Full Description
The book shows how humor has changed since the advent of the internet: new genres, new contexts, and new audiences. The book provides a guide to such phenomena as memes, video parodies, photobombing, and cringe humor. Included are also in-depth discussions of the humor in phenomena such as Dogecoin, the joke currency, and the use of humor by the alt-right. It also shows how the cognitive mechanisms of humor remain unchanged. Written by a well-known specialist in humor studies, the book is engaging and readable, but also based on extensive scholarship.
Contents
Introduction; 1.Humor and the Internet; 2.Memetics; 3.Humor Theory; Part 1.New genres; 4.The New Language of Humor; 5.The Compilation; 6.Internet Cartoons; 7.Stuff White People Like; 8.Dogecoin, the Joke Currency; 9. The Spoiler Alert; 10.Satirical News Websites and Fake News; Part 2.Memes and More Memes; 11.Memetic Drift or The Alliteration Arsonist; 12.The Saga of Boaty McBoatface; 13.A General Theory of Grumpy Cats; 14.The Pastafarian Memeplex: Joke Religion as a System; 15.When Chuck Norris Is Waiting, Godot Comes; 16.The Half-life of a Meme: The Rise and Fall of Memes; Part 3.Multimodality; 17.Hitler's Opinion on the Parking Situation in Tel Aviv; 18.Photobombing as Figure Ground Reversal; 19."Hard to Watch": Cringe and Embarrassment Humor ; 20.Humor Videos; 21.Reaction Videos; Part 4.The Dark Side of Internet Humor; 22.The Use of Humor by the Alt-Right; 23.4chan, Trolls and Lulz: Fascists at Play; 24.Pepe, Kek and Friends; Conclusion: Plus ça change...; Bibliography; Author; Index; Subject Index
