics, political science, political linguistics, cognitive linguistics, semiotics. The paper deals with analysis of 1300 political cartoons and memes of President Zelensky, using computer based content analysis (MAXQDA 2020) and multimodal discourse analysis (MDA).

Accordingly, this article explores how humor, or more precisely, political humour constitutes a different kind of social protest that cannot be analyzed from an interdisciplinary point of view. To laugh in the face of power is not to say: “I oppose you” but rather it is to assert: “your power has no authority over me.” As such, this article maintains an inspection of the relationship between humor, social engagement and discursive practices.

The combination of quantitative and qualitative methods for the analysis of multimodal genres not only expands the methodological tools of researchers of humorous discourse, but also ensures the reliability of the results. The analysis of political caricatures and memes, which cover certain aspects of Volodymyr Zelensky’s activity as president of Ukraine that his activity was and still is the object of rather sharp criticism, finds its expression in humorous genres.