Looking for truth in absurdity: Humour as community-building and dissidence against authoritarianism
| Author | Umut Korkut,Aidan McGarry,Itir Erhart,Hande Eslen-Ziya,Olu Jenzen |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0192512120971151 |
| Published date | 01 November 2022 |
| Date | 01 November 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512120971151
International Political Science Review
2022, Vol. 43(5) 629 –647
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0192512120971151
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Looking for truth in absurdity:
Humour as community-building
and dissidence against
authoritarianism
Umut Korkut
Glasgow Caledonian University, UK
Aidan McGarry
Loughborough University, UK
Itir Erhart
Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey
Hande Eslen-Ziya
Stavanger University, Norway
Olu Jenzen
University of Brighton, UK
Abstract
What makes humour an honest and a direct communication tool for people? How do social networking and
digital media transmit user-generated political and humorous content? Our research argues that the way in
which humour is deployed through digital media during protest action allows protestors to assert humanity
and sincerity against dehumanising political manipulation frameworks. Humorous content, to this extent,
enables and is indicative of independent thinking and creativity. It causes contemplation, confronts the
hegemonic power of the oppressor, and challenges fear and apathy. In order to conduct this research, we
collected and analysed tweets shared during the Gezi Park protests. Gezi Parkı was chosen as the keyword
since it was an unstructured and neutral term. Among millions of visual images shared during the protests,
we concentrate on those that depict humour both in photography and video formats.
Corresponding author:
Umut Korkut, Glasgow School for Business and Society, Glasgow Caledonian University, Cowcaddens Street, Glasgow,
G40BA, UK.
Email: Umut.Korkut@gcu.ac.uk
971151IPS0010.1177/0192512120971151International Political Science ReviewKorkut et al.
research-article2020
Article
630 International Political Science Review 43(5)
Keywords
Turkey, social movements, aesthetics, humour, dissidence, Gezi
Introduction
What makes humour an honest and a direct communication tool for people? How do social net-
working and digital media transmit user-generated political and humorous content (Pearce and
Hajizada, 2014: 70) so that protestors parody and satire politicians and their politics (Häkkinen and
Leppänen, 2013)? Humour is ubiquitous on social media from memes to satire (Highfield, 2016).
Our research argues that the way that humour is deployed through digital media during protest
action allows protestors to assert humanity and sincerity against dehumanising political manipula-
tion frameworks. Humorous content, to this extent, enables and is indicative of independent think-
ing and creativity. It causes contemplation, confronts the hegemonic power of the oppressor, and
challenges fear and apathy (Pearce and Hajizada, 2014: 73). But it is unclear how the average
protestor builds collective consciousness and awareness of protest action as they embed humour
aesthetically and with everyday references in their activism.
Laughter, whether it is satirical, humorous, absurd or otherwise (Gérin, 2018: 4), is a political
expression and, sometimes, an act of dissidence. With laughter, people acknowledge that the world is
chaotic and devoid of order, truth and meaning (Kammas, 2008: 216). We argue that people often turn
to humour when ‘real world’ events and developments are so ludicrous that the only way to acknowl-
edge them is through exposing their insanity and absurdity. Therefore, we understand absurdity to be
a particular manifestation of humour. Earlier research noted the discursive and artistic qualities of
humour along with its transformative potential (Daǧtaş, 2016; Yanik, 2014); how humorous language
of the protesters through graffiti was a resource to identify the actors of the movement and enable
them to cope with oppression (Morva, 2016); and how, through humour, protestors reacted to the
disproportionate violence by positioning themselves as more civilised and able (Görkem, 2015).
Therefore, the aesthetic elements of humour, expressed through illustrative and video content, ena-
bles activists to reach wider audiences, including the politically disinterested (Pearce and Hajizada,
2014: 74). We understand the aesthetics of protest as performative and communicative, namely the
visual, material, textual and performative elements of protest, such as images, symbols, graffiti,
clothes, colour, art but also humour, slogans, satire and the choreography of protest in public spaces
(McGarry et al., 2019). The performative and communicative qualities (McGarry et al., 2020) of
humour and absurdity, thereafter, stimulate protest, displace the highly ideological alternative-truth of
political authoritarianism, and as a result de-capacitate the ideological machinery. Aesthetics of pro-
test have the capacity to be easily captured and shared in visual culture and shared across networks,
meaning they ‘speak’ across material and digital spaces. Eventually, as protestors expose how the
existing power regimes lose touch with reality, they themselves capture the capacity to influence the
reality effectively. As we follow the aesthetics of humorous content circulation and metaphors, we
can capture how protestors make this reality. In this article, we concentrate on the circulation of the
pepper gas and gas spray mask as metaphors in humorous content during the Gezi Park protests. In
our selected content, the circulation of the gas as a metaphor touches on issues of solidarity and gen-
der, but also implies that personal safety becomes less important in comparison with lofty, higher
goals of activism. In the end, pepper gas – otherwise a tool for dissipating protest – could embolden
protest to face repressive political authority.
Pepper gas became a moniker for violence and repression during the Gezi Park protest in
Istanbul in 2013. These protests initially started on 27 May 2013 as a reaction to plans to recon-
struct military barracks and build a new shopping mall in Gezi Park in the centre of Istanbul. The
initial aim was to stop the bulldozers and demolition machines entering the Gezi Park, although the
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