Billig - Laughing and ridicule towards a social critique of laughter

Laughter and Ridicule

Theory, Culture & Society caters for the resurgence of interest in culture within contemporary social science and the humanities. Building on the heritage of classical social theory, the book series examines ways in which this tradition has been reshaped by a new generation of theorists. It also publishes theoretically informed analyses of everyday life, popular culture, and new intellectual movements.

EDITOR: Mike Featherstone, Nottingham Trent University

SERIES EDITORIAL BOARD
Roy Boyne, University of Durham
Mike Hepworth, University of Aberdeen
Scott Lash, Goldsmiths College, University of London
Roland Robertson, University of Aberdeen
Bryan S. Turner, University of Singapore

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Recent volumes include:

Sex and Manners
Cas Wouters

The Body in Culture, Technology and Society
Chris Shilling

Globalization and Belonging
Mike Savage, Gaynor Bagnall and Brian Longhurst

Bootlegging
Lee Marshall

Laughter and Ridicule

Towards a Social Critique of Humour

Michael Billig

2005 Michael Billig

First published 2005

Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society, Nottingham Trent University

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of licenses issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 1 4129 0250 9
ISBN 1 4129 1143 5

Library of Congress Control Number: 2004099514

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Athenaeum Press, Gateshead
Printed on paper from sustainable resources

A book on humour should have been enjoyable to write. For some reason, it did not turn out that way. In fact, there have been many days when I wished Id undertaken a less ostensibly pleasant task. So, I am grateful for friends and colleagues who have given encouragement. I am particularly grateful to those who have read drafts of chapters: Steve Brown, Mike Gane, Dave Middleton, Yair Neuman, Thomas Scheff, and John Shotter. And thanks too to Susan Dunsmore for making the copy-editing such fun.

I feel particularly fortunate to work in the Department of Social Sciences at Loughborough University. It has provided a happy home for me, being surrounded by colleagues who are willing to discuss ideas and to laugh at the world. Once again, I should pay tribute to Peter Golding who has unselfishly managed to protect the department against the demoralizing pressures undermining so much British academic life.

Finally, of course, I would like to thank my family to Sheila and to our children Daniel, Becky, Rachel and Benjamin. A conventional sense of humour often calls for an element of malice. Certainly the children and I have teased, mocked and laughed at each other in the ways that families do. But over the years, Sheila, like her mother before her, has demonstrated that there are far more important, far more serious virtues than the ability to make jokes. So this book is dedicated to Sheila and to the memory of her mother.

The idea of a critical approach to humour sounds somewhat sinister. It suggests bossiness or craziness. Either way, the prospect is not pleasant. Bossy critics would dictate what we should and should not be laughing at. The image of the crazy critic is more disturbing. Fierce-eyed and serious to the point of derangement, the crazy critic would be warning us against the dangers of laughing at all. An admission must be made right at the outset. In terms of these two possibilities, the present investigation tends towards craziness rather than bossiness.

Of course, the temptations of bossiness will not be resisted. One of the compensatory pleasures of being an academic is to act as a bossy know-all in front of minuscule audiences. Nevertheless, the present inquiry sets out on the way to craziness. To be more precise, the aim is to go beyond the partial critique of humour that the bossy critic provides. Critical bossiness is a familiar characteristic of the high-minded writer. A seriousness of purpose demands judgements. If comedy is the topic, then the bossy critic aims to raise the level of laughter. There is a left-wing version of such bossiness, telling us that we should not laugh at jokes suspected of national, ethnic or sexist prejudices. Bossy critics may also disparage the comedies that the big entertainment companies offer and that many of their readers might readily enjoy. The message is that we should smarten up the quality of our laughter. We will be told to look elsewhere for our humour: maybe to obscure alternative comedians, or to the great comic literature of the past, such as Don Quixote or Tristam Shandy, that is little read today; or perhaps we will be recommended the unsuspected wit of difficult critics.

Bossy critics, whatever might be their particular recommendations, accept the common-sense dictum that laughter is good. Their mission is to improve that goodness. There is another critical direction. Rather than criticizing some types of humour as inappropriate, and commending others for meeting the requisite standards, it is possible to call into question laughters assumed goodness. This is the path to craziness. How in all sanity can one criticize the precious gift of humour? Everybody knows that laughter is better than misery. To be anti-laughter, surely, is just plain ridiculous.

The social critic should not worry too much about the accusation of craziness or ridiculousness. One of the tasks of social critique is to question what passes for common sense. In so doing, the social critic may well fall foul of common senses own criteria for what is sensible and what is not. This was well recognized by those sceptical Marxist philosophers of the Frankfurt School, who in the 1930s created the idea of the critical social theory. They were aware that social critique must attempt to get beyond what is generally thought to be sensible, in order to understand the ideological basis of that sensibleness. So it is with a critical approach to humour. This involves critically examining common-sense views about humour, calling into question beliefs that are taken to be self-evidently true. A critical approach to humour, therefore, takes as its object common-sense assumptions about humours desirability, rather than the actual enjoyment of humour. Seen from this perspective, the craziness is perhaps not quite so crazy.