Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Social Media and COVID-19: Taking Humour During Pandemics Seriously

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Digital Humour in the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

At the end of 2019, the world was engulfed by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that interrupted life as we had known it. The virus was believed to have originated from a Chinese district of Wuhan in the Hubei province. As the pandemic swept across the globe, people made different readings of its spread, effects and control. An infodemic ensued whereby some people discussed its cause, treatment and impact by sharing news, disseminating fake news, conspiracy theories and humorous memes. Most citizens in the Global South have experienced different kinds of crises such as leadership, environmental issues due to climate change, electoral violence, economic crises and corruption, among others. To negotiate some of these challenges gossip, fake news, conspiracy theories, ridicule and humour in the form of jokes and satire have been critical. This humour could be spread through cartoons in mainstream media or through alternative social media platforms (wo)maned by citizens now empowered to create, package and distribute content without the intervention of trained media professionals but with the risk of political leaders pouncing on deviants even in these clandestine public spheres.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abel, M. (2002). Humor, stress, and coping strategies. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 15(4), 365–381.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed, W. (2020). COVID-19 and the 5G conspiracy theory: Social network analysis of twitter data. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(5), 1–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amici, P. (2020). Humour in the age of COVID-19 lockdown: An explorative qualitative study. Psychiatria Danubina, 32(1), 15–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bryant, K. (2014). Research from the Global South: The important role of context in international research activities. McGill Journal of Education, 49(1), 227–235.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, J., & Schmidt, J. (1992). Correlation between humorous coping style and health. Psychological Reports, 70(2), 402.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chabal, P. (2009). Africa: The politics of smiling and suffering. University of KwaZulu Natal Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Chiodo, C. P., Broughton, K. K., & Milchalski, M. P. (2020). Caution: Wit and humour during the COVID-19 pandemic. Foot and Ankle International, 41(6), 763–764.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dados, N., & Connell, R. (2012). The global south. Context, 11(1), 12–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, J. L., Love, T. P., & Killen, G. (2018). Seriously funny: The political work of humor on social media. New Media & Society, 20(10), 3898–3916.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Demjén, Z. (2016). Laughing at cancer: Humour, empowerment, solidarity and coping online. Journal of Pragmatics, 101, 18–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dillon, K., & Totten, M. (1989). Psychological factors, immunocompetence, and health of breast-feeding mothers and their infants. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 150(2), 155–162.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duerringer, C. M. (2016). Who would Jesus bomb? The republican Jesus meme and the fracturing of ideology. Social Media + Society, 2(1), 1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dundes, A. (1989). At ease, disease: Aids jokes as sick humor. American Behavioral Scientist, 30(3), 72–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dynel, M., & Poppi, F. I. M. (2018). In tragoedia risus: Analysis of dark humour in post-terrorist attack discourse. Discourse & Communication, 12(4), 382–400.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dynel, M., & Poppi, F. I. M. (2020). Caveat emptor: Boycott through digital humour on the wave of the 2019 Hong Kong protests. Information, Communication & Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2020.1757134

  • Ellis, S. (1989). Tuning in to pavement radio. African Affairs, 88(352), 321–330.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harari, Y. N. (2020). Yuval Noah Harari: The world after coronavirus. https://wwwft.com/content/19d90308-6858-11ea-a3c9-1fe6fedcca75

