The King and The Court Jester

Linguistic Analysis of Humor and its Subversion of Power Dynamics

Presenter: Rene Rodriguez

Presenter Status: Undergraduate student

Academic Year: 22-23

Semester: Spring

Faculty Mentor: Richard Senghas

Department: Anthropology

Funding Source/Sponsor: Class Project

Abstract:
Humor has historically been seen as the the truest way to call attention to power. Whether it be ancient Greek literature using satire to reflect the issues of the ancient world or modern memes existing to laugh at current events, humor plays a very important role in cultural power dynamics. This project uses linguistic practices of discourse analysis to examine the joke structures used by insult comics to target people in power. Examining three different comedians, Pete Davidson, Nikki Glaser and Michelle Wolfe, this project examines the style of humor they used to target people in power. Maintaining the ancient idea that humor is a tool of power subversion(Schwarz), this project aims to examine how the structure, timing and topic of individual jokes performed by the respective comedians is used to place a subject in a powerless position.