Can’t Take a Joke! 1 Theorizing Reactionary Humor through a Pessimistic Counter-Reading

This paper offers an important contribution to the study of humor and global politics by presenting a pessimistic theorization of humor as constitutive of the reactionary subjectivities and sensibilities that circulate across the so-called “alt-right.” It begins by identifying a trend within existing IR scholarship, which emphasizes instances where humor acts subversively to challenge hegemonic structures of power in global politics. In response, this paper argues that an overemphasis on humor’s capacity for resistance and subversion is itself what lends power to the kinds of claims presented by a reactionary politics by privileging an understanding of humor as an emancipatory, “bottom up” force for good. In presenting this argument, this paper offers a counter-reading of humor that is composed of three central facets and which specifically and explicitly attends to humor’s capacity for a reactionary politics: (1) humor as boundary-drawing practice; (2) humor as producing abject Others; and (3) humor constructed as transgressive. Finally, through one example of an “alt-right” meme, this paper demonstrates how this counter-reading can be applied to interrogate humor’s role in furthering a violent, bigoted, and hateful political project.