Abstract Given the relevance of humor for psychosocial assessment and promoting positive functioning, it is important to understand the relationship between humor and personality. A recent framework for describing individual differences in humor posits eight comic styles that can be measured using the Comic Style Markers (CSM). In total, 665 Portuguese adults (Mage = 32.1 years) completed the CSM and Cloninger’s Temperament and Character Inventory. CFAs supported modeling the CSM as a bifactor model. Bifactor indices suggested a general humor factor could be interpreted as a unidimensional construct, but that CSM items are multidimensional. A hierarchical analysis showed the styles could be represented at several levels of abstraction. A SEM analysis suggested certain styles had distinct associations with personality dimensions. These findings suggest that the use of certain styles (namely wit, sarcasm, and cynicism) was related to individual differences in temperament and character beyond a person’s overall humor potential.

If You Don't Laugh You'll Cry has lain on my shelf for a year or two now; I have read it, taught from it, plundered its works cited for new readings, but had yet to sit down and try to encompass it into a review.In part the book's great strength is also the reviewer's great challenge: it bestrides a study of humor, an occupational folklife study, and a reflection on family folklore.The two former are reflected in the subtitle, The Occupational Humor of White Wisconsin Prison Workers, which also introduces the regional and ethnic contexts of the performances under discussion.What gives the book its great import, however, is the third, insider, familial context.Schmidt comes from a family that has worked for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections for three generations, beginning with the grandfathers on both sides.In her conclusion she hints at the book's genesis: "I think what I really intended, underneath it all, was to show off how funny and wise my grandfathers were.I wanted to introduce my family and friends to the world, so that the world could start thinking a little bit harder about what it means to work in a prison at the beginning of the twenty-first century" (p.206).This "thinking harder" requires the reader to push backor throughthe stigma associated with the profession in popular and vernacular culture, a stigma that prison workers know all too well.How does a family participate in the joyfulness of humor and laughter in a context that, as Schmidt grew to realize over time, operates within cycles of racism and white supremacy, sexism and misogyny (and arguably misandry), homophobia, and class conflict, all of which are inherently interwoven in the American industrial prison complex?Are they, as it were, bad people?Is the only appropriate response unlaughter, and everything less a personal failing?Schmidt assures us to the contrary, and over the course of the book she makes that compelling and ultimately convincing argument.The book is broken into three untitled parts, each in turn comprising three chapters.Part 1 sets the parameters of the blurry lines between occupational and family lore.Occupations and families are often intertwinedpolice, civil servants,

Abstract Recently, animated sitcoms such as Family Guy and American Dad have generated considerable interest internationally. This genre is known for its portrayal of controversial political and social issues combined with strategies of malicious humor, exaggeration, and stereotyping. This study addresses the question of whether humor styles and humor types predict viewer interest in animated sitcoms. A total of 1,052 Hungarian adults (41.6% male, M age = 24.7 years, SD = 7.2) participated in an online survey focusing on animated sitcom viewing habits and the use of humor. It was found that males and younger individuals were more likely to watch animated sitcoms regularly than females and older individuals. As a result of multiple regressions, it was also found that individuals with high levels of self-enhancing and aggressive humor, and low levels of self-defeating humor were more likely to view animated sitcoms. Regarding humor types, individuals with low levels of all humor styles were less likely to watch animated sitcoms regularly. These findings can possibly contribute to a more nuanced understanding of media selection preferences in the level of individual differences.

