Abstract
Humour is a part of contemporary mediated political struggles. At times, humour itself becomes politicised, turning into public controversies or humour scandals. This study explores how humour scandals have become intertwined with the Finnish political public sphere during the last three decades. Quantitative mapping, based on journalistic articles retrieved from two nationwide media, reveals that between 1990 and 2020, 26 national humour scandals in Finland were reported in the national public sphere for at least five days. The number of scandals increased exponentially, from just two such scandals in the 1990s to 15 in the 2010s. Our qualitative analysis of three humour scandals from different decades demonstrates how humour controversies relate to the changes in political and media environments and moral order. While in the 1990s and early 2000s humour scandals often dealt with clashes between popular TV satires and leading politicians, from the 2010s onwards the topics of humour scandals diversified, including issues related to political campaigning, artistic performances, and racism.
References
Allern, S., & Pollack, E. (2012). Mediated scandals. In S. Allern & E. Pollack (eds.), Scandalous! The mediated construction of political scandals in four nordic countries (pp. 9–28). Nordicom.
Allern, S., Kantola, A., Pollack, E., & Blach-Ørsten, M. (2012). Increased scandalization. Nordic political scandals 1980–2010. In S. Allern & E. Pollack (Eds.), Scandalous! The mediated construction of political scandals in four nordic countries (pp. 29–50). Nordicom.
Allern, S., & Pollack, E. (2016). Nordic political scandals – frequency, type and consequences. In M. Ludwig, T. Schierl, & C. Von Sikorski (Eds.), Mediated scandals (pp. 146–163). Halem.
Aula, M. K. (1991). Poliitikkojen ja toimittajien suhteet murroksessa? Tutkimusraportti 1/1991. Helsinki: Yleisradio.
Basu, L. (2014). Who can take a joke? Life of Brian, Four Lions, and religious ‘humour scandals’. Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception, 4(2), 177–206.
Bauman, Z. (2000). Liquid modernity. Polity Press.
Brenton, S. (2013). Commentary on “Democracy and Scandal: A Research Agenda”. Comparative Sociology, 12, 863–871.
Chadwick, A. (2013). The hybrid media system: Politics and power. Oxford University Press.
Chattoo, C. B., & Feldman, L. (2020). A comedian and an activist walk into a bar: The serious role of comedy in social justice. University of California Press.
Coleman, S., Kuik, A., & Van Zoonen, L. (2009). Laughter and liability: The politics of British and Dutch television satire. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 11(4), 652–665.
Dahl, J. M. R. (2021). Voices on the border: Comedy and immigration in the Scandinavian public spheres. University of Bergen.
Eide, E., Kunelius, R., & Phillips, A. (Eds.). (2008). Transnational media events: The Mohammed cartoons and the imagined clash of civilizations. Nordicom.
Ekström, M., & Johansson, B. (2008). Talk scandals. Media, Culture & Society, 30(1), 61–79.
Entman, R. (2012). Scandal and silence: Media responses to presidential misconduct. Polity Press.
Fenton, N. (2016). Digital, political, radical. Polity Press.
Foucault, M. (1980). Truth and power. In Foucault, M., Power/knowledge. Selected interviews and other writings (pp. 109–133). Random House.
Gray, J. (2009). Throwing out the welcome mat: Public figures as guests and victims in TV satire. In J. Gray, J. P. Jones, & E. Thompson (Eds.), Satire TV (pp. 147-167). NYU Press.
Herkman, J. (2000). Huumorin ja vallan keskeneräinen kysymys. In A. Koivunen, S. Paasonen, & M. Pajala (Eds.), Populaarin lumo – mediat ja arki (pp. 372–388). Turun yliopisto/mediatutkimus.
Herkman, J. (2005). Kaupallisen television ja iltapäivälehtien avoliitto. Vastapaino.
Herkman, J. (2010). Re-evaluating the relationship between politics and popular media. Media, Culture & Society, 32(4), 701–710. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443710367692
Herkman, J. (2016). Populistiskandaalit uutena poliittisen skandaalin muotona: Esimerkkeinä Halla-ahon ja Immosen tapaukset. Sosiologia, 53(4), 358–376. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081176916673647
Herkman, J., & Matikainen, J. (2020). Right-wing populism, media and political scandal. In H. Tumber & S. Waisbord (Eds.), The Routledge companion to media and scandal (pp. 147–155). Routledge.
Kallioniemi, N., & Hantula, S. (2021). Bailataan ankarasti!: Poliittinen viihdeohjelma Frank Pappa Show 1990-luvun lama-ajan aikalaiskommentaattorina. Lähikuva, 34(2-3), 74–94.
Kantola, A. (Ed.). (2011). Hetken hallitsijat. Julkinen elämä notkeassa yhteiskunnassa. Gaudeamus.
Kantola, A., & Vesa, J. (2011). Skandaalit ja julkinen elämä Suomessa. In A. Kantola (Ed.), Hetken hallitsijat. Julkinen elämä notkeassa yhteiskunnassa (pp. 42–64). Gaudeamus.