  • Hegel, G. W. F. (1956). The philosophy of history (J. Sibree, Trans.). Dover.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hendriks, H., & Janssen, L. (2018). Frightfully funny: Combining threat and humour in health messages for men and women. Psychology & Health, 33(5), 594–613.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Juma, C. (2016). Innovation and its enemies: Why people resist new technologies. Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53(1), 59–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuiper, N. A., Grimshaw, M., Leite, C., & Kirsh, G. (2004). Humor is not always the best medicine: Specific components of sense of humor and psychological well-being. Humor – International Journal of Humor Research, 17(1–2), 135–168.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuiper, N. A., & Martin, R. A. (1993). Humor and self-concept. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 6(3), 251–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuipers, G. (2005). “Where Was King Kong When We Needed Him?” Public discourse, digital disaster jokes, and the functions of laughter after 9/11. The Journal of American Culture, 28(1), 70–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maldonado-Torres, N. (2007). On coloniality of being: Contributions to the development of a concept. Cultural Studies, 21(2–3), 240–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, R. A., & Dobbin, J. P. (1988). Sense of humor, hassles, and immunoglobin A: Evidence for a stress moderating effect of humor. International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 18(2), 93–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mbembe, A. 2017. Critique of black reason (L. Dubois, Trans.). WITS University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McClelland, D., & Cheriff, A. (1997). The immunoenhancing effects of humor on secretory IgA and resistance to respiratory infections. Psychology and Health, 12(3), 329–344.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milan, S., & Di Salvo, P. (2020). Can Europe make it?: Four invisible enemies in the first pandemic of a “datafied society”. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/four-invisible-enemies-in-the-first-pandemic-of-a-datafied-society/

  • Mpofu, S. (2019). For a nation to progress victims must ‘move on’: A case of Zimbabwe’s social media discourses of Gukurahundi genocide silencing and resistance. African Identities, 17(2), 108–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. J. (2013). Empire, global coloniality and African subjectivity. Berghahn Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nguyen, D. (2020). Mediatisation and datafication in the global COVID-19 pandemic: On the urgency of data literacy. Extraordinary Issue: Coronavirus, Crisis and Communication, Media International Australia. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X20947563

  • Outley, C., Shamaya, B., & Harrison, P. (2020). Laughing while black: Resistance, coping and the use of humor as a pandemic pastime among blacks. Leisure Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2020.1774449

  • Palmer, J. (1994). Taking humour seriously. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Park, M. P., & Park, R. H. R. (2010). Fear and humour in the art of cholera. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 103, 481–483.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quijano, A. (2000a). Coloniality of power, eurocentrism and Latin America. Nepantla: Views from the South, 1(3), 533–579.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quijano, A. (2000b). Coloniality of power and social classification. Journal of World Systems, 6(2), 342–386.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robins, S. (2013). The (third) world is a Ghetto’?: Looking for a third space between ‘Postmodern’ cosmopolitanism and cultural nationalism. CODESRIA Bulletin, 2&3, 18–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosa, G. P. (2012). The Swine Flu pandemics in Portugal through newspaper humour. Journalism and Mass Communication, 2(7), 735–747.

    Google Scholar 

  • Savitsky, B., Findling, Y., Ereli, A., & Hendel, T. (2020). Anxiety and coping strategies among nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurse Education in Practice. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2020.102809

  • Smyth, W. (1986). Journalism and mass communication. Western Folkore, 45(4), 243–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thelwall, M., & Thelwall, S. A. (2020). A thematic analysis of highly retweeted early COVID-19 tweets: Consensus, information, dissent and lockdown life. Aslib Journal of Information Management. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-05-2020-0134

  • Trottier, D. (2017). Digital vigilantism as weaponisation of visibility. Philosophy & Technology 30(1), 55–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wanzer, M., Booth‐Butterfield, M. & Booth‐Butterfield, S. (2005). If we didn’t use humor, we’d cry: Humorous coping communication in health care settings. Journal of Health Communication, 10(2): 105–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wasserman, Herman. (2020). Laughter in the time of a pandemic: Why South Africans are joking about coronavirus. The Conversation. 15 March 2020. https://theconversation.com/laughter-in-the-time-of-a-pandemic-why-south-africans-are-joking-about-coronavirus-133528

  • Wooten, P. (1993). Making humor work. Journal of Nursing Jocularity, 3(4): 46–47.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Limpopo, Polokwane, South Africa

    Shepherd Mpofu

Authors
  1. Shepherd Mpofu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shepherd Mpofu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Limpopo, Polokwane, South Africa

    Shepherd Mpofu

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Mpofu, S. (2021). Social Media and COVID-19: Taking Humour During Pandemics Seriously. In: Mpofu, S. (eds) Digital Humour in the Covid-19 Pandemic. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79279-4_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation