Humor 2.0: How the Internet Changed Humor

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The first comprehensive guide to humour in the age of the internet and social media, this book makes the reader laugh (for the examples) while also engrossing them for its rigorous scholarship.

The book shows how humour has changed since the advent of the internet: new genres, new contexts, and new audiences. The book provides a guide to such phenomena as memes, video parodies, photobombing, and cringe humour. Included are also in-depth discussions of the humour in phenomena such as dogecoin, the joke currency, and the use of humour by the alt-right. It also shows how the cognitive mechanisms of humour remain unchanged. Written by a well-known specialist in humour studies, the book is engaging and readable, but also based on extensive scholarship.

Reviews

As the preeminent scholar on language and humor, Attardo takes readers on a fascinating tour of various forms of internet humor. With examples ranging from the prosaic to the political, Attardo shows us how the human capacity to produce and interpret humor while remaining fundamentally unchanged has been fully exploited in the realm of the digital. Camilla Vsquez, PhD, Professor of Applied Linguistics & Associate Editor, Discourse, Context & Media, Department of World Languages, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL

Humor 2.0: How the Internet Changed Humorby Salvatore Attardo is a book internet researchers have been waiting for, even if they dont know it yet. Not only meant for the academic audience, it summarizes in an entertaining yet scholarly way the many ways that humor is the same yet different after the advent of the digital era. This is a truly timely and worthwhile topic to tackle, and Attardo has managed to make a brilliant contribution to understanding online humor. LiisiLaineste, Senior Research Fellow, Estonian Literary Museum Researcher, Tartu University

Humor 2.0: How the Internet Changed Humoris just as fascinating as internet humor itself. Written in an accessible and most engaging way, Attardos book guides the reader through the bright but also the dark sides of internet humor, showing that such new forms of expression blend seamlessly with humors lasting versatility and sociocultural relevance. Anna Piata, Assistant Professor, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

This book is a clever and witty exploration of the many ways in which the internet has revolutionized humor. From memes to viral videos, Attardo delves into the many manifestations and impact of digital humor, showing us how the internet has transformed the comedic landscape and the way we communicate when we copiously click and share what makes us laugh with like-minded others. Delia Chiaro, Professor of English Language and Translation, Department of Interpreting and Translation, Alma mater studiorum, Universit di Bologna

Humor 2.0not only offers a wide-ranging analysis of internet humor as currently generated on social media but also provides a historical overview. The book offers an interesting account of how the affordances of the new virtual platforms and interfaces where humor is attempted and generated have provoked alterations in humorous communication, compared to more traditional sources and contexts of humor. Among many others are laid upon multimodal discourses such as memes, messaging interactions (text-emoji combinations) and live streaming. Francisco Yus, Full Professor, University of Alicante, Department of English Studies

The book covers a wide range of topics and concepts used for the analysis of internet humour and I am positive that there cannot be any reader (whether expert one working on internet humour or non-expert one interested in it) who will not find something of interest in it to read. It is written in short, easy-to-read chapters, so readers can focus on what interests them most and take one step at a time with their reading. Attardo offers a fascinating and most inspiring snapshot of contemporary internet humour The European Journal of Humour Research

Author Bio

Salvatore Attardo is a well-known humour scholar, who has published several books on humour and edited the Encyclopedia of Humor Studies.