Kantola, A., & Vesa, J. (2013). Mediated scandals as social dramas: Transforming the moral order in Finland. Acta Sociologica, 56(4), 295–308. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001699313501124
Koivukoski, J. (2022). Political humor in the hybrid media environment: Studies on journalistic satire and amusing advocacy. [Doctoral dissertation, University of Helsinki]. http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.27965.33768
Kolehmainen, M. (2015). Satiiriset Itse valtiaat: Poliittinen huumori suomalaisessa julkisuudessa. Tampere University Press.
Kuipers, G. (2011). The politics of humour in the public sphere: Cartoons, power and modernity in the first transnational humour scandal. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 14(1), 63–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549410386968
Kuipers, G. (2015). Good humor, bad taste: A sociology of the joke. De Gruyter.
Laaksonen, S.-M., Koivukoski, J., & Porttikivi, M. (2021). Clowning around a polarized issue: Rhetorical strategies and communicative outcomes of a political parody performance by Loldiers of Odin. New Media & Society, 24(8), 1912-1931. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444821989621
Laclau, E., & Mouffe, C. (1985). Hegemony & socialist strategy: Towards a radical democratic politics. Verso.
Lull, J., & Hinerman, S. (Eds.). (1997). Media scandals: Morality and desire in the popular culture marketplace. Polity Press.
Manin, B. (1997). The principles of representative government. Cambridge University Press.
Martin, R. A., & Ford, T. (2018). The psychology of humor: An integrative approach. Academic Press.
Matikainen, J., Ojala, M., Horowitz, M., & Jääsaari, J. (2020). Media ja yleisön luottamuksen ulottuvuudet: Instituutiot, journalismi ja mediasuhde. Helsingin yliopisto, Valtiotieteellinen tiedekunta. https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/319153/hy_tunteet_pelissa_raportti.pdf
Merikallio, K., & Ruokanen, T. (2011). Matkalla: Martti Ahtisaaren tarina. Otava.
Molé, N. J. (2013). Trusted puppets, tarnished politicians: Humor and cynicism in Berlusconi's Italy. American Ethnologist, 40(2), 288–299.
Moring, T., & Himmelstein, H. (1993). Politiikkaa riisuttuna. Tutkimusraportti 6/1993. Helsinki: Yleisradio.
Mouffe, C. (2005). On the political. Routledge.
Mudde, C. (2000). The ideology of the extreme right. Manchester University Press.
Nikunen, K. (2015). Politics of irony as the emerging sensibility of the anti-immigrant debate. In R. Andreassen & K. Vitus (Eds.), Affectivity and race: Studies from Nordic contexts (pp. 21–42). Routledge.
Pernaa, V., & Railo, E. (2006). Valtapolitiikasta tunnepolitiikkaan. In V. Pernaa & V. Pitkänen (Eds.), Poliitikot taistelivat, media kertoo: Suomalaisen politiikan mediapelejä 1981–2006 (pp. 17–54). Ajatus Kirjat.
Pollack, E., Allern, S., Kantola, A., & Ørsten, M. (2018). The new normal: Scandals as a standard feature of political life in Nordic countries. International Journal of Communication, 12, 3087–3108.
Ridanpää, J. (2009). Geopolitics of humour: The Muhammed cartoon crisis and the Kaltio comic strip episode in Finland. Geopolitics, 14(4), 729–749.
Sakki, I., & Martikainen, J. (2021). Mobilizing collective hatred through humour: Affective–discursive production and reception of populist rhetoric. British Journal of Social Psychology, 60(2), 610–634.
Strandberg, K., & Borg, S. (2020). Internet ja sosiaalinen media osana vaalikampanjaa. In S. Borg, E. Kestilä-Kekkonen, & H. Wass (Eds.), Politiikan ilmastonmuutos. Eduskuntavaalitutkimus 2019 (pp. 103–121). Oikeusministeriö.
Taylor, C. (2003). Modern social imaginaries. Duke University Press.
Thompson, J. B. (2000). Political scandal: Power and visibility in the media age. Polity Press.
Tuters, M., & Hagen, S. (2020). (((They))) rule: Memetic antagonism and nebulous othering on 4chan. New Media & Society, 22(12), 2218–2237. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820966147
Van Leeuwen, T. (2007). Legitimation in discourse and communication. Discourse & Communication, 1(1), 91–112.
Wagner, A., & Schwarzenegger, C. (2020). A populism of lulz: The proliferation of humor, satire, and memes as populist communication in digital culture. In B. Krämer & C. Holtz-Bacha (Eds.), Perspectives on populism and the media (pp. 313–332). Nomos.
Young, D. G. (2020). Irony and outrage: The polarized landscape of rage, fear, and laughter in the United States. Oxford University Press, USA.
Zareff, J. (2020). Kuinka vallalle nauretaan: Poliittinen satiiri suomalaisessa televisiossa. Gaudeamus.
Zulli, D. (2021). Socio-mediated scandals: Theorizing political scandals in a digital media environment. Communication Theory, 31(4), 862-883. https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtaa029
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2024 The European Journal of Humour Research