Abstract Developmental studies on humor have historically approached a limited age range – from birth until early adolescence – and have mostly considered humor interpretation and the production of situational and verbal humor. Focusing on cartooning, a highly demanding cognitive and communication activity, in this paper we aim to provide empirical data drawn from a larger age span than usual – 10 to 18 years old – to better understand what adolescents find humorous and how they create humor. Our corpus comes from nine workshops of cartoon production and interpretation conducted between 2015 and 2018, in which a total of 63 girls and 72 boys participated. Based on a fine-grained cognitive and communication analysis, we distinguished six different profiles of texts depending on: whether and how a fictional situation (i.e. a humorous incongruity) was built, its relation to the referenced situation addressed (topic), and the author’s motivation. Simple Correspondence Analyses enabled us to identify that these texts varied according to the adolescents’ age and the cartoon’s format (single panel or strip). Greater cognitive sophistication was evidenced in single panel cartoons and among middle and late adolescents, who also showed a concern for social issues. Some gender variations were found.

Abstract The use of humor may affect how bystanders respond to slurs. Undergraduates (N = 192) completed a measure of prejudice towards people with intellectual disabilities and were randomly assigned to read a scenario in which a peer uses a slur either as part of a joke (humor condition) or a statement (control condition). Participants responded to measures of intent to assertively respond and their evaluation of the speaker. Humor inhibited intent to nonverbally disagree and to verbally confront. Bystanders’ own prejudicial attitudes moderated the effects of humor on intent to verbally confront and negative evaluation. In the humor condition, compared to those with lower prejudice, those with higher prejudice showed less intent to confront and less negative evaluations. In the control condition, intent to confront, and negative evaluation were high, regardless of prejudice. These results suggest that humor inhibits assertive responses to slurs, particularly among people without highly favorable attitudes about the targeted social group.

Abstract Reappraisal is an effective emotion regulation strategy that draws on cognitive processes–like changing one’s thoughts to change one’s feelings–that are similar to those implicated in humor. Yet, very little is known about the links between the dispositional tendency to use reappraisal and individuals’ humor styles (e. g. aggressive, affiliative, self-deprecating, self-enhancing). Importantly, there are gender differences both in emotion regulatory processes and in the use of humor styles. We examined gender differences in reported use of humor styles, the associations between reappraisal and humor styles, and whether gender moderated those associations. Participants (N=250) were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk and self-reported their dispositional use of reappraisal and four humor styles. Men reported greater use of aggressive humor compared to women. Dispositional use of reappraisal was positively associated with self-enhancing humor. In addition, reappraisal use was positively related to greater use of affiliative humor, and this association was stronger for men than women. For men, greater use of reappraisal was associated with greater use of self-defeating humor, but reappraisal was negatively associated with self-defeating humor for women. Findings extend insight from prior work and suggest that both reappraisal and specific ways of using humor draw on aspects of self-regulatory competence rooted in cognitive change abilities, and the patterns of association differ in interesting ways for men and women.

Abstract The aim of this paper is to examine how the image of Josef Stalin is presented on the Russian internet. The main focus of our study will be the macro images and memes published on social media. This article examines how memes were used to articulate an attitude towards Stalin and his time in modern day Russia. The article touches upon three groups of memes: the comparison of Stalin and Putin, Stalin as a victor in the Great Patriotic war and Stalin as a dictator. It is stated that memes are closely connected with the tradition of soviet anecdotes in form and in themes. It is concluded that three groups of memes analyzed are the new ways to express the political satire. The most direct is the first one, yet the last one is the most striking.

Abstract The present study examined the relationship between humor styles and depression using two methods of examination: (1) the mean humor style differences between individuals who reported that they had been diagnosed with depression versus those who did not report being depressed; and (2) the phenotypic, genetic, and environmental correlations between humor styles and a short scale assessing depressed affect created from preexisting measures in archival data. Participants were 1154 adult Australians, consisting of 339 monozygotic twin pairs and 238 dizygotic twin pairs. With respect to mean differences, depressed individuals were found to use self-defeating humor more and self-enhancing humor less than non-depressed adults. When the depressed affect scale score was analyzed, negative correlations were found with both affiliative and self-enhancing humor. A positive correlation was found between depressed affect and both aggressive and self-defeating humor. These phenotypic correlations were also found to have some significant genetic and environmental correlations.