This article explores the uncharted territory of reflexive internet humor about networked computers. A combined quantitative—qualitative analysis of 250 texts sampled from popular websites yielded a map of the main themes underpinning this massive corpus of humor. We analyzed them in relation to three grand theories of the nature of humor — superiority, release, and incongruity — locating each theme on a matrix deriving from the theories: (i) a superiority axis, running between the powerful and weak players in the networked environment; (ii) an incongruity axis, running from the purely human to the strictly technical, and (iii) a release axis reflecting degrees of tension generated by the former two dualities. Our analysis suggests that humor about networked computers extends to a comment on the nature of humanness in a bewildering age of artificial intelligence. The communication of this reflexive comment may be shaping a global community of computer users.
Bardini T., Harvard AT ( 1995) The social construction of the personal computer. Journal of Communication45(3): 40-56.
2.
Benton G. ( 1988) The origin of the political joke. In: Powell C, Patton C (eds) Humor in Society: Resistance and Control. New York: St Martins Press, 85-105.
3.
Bergson H. ( 1956[1900]) Laughter. In: Sypher W (ed) Comedy. Garden City, NY : Doubleday, 61-190.
4.
Beer D.(2009) Power through the algorithm? Participatory web cultures and the technological unconscious. New Media and Society11(6): 985-1002.
5.
Billig M. ( 2005) Laughter and Ridicule: Towards a Social Critique of Humour . London: Sage.
6.
Blondheim M. ( 1998) What’s in a CyberName? Nomenclature in the Communication Technology Industry and the Rhetoric of Revolution. Paper presented at the Conference on the Rhetoric of Science and the Rhetorical Tradition, New York.
7.
Carey JW ( 1989) Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society . Winchester, MA: Unwin Hyman.
8.
Danet B. ( 2001) Cyberplay: Communication Online. Oxford : Berg.
9.
Freud S. ( 1976[1905]) Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious . Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
10.
Green J., Burgess J. ( 2009) YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture. Cambridge: Polity Press.
11.
Hayles K. ( 1999) How We Became Posthuman. Chicago, IL : University of Chicago Press.
12.
Hobbes T. ( 1969[1650]) Human Nature. London : Cass.
13.
Jenkins H. ( 2006) Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: NYU Press.
14.
Johnston WJ ( 1877) Lightning Flashes and Electric Dashes: A Volume of Choice Telegraphic Literature, Humor, Fun, Wit & Wisdom. New York: W.J. Johnston.
15.
Koestler A. ( 1964) The Act of Creation. London: Hutchinson Press.
16.
Levinson P. ( 1997) The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution. New York: Routledge .
17.
Lindlof TR, Taylor BC ( 2002) Qualitative Communication Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
18.
Lynch OH ( 2002) Humorous communication: Finding a place for humor in communication research. Communication Theory12(4): 423-45.
19.
McLuhan M. ( 1964) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: McGraw Hill.
20.
Mihalcea R., Strapparava C. ( 2005) Laughter abounds in the mouths of computers: Investigations in automatic humor recognition. In: Proceedings of Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment (INTETAIN ‘05), Madonna di Campiglio, Italy.
21.
Mindess H. ( 1971) Laughter and Liberation. Los Angeles, CA: Nash.
22.
Morreall J. ( 1987) The Philosophy of Laughter and Humor. New York: SUNY Press.
23.
Oring E. ( 2003) Engaging Humor. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
24.
Palfrey J., Gasser U. ( 2008) Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives. New York: Basic Books.
25.
Peters JD ( 1999) Speaking into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication . Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.
26.
Picard W. ( 1997) Affective Computing. Cambridge, MA : MIT Press.
27.
Raskin V. ( 1985) Semantic Mechanisms of Humor. Boston, MA: D. Reidel
28.
Sawhney H. ( 1996) Information superhighway: Metaphors as midwifes. Media Culture and Society18: 291-314.
29.
Shifman L. ( 2007) Humor in the age of digital reproduction: Continuity and change in internet-based comic texts. International Journal of Communication1: 187-209.
30.
Spencer H. ( 1860) The physiology of laughter. Macmillans Magazine1: 395-402.
31.
Sutton-Smith B. ( 1997) The Ambiguity of Play. Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press.
32.
Sykes A. ( 1966) Joking relationships in an industrial setting. American Anthropologist68: 189-93.
33.
Turkle S. ( 1984) Hackers: Loving the machine for itself. In: The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit. New York : Simon and Schuster.
34.
Turkle S. ( 1995) Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet . New York: Simon and Schuster.
35.
Williams F., Rice RE ( 1983) Communication research and new media technologies. In: Bostrom RN, Westley BH (eds) Communication Yearbook(7). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 200-24.
