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Notification: 10/10/2026

Humor (dis)connection
Study Day
29/10/2026

Humor is a universal and ubiquitous human activity that occurs frequently in our ordinary
social life. It is a highly complex social phenomenon (Martin, 2007) whose function extends
far beyond amusement and entertainment to serve as a mechanism for psychological relief
and social and cultural cohesion. Boxer and Cortés-Conde (1997) argue that humor
functions as a resource through which speakers negotiate interpersonal relationships and
create solidarity. The construction and interpretation of humorous messages are, therefore,
not individual processes but a joint performance of activity, in which interlocutors
coordinate their actions to achieve successful and effective communication. Humor has been
described as conducive to both aggression and rapport, as the same humorous act that
strengthens relationships among some participants may lead to misunderstanding or
distance among others.
In her work on the pragmatics of humor support, Hay (2001) shows how laughter,
repetition, elaboration, and other humor support strategies contribute to building in-group
solidarity and creating a sense of belonging. She has, however, also explained the difference
between humor that is recognized and appreciated and humor that is recognized but
rejected because of its offensive nature.
In contemporary societies, humor circulates across a wide range of communicative spaces.
It is pervasive in face-to-face interactions, workplace exchanges, memes, social media,
digital communication, and AI-generated content. In his work Humor in the Age of the
Internet, Attardo (2020) draws attention to the technological transformations that have
reshaped the production and interpretation of humor and led to the emergence of new
forms of humorous expression. He argues that although different forms of humor have
emerged, including viral memes, humorous WhatsApp exchanges, online satire, or human–
AI interaction, the basic cognitive mechanisms remain stable and humor continues to be a
language of participation and a powerful resource for fostering connection. Likewise, Susan
Herring’s (2004) work on computer-mediated communication highlights the role of digital
environments in creating new opportunities for interaction and the way communicative
practices, including humor, contribute to maintaining relationships. The speed and reach of
digital communication, however, may intensify humorous misunderstandings and cultural
clashes.
In literary texts, humor is not simply located in comic content; rather, it emerges from a
relationship of complicity between authors and readers. As Wayne C. Booth (1983 p. 138)
suggests, “the author creates an image of himself and another image of his reader.” Humor,
irony, and parody rely on this imagined relationship by inviting readers to recognize
implied meanings and participate in a shared interpretive space. Jokes or ironic comments
may not succeed if readers do not share the same cultural assumptions or interpretive
frameworks.
From a social semiotic perspective, recent instances of humor increasingly exist as
multimodal signs, which is perhaps most evident in the recent format of digital memes,
image macros, funny videos, and other forms of humor widely circulated and shared on
social media and online. Recent literature in social semiotics and humor studies highlights
their theoretical intertwining as they are both concerned with semiosis as a process of
meaning-making. While semiotics addresses how linguistic and non-linguistic forms are
conventionally linked to meaning, humor studies explore the semantic mechanisms
producing a funny/entertaining effect (Attardo 2020, p. 107), relying on the conventional
nature of the sign (whether linguistic or non-linguistic), the situations where the
conventionality gets disrupted by a perceived incongruity, i.e., a violation of one’s
expectations, and the subsequent resolution of the incongruity (the ultimate assignment of a
meaningful interpretation). Humor can thus be considered a floating signifier as it
demonstrates “results from the unfixity introduced by a plurality of discourses interrupting
each other” (Laclau 2000, p. 305).
Despite these changing contexts and technologies, humor continues to shape the ways
people connect and the ways barriers are created for those who fail to recognize and
interpret these meanings as they are intended.