Digital Humour in the Covid-19 Pandemic: Perspectives from the Global South

✍ Scribed by Shepherd Mpofu (editor)

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2021
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 356
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Digital humour in the COVID-19 pandemic: Perspectives from the Global South offers a groundbreaking intervention on how digital media were used from below by ordinary citizens to negotiate the global pandemic humorously. This book considers the role played by digital media during the pandemic, and indeed in the socio-political life of the Global South, as indispensable and revolutionary to human communication. In many societies, humour not only signifies laughter and frivolity, but acts as an important echo that accompanies, critiques, questions, disrupts, agitates and comments on societal affairs and the human condition. This book analyses citizens’ use of social media and humour to mediate the pandemic in a diverse range of countries, including Brazil, India, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The book will appeal to academics and students of media and communication studies, political studies, rhetoric, and to policy makers.

✦ Table of Contents

About the Book
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
Chapter 1: Social Media and COVID-19: Taking Humour During Pandemics Seriously
Introduction
Social Media, Community and Humour
COVID-19, Mediatization and Datafication of Society
Why the Global South?
Humour and Pandemics
References
Part I: Meme-making Practices and Making Sense of the Pandemic
Chapter 2: Social Media Memes as Commentary in Health Disasters in South Africa and Zimbabwe
Introduction
Memes Culture as Participatory Culture
Methodology
Theoretical and Conceptual Framework
Listeriosis, Identity and Desensitization
COVID-19 in South Africa
South Africa: Fellow South Africans, Ramabillions, #Coronaviruschallenge
Corruption
Zimbabwe: Humorless State and Protest
Conclusion
References
Chapter 3: Viral Jokes: Humour and Grace as Critical Devices in Memes About the COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil
Introduction
The Memes Pandemic and Its Different Phases
A Government Without Grace and a Disgrace of Government: The Common Good Is State Care
Leave the Street: The Common Good Is Citizen Care
Isolate! The Common Good Is to Resist During the New Routine
Humorous Critique Focused on Grace and Inspiration
A ‘New Normal’: The Second Routinization and the ‘Endemicization’ of the Pandemic
Conclusion
References
News Reports
Chapter 4: ‘Coromentality’: Nigerians’ Use of Memetic Humour During the COVID-19 Lockdowns
Introduction
Humour in Times of Crisis
Context
Theoretical and Conceptual Framework
Methodology
Data Presentation and Analysis
Need to Practise Safety Habits and Have Information
Consequences of a Protracted Stay at Home
Need for Entertainment
Conclusion
References
Chapter 5: An Analysis of Internet Memes and Discourses on Traditional Medicines as Remedies for COVID-19 in Zimbabwe
Introduction and Context
Literature Review
Theoretical and Conceptual Framework
Methodology
Data Presentation and Analysis
COVID-19, Traditional Herbal Medicines and Epistemic Struggles
COVID-19 Vaccines and the Social Commentary
Memes as a Critique of the Commercialisation of Indigenous Medicines
Conclusion
References
Chapter 6: “Can we Uninstall 2020 and Install It Again? This Version Has a Virus!”: Humourous Pundemic and Misinforming Infodemic about COVID-19 Pandemic on Social Media
Introduction
Communication in a Humour
The Bases of Memes
Online Memes
Crisis-Motivated Humour
Humour as a Strategy of Coping the Pandemic
Nigerian Comedians, COVID-19 and Social Media Humour
Fake News as Humour on Social Media
Conclusion
References
Chapter 7: Social Media Audience’s Interpretation of Selected Humor Memes on Coronavirus Pandemic in Nigeria
Introduction
Objectives of the Study
Research Questions
Research Methodology
Theoretical and Conceptual Framework
The Memes and Respondents’ Interpretations
Discussion and Conclusion
References
Part II: Gender, Race and Family: Identity Politics in the Pandemic
Chapter 8: Coronavirus Satire: A Dissection of Feminist Politics and Humour
Introduction
Theoretical and Conceptual Framework
Methodology
Reconstructing Feminist Politics Humour in Zimbabwe
What Is Personal Is Political
Sexual Humour and Singlehood
Ridiculing Political Power
COVID-19 Humour: Economic Impact on Women
Misogyny
Comedy and Misinformation
Conclusion
References
Chapter 9: ‘A Nation that Laughs Together, Stays Together’: Deconstructing Humour on Twitter During the National Lockdown in South Africa
Introduction
Context
Humour and Identity in South Africa
Resistance, Power and Discourse
Cyril Ramaphosa: Friend or Foe
A Female President?
Humour as Disciplinary Practice
Twitter as an Agonistic Public Sphere
Conclusion
References
Chapter 10: Fear and Loathing and Laughter: COVID-19 as an Expression of Decolonial Love
Introduction
Democratic Racism and Black Twitter
Racism and Decolonial Love
Contestation and Resistance
Multipositionality and Race
Multiple Realities of the Postcolony
Conclusion
References
Part III: Weapons of the Masses: Humour, Ridicule and Confronting Political Power
Chapter 11: #VoetsekANC and COVID Corruption: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of “A Song for the ANC”
Introduction
Literature Review
Social Media and Politics in South Africa (2015–2020)
Social Media and Influencer Culture in South Africa
TikTok Amongst Generation X and Generation Alpha
Theoretical Framework and Methodology
Foucauldian Philosophies and Humour in South Africa
‘Governmentality’ and Discourse in Social Media
Findings and Discussion
Song as a Form of Resistance
“A Song for the ANC” Is Not a Struggle Song
Political History of Corruption
Election of Zuma as President and the Disbanding of The Scorpions
COVID Corruption and “Tsek” Movement on TikTok
Conclusion
References
Chapter 12: Humour in the Time of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Critical Analysis of the Subversive Meanings of WhatsApp Memes in Zimbabwe
Introduction
Context
Political Satire, Internet Memes and Protest Cultures
Theoretical and Conceptual Framework
Methodology
WhatsApp Memes and the Everyday Lives
WhatsApp Memes as “Silent Resistance”
Memes as a Form of Political Commentary
Conclusion
References
Chapter 13: Humour in the Age of Contagion: Coronavirus, ‘Janata Curfew’ Meme and India’s Digital Cultures of Virality
Introduction
Humour in the Times of COVID: Metalising Political Protest
Announcing ‘Janata Curfew’: Coronavirus in India and Official Response
Invoking Bollywood: Finding Resonance in Popular Cinema and Soap Operas
‘Apne Baap Ko Mat Sikha’: Political Comment Wrapped in Humour
Giving Coronavirus a Voice: ‘I Can’t Survive This; I Will Die’
Humour as ‘Counter-Power’: Confronting the State with Laughter
Crossing Lines: On the Limits of Humour
Conclusion
References
Chapter 14: The Use of Meme and Hashtags on Twitter Towards Government Response During the COVID-19 Curfew Announcement from 1 June to 14 June 2020
Introduction
Meme Concept
Twitter
Background and Context
Twitter Users in Kenya
Theoretical and Conceptual Framework
Methodology
Data Presentation and Analysis
Humour on Twitter
Hashtags on Social Media
Conclusion
References
Tweets by Twitter Users and YouTube Uploads
Chapter 15: Dark Humour, Ubuntu and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case of Subaltern Humouring of Political Elite Deaths on Social Media
Introduction
Subalterneity, Citizen Dissidence and Ubuntu
Journalism as Storytelling
Methodology
Humour in Pandemics
COVID-19 and Dark Humour
Zimbabwe’s President as a Joker
Jackson Mthembu: The Death of a Good Man
Dark Humour and Unmourning the Mournables
Discussion and Conclusion
References
Index