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Critical Geopolitics and the Framing of the Arab Spring Through Late‐Night Humor*
Author(s) -
Purcell Darren,
Heitmeier Brooks,
Wyhe Chad
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/ssqu.12296
Subject(s) - geopolitics , framing (construction) , scholarship , extant taxon , craft , sociology , political science , political economy , media studies , politics , history , law , archaeology , evolutionary biology , biology
Objective The role of popular culture, particularly humor, is of increasing importance in critical geopolitics and international relations scholarship. This article examines how humor is used to frame the events described as the Arab Spring and U.S. government response. Methods Sifting through the jokes for references to places, events, and significant actors, the selected jokes were interpreted through critical discourse analysis to identify the themes invoked by the comedians. Results The Arab Spring countries most mentioned were Libya, Egypt, and Syria. The majority of the jokes about these can best be understood through the lens of incongruity theory and the exploitation of extant caricatures of leaders. Additionally, the jokes reflected concerns over U.S. actions in the region and, simultaneously, U.S. leadership's seeming inability to craft a coherent plan to address the events. Conclusions We establish the link to humor and geopolitical imagination noting that the themes of American policy, American leadership, regional corruption, and caricatures of leaders composed many of the jokes, reflecting a particular worldview of the region as intractable.