Description
This article uses visual politics, humour, and gender in IR to unpack national, military, and geopolitical imaginations produced by comedy and jokes within military recruitment. Although NATO and its Western allies have increasingly used celebrities and influencers to promote the alliance, there is limited knowledge about NATO, celebrity politics, and military recruitment on its Eastern flank. Given Romania’s proximity to Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, the Romanian Defence Ministry cooperated with Selly (Andrei Selaru), a well-known Romanian influencer and comedian to develop a recruitment campaign to enhance its reserve forces. A 30-minute-long YouTube videoclip ensued showing Selly and his friend training with an infantry battalion that served in NATO missions. However, the videoclip was full of self-deprecating humour and jokes that ridiculed the military. By examining this videoclip and reactions to it, this article shows that comedy and jokes did not only undermine the militarised masculinity of the Romanian military but also provoked concerns about its geopolitical vulnerability to Russia, all of which led to renewed calls for further militarisation and rearmament. Therefore, by exploring the gendered narratives of this recruitment campaign, this article queries the disruptive potential of humour within militarism, violence, and geopolitical imaginations in and beyond Eastern Europe.
