Description
This paper explores persuasive applications of humour and the rise of post-truth trends in public diplomacy. I propose the concept of strategic humour - the use of humour by states and proxy actors to promote instrumental interpretations of contested events to domestic and foreign audiences. Such events involve competing narratives from international actors and the use of strategies that maximise the appeal and outreach of one side’s narrative over the other. The concept of strategic humour brings to the forefront two principal aspects: the uses of humour as a strategy of communicating and framing contested international issues to the advantage of a particular actor, and the choice of humour amid other narrative forms for maximum appeal and outreach because of its newsworthiness, emotive resonance with audiences, and suitability for digital media environments.
The paper presents results from a British Academy-funded study of audience reception of strategic humour about contested international events. The project involves multiple focus groups in Russia and the UK, based on several examples of Russia’s strategic deployments of humour. I focus on Russia as a state recently involved in a range of major controversies and analyse the reception of its humorous public diplomacy messages about western sanctions, protests in Belarus, and accusations of election interference. I demonstrate that while the power of strategic humour to convince audiences is ambivalent, strategic humour provides an effective tool for asserting truth claims through popularity mechanisms and digital visibility.
