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Sebastién Tutenges

Sébastien Tutenges

Associate Professor | Senior Lecturer

Sebastién Tutenges

Laughter in stories of crime and tragedy : The importance of humor for marginalized populations

Author

  • Sveinung Sandberg
  • Sebastien Tutenges

Summary, in English

Humor is essential to social life, but it is often overlooked in the study of crime and other social problems. We introduce and make use of humor theory, emphasizing the theories of superiority and relief. Based on interviews with incarcerated men, we demonstrate how humor is used to criticize authorities, for self-aggrandizement, and to alleviate the pain of tragic experiences. Funny remarks and stories are often ambiguous and evade simple categorization, which may explain why humor is neglected in the study of social problems. We argue that researchers should pay more attention to humor to achieve a fuller understanding of marginalized individuals and their social worlds.

Department/s

  • Department of Sociology
  • Sociology
  • Social Anthropology

Publishing year

2019

Language

English

Pages

564-579

Publication/Series

Social Problems

Volume

66

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Topic

  • Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)

Keywords

  • humor
  • narrative criminology
  • relief theory
  • superiority theory
  • marginalization

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0037-7791