Sosyal Bilimler ve Sağlık Bülteni

Derleme Makale

No. 13 (2025)

What's So Funny? Humor as a Social System

Submitted
January 20, 2025
Published
2025-02-24

Abstract

Humor goes far beyond an individual form of entertainment and plays a role in strengthening, criticizing or transforming social structures. This study sociologically examines this dual role of humor in both the continuity, criticism and transformation of social structures. In classical humor research, theories of superiority, incongruity, and relief focus more on the psychological and emotional effects of humor at the individual level, while sociological approaches such as functionalism, conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, phenomenology, and comparative-historical sociology focus on the role of humor in the reproduction, critique, and transformation of social structures. This distinction shapes the theoretical framework of the study and provides a perspective to understand the multi-layered structure of humor. In addition, the study has shown that humor has been reshaped locally and culturally while becoming universal under the influence of digitalization and globalization. In this context, the brief historical development of humor in Turkey from the Ottoman Empire to the present day is examined. While the study demonstrates the transformative effects of humor in strengthening social bonds and identity construction, it also discusses the risks such as discrimination, exclusion and reproduction of social inequalities.

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