Last week, more than 200 humor researchers from around the world gathered in Poland to discuss how jokes reflect society and what role humor plays in culture.

Among the participants was Piret Voolaid, director of the Estonian Literary Museum and a folklorist, who said on the radio show Vikerhommik that humor scholars take their work seriously, even when the topic itself is laughable.

"No one talks about humor as seriously as humor researchers do. We take our work very seriously, but at the same time, scientists are still people, and people with a very good sense of humor," said Voolaid, noting that the conference included plenty of laughter as well.

The International Society for Humor Studies brings together researchers from a wide range of disciplines: linguists, folklorists, sociologists, psychologists, lawyers, medical scientists, and many others. This year's conference focused, among other things, on humor as a form of democratic literacy.

"Humor is a very important phenomenon in culture. We can see for ourselves what kinds of society-polarizing topics it can bring to the surface," the researcher said.

At the same time, she emphasized that the sense of humor differs between cultures, and not all language-based jokes can be translated. "But in times of crisis—for example, during the coronavirus five years ago—humor is often the first to start easing the situation with wordplay," Voolaid said.

According to her, humor is fragmented, and a single joke that everyone understands generally does not exist. The Estonian sense of humor has often been described as stone-faced sarcasm. "Estonians are more like silent masters of irony," she said.

Cultural stereotypes, however, persist. "We've all seen that meme where, in response to a tax hike, the French take to the streets to start a revolution, while Estonians dance and sing and organize a song festival," she gave as an example.

Humor as resistance

As a memory institution, the Literary Museum is also tasked with preserving contemporary forms of humor, whether that's stand-up comedy, memes, or graffiti. "The question is not whether it will still be funny in a hundred years, but that it provides information about what was happening in society at that moment," Voolaid said.

When asked whether the joke as a genre is extinct, she replied that the joke still exists, but life has moved on, and today the new joke is really the meme. Memes are also a form of social critique, for example, memes related to the war in Ukraine.

Estonia's contribution to international humor research is also demonstrated by the fact that folklorist Liisi Laineste was recently elected president of the International Society for Humor Studies. "That's no joke. It shows that humor research in Estonia is of a very high international standard," said Voolaid.

She also pointed out that there are often more humor researchers during times of totalitarian regimes. "If you can't study humor in your home country, you do it abroad," said Voolaid, giving the example of a colleague from Belarus who researches Belarusian internet humor in the context of hate speech.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook, Bluesky and X and never miss an update!