{"id":695,"date":"2015-03-16T16:12:29","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T16:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=695"},"modified":"2015-10-13T18:59:52","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T18:59:52","slug":"jokes-on-you-the-italyisis-twitter-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2015\/03\/16\/jokes-on-you-the-italyisis-twitter-exchange\/","title":{"rendered":"Joke\u2019s On You: The Italy\/ISIS Twitter exchange"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">ISIS recently announced they &#8220;will conquer Rome, by Allah\u2019s permission\u201d in a video that showed the murder of 21 Christians in Libya.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Not long after the video\u2019s release, Italians offered cheeky travel advice to the militant group via Twitter, using the hashtag \u201c#We_Are_Coming_O_Rome.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Tweets warned of traffic jams and tourist traps at landmarks like the Trevi Fountain, while others humorously applauded ISIS\u2019s \u201cvacation\u201d choice.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>But is laughter the best medicine for international threats?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h5 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Jokes are a\u00a0way for societies to cope with threats.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>People use irony to lessen their anxieties about an unsettling situation without seeming paranoid.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Humor also give status by discrediting those with strong anxieties and giving the joker an air of nonchalance.\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bangor.ac.uk\/senrgy\/staff\/parkhill.php.en\">K.A. Parkhill<\/a><\/span><span class=\"s3\">, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cardiff.ac.uk\/people\/view\/38159-henwood-karen\"><span class=\"s4\">K.N. Henwood<\/span><\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/psych.cf.ac.uk\/contactsandpeople\/academics\/pidgeon.php\"><span class=\"s4\">N.F. Pidgeon<\/span><\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uea.ac.uk\/environmental-sciences\/people\/profile\/p-simmons#overviewTab\"><span class=\"s4\">P. Simmons<\/span><\/a>. 2011. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/j.1468-4446.2011.01367.x\/abstract;jsessionid=8D50BD482CE121897738F2E3EFB5EC3D.f01t03?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&amp;userIsAuthenticated=false\"><span class=\"s4\">Laughing it Off? Humour, affect and emotion work in communities living with nuclear risk.<\/span><\/a>\u201d The British Journal of Sociology 62(2): 324-346.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Ethnic jokes also draw symbolic boundaries between who does and doesn\u2019t belong.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>These jokes reinforce the moral values of the in-group by characterizing outsiders\u2019 unacceptable behavior. Framing is key in being playful with something political\u2014those involved in the interaction need to have shared beliefs and the joke needs the right context.<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reading.ac.uk\/AcaDepts\/lw\/Sociol\/publish\/people\/academic\/christie\/bio.htm\">Christie Davies.<\/a><\/span><span class=\"s3\"> 1982. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/discover\/10.2307\/589483?sid=21105487099091&amp;uid=4&amp;uid=3739736&amp;uid=2&amp;uid=3739256\"><span class=\"s4\">Ethnic Jokes, Moral Values and Symbolic Boundaries.<\/span><\/a>\u201d <i>The British Journal of Sociology<\/i> 33(3): 383-203.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ucsd.academia.edu\/EliseKramer\">Elise Kramer.<\/a><\/span><span class=\"s3\"> 2011. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/journals.cambridge.org\/action\/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&amp;aid=8211052&amp;fileId=S0047404511000017\"><span class=\"s4\">The playful is political:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The metapragmatics of internet rape-joke arguments.<\/span><\/a>\u201d <i>Language in Society<\/i> 40: 137-168. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">However, humor is a double-edged sword as evidenced by the events that followed the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/live\/world-europe-30710777\"><span class=\"s5\"><i>Charlie Hebdo<\/i><\/span><\/a><i> <\/i>cartoons earlier this year and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2006\/01\/30\/AR2006013001316.html\"><span class=\"s5\"><i>Jyllands Posten depictions of Mohammad<\/i><\/span><\/a> in 2006. Targeting a minority group reinforces stereotypes and masks the diversity of individuals within the group. When a member of the dominant culture \u201cpunches down,\u201d with an ethnic or racist joke, the audience is more likely to be judgmental of individual members of a minority group.<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.chavez.ucla.edu\/content\/otto-santa-ana\">Otto Santa Ana.<\/a><\/span><span class=\"s3\"> 2009. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/journals.cambridge.org\/action\/displayFulltext?type=1&amp;fid=4459092&amp;jid=LSY&amp;volumeId=38&amp;issueId=01&amp;aid=4459084\"><span class=\"s4\">Did You Call In Mexican? The Racial Politics of Jay Leno Immigrant Jokes.<\/span><\/a>\u201d <i>Language in Society<\/i> 83(1): 23-45.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jacobs-university.de\/directory\/mmueller\">Marion G. M\u00fcller<\/a><\/span><span class=\"s3\"> and Esra \u00d6zcan. 2007. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/apsanet3b.inetu.net\/imgtest\/PSApr07Muller_Ozcan.pdf\"><span class=\"s4\">The Political Iconography of Muhammad Cartoons: Understanding Cultural Conflict and Political Action.<\/span><\/a>\u201d <i>PS: Political Science and Politics<\/i> 40(2):287-291.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\"><a href=\"http:\/\/forskning.ku.dk\/find-en-forsker\/?pure=da\/persons\/120829\">Christian F. Rostb\u00f8ll<\/a><\/span><span class=\"s3\">. 2009. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/ptx.sagepub.com\/content\/37\/5\/623.refs?patientinform-links=yes&amp;legid=spptx;37\/5\/623\"><span class=\"s4\">Autonomy, Respect, and Arrogance in the Danish Cartoon Controversy.<\/span><\/a>\u201d <i>Political Theory<\/i> 37(5): 623-648.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISIS recently announced they &#8220;will conquer Rome, by Allah\u2019s permission\u201d in a video that showed the murder of 21 Christians in Libya.\u00a0 Not long after the video\u2019s release, Italians offered cheeky travel advice to the militant group via Twitter, using the hashtag \u201c#We_Are_Coming_O_Rome.\u201d\u00a0 Tweets warned of traffic jams and tourist traps at landmarks like the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1893,"featured_media":699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[38543,470,129],"class_list":["post-695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-culture","tag-discrimination","tag-media"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/files\/2015\/03\/DT1166.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1893"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":698,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions\/698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}