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Humor’s Role in Mashups and Remixes: Similarities Between Humor Structure and Remix Structure

  • Ragnhild Brøvig-HanssenEmail author
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Abstract

This chapter explores the role of humor in user-generated remixes by turning to humor theories developed primarily by scholars within the fields of philosophy, linguistics, and psychology. While the dominating theories of humor are limited to verbal humor, they also prove useful to the study of audiovisual remixes. By providing close analyses of three different forms of remixes (musical mashups, songifications, and lip-syncing), this chapter explores the way in which remixes are often constructed in a manner reminiscent of the structure of jokes (although this does not mean that humor is central to all remixes). The chapter aims at contributing to a broader understanding of remixes’ enormous and enduring popularity, and to illuminate the continuing benefits of interdisciplinary approaches to the analysis of popular music.

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Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion, and the Department of MusicologyUniversity of OsloOsloNorway

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