‘Are we laughing at the same?’ : A contrastive analysis of
Covid-related memes in Czech, Chinese and Spanish

J 2023

‘Are we laughing at the same?’ : A contrastive analysis of Covid-related memes in Czech, Chinese and Spanish

ŽÁKOVSKÁ, Iveta, Carmen MAÍZ-ARÉVALO and Ying CAO

Basic information

Original name

‘Are we laughing at the same?’ : A contrastive analysis of Covid-related memes in Czech, Chinese and Spanish

Authors

ŽÁKOVSKÁ, Iveta (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution), Carmen MAÍZ-ARÉVALO (724 Spain) and Ying CAO (156 China)

Edition

European Journal of Humour Research, Cracow Tertium Society for the Promotion of Language Studies, 2023, 2307-700X

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Článek v odborném periodiku

Field of Study

60203 Linguistics

Country of publisher

Poland

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

References:

URL

RIV identification code

RIV/00216224:14210/23:00130047

Organization unit

Faculty of Arts

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2023.11.1.720

Keywords in English

Chinese; Covid-19; Czech; humour; memes; Spanish

Abstract

V originále

Humour is often employed as a coping mechanism, with therapeutic effects on those producing and receiving it (Christopher 2015; Samson & Gross 2012). This buffering effect of humour might explain why, at the time of an international pandemic like Covid-19, human beings, independently of their cultural origin, have resorted to humour as a means of alleviating uncertainty and fear, and of enhancing feelings of connection and bonding with others. The proliferation of Covid-related humour has also led to a wide range of studies, with special attention to memes. However, contrastive studies are more limited, especially those comparing very different languages and cultural realities such as the Chinese, the Czech and the Spanish ones. This paper aims to redress this imbalance by analysing a corpus of 300 Covid-memes (100 memes per language). More specifically, we intend to answer the following questions: (i) what dimension(s) of humour are predominant in each language? (ii) what actors do the memes in the three countries target? and (iii) to what extent can these preferences relate to cultural differences/similarities? Applying a mixed-method approach, results show that there seems to be a global preference for affiliative humour while aggressive (and self-deprecating) humour appears to be more culturally bound, with a higher frequency in the Czech and Spanish datasets in contrast to the Chinese one. Likewise, the Czech and Spanish dataset share a significantly higher number of common frames, which might be pointing to a more European, Western type of humour in comparison to the Chinese approach (Jiang et al. 2019).

Links

MUNI/A/1479/2021, interní kód MU

Name: Paradigms, strategies and developments - English linguistics and translation II

Investor: Masaryk University

Citovat

ŽÁKOVSKÁ, Iveta, Carmen MAÍZ-ARÉVALO and Ying CAO. ‘Are we laughing at the same?’ : A contrastive analysis of Covid-related memes in Czech, Chinese and Spanish. European Journal of Humour Research. Cracow Tertium Society for the Promotion of Language Studies, 2023, vol. 11, No 1, p. 143-167. ISSN 2307-700X. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2023.11.1.720.

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   author = {Žákovská, Iveta and MaízandArévalo, Carmen and Cao, Ying},
   article_number = {1},
   doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2023.11.1.720},
   keywords = {Chinese; Covid-19; Czech; humour; memes; Spanish},
   language = {eng},
   issn = {2307-700X},
   journal = {European Journal of Humour Research},
   title = {‘Are we laughing at the same?’ : A contrastive analysis of Covid-related memes in Czech, Chinese and Spanish},
   url = {https://europeanjournalofhumour.org/ejhr/article/view/720},
   volume = {11},
   year = {2023}
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PB  - Cracow Tertium Society for the Promotion of Language Studies
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UR  - https://europeanjournalofhumour.org/ejhr/article/view/720
N2  - Humour is often employed as a coping mechanism, with therapeutic effects on those producing and receiving it (Christopher 2015; Samson & Gross 2012). This buffering effect of humour might explain why, at the time of an international pandemic like Covid-19, human beings, independently of their cultural origin, have resorted to humour as a means of alleviating uncertainty and fear, and of enhancing feelings of connection and bonding with others. The proliferation of Covid-related humour has also led to a wide range of studies, with special attention to memes. However, contrastive studies are more limited, especially those comparing very different languages and cultural realities such as the Chinese, the Czech and the Spanish ones. This paper aims to redress this imbalance by analysing a corpus of 300 Covid-memes (100 memes per language). More specifically, we intend to answer the following questions: (i) what dimension(s) of humour are predominant in each language? (ii) what actors do the memes in the three countries target? and (iii) to what extent can these preferences relate to cultural differences/similarities? Applying a mixed-method approach, results show that there seems to be a global preference for affiliative humour while aggressive (and self-deprecating) humour appears to be more culturally bound, with a higher frequency in the Czech and Spanish datasets in contrast to the Chinese one. Likewise, the Czech and Spanish dataset share a significantly higher number of common frames, which might be pointing to a more European, Western type of humour in comparison to the Chinese approach (Jiang et al. 2019).
ER  -

ŽÁKOVSKÁ, Iveta, Carmen MAÍZ-ARÉVALO and Ying CAO. ‘Are we laughing at the same?’ : A contrastive analysis of Covid-related memes in Czech, Chinese and Spanish. \textit{European Journal of Humour Research}. Cracow Tertium Society for the Promotion of Language Studies, 2023, vol.~11, No~1, p.~143-167. ISSN~2307-700X. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2023.11.1.720.

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