BBC's Semiotic Analysis of Humor

What makes modern Britain laugh? How semiotics helped the BBC bridge the Humor Gap

Chris Arning

International Journal of Market Research, vol. 63, 3: pp. 275-299. , First Published March 15, 2021

In order to find out why BBC is losing its young audience, the company commissioned research centers to conduct semiotic analysis based on 800 data points for production advice. By adopting multifaceted methodology including hashtag taxonomy, this research offers suggestions to BBC and shows us the top 20 popular humor types and a table of humor quadrants with their rhetorical functions.

The top 20 types are (283-285) : human foibles (237 data points, i.e. entries f WhatsApp diaries), eccentric characters (164), inter-textuality (156), silliness/cheesiness (147), funny mannerisms (143), in-our group distinction (134), rubbishness/crapness (124), disparagement/diminishment (104), randomness/absurdity (103), emotional hysteria (102), gender rancour (97), slapstic/physical (95), anthropomorphism (93), transgression (90), schadenfreude/reversal (89), cultural/social mores (85), scorn/mockery (81), exaggeration/hyperbole (80), awkwardness/cringe (80), and word play/puns (80).

The table of the humor quadrants and the top 20 types mapped on the table (292):

Arning, Chris. “What Makes Modern Britain Laugh? How Semiotics Helped the BBC Bridge the Humor Gap.” International Journal of Market Research, vol. 63, no. 3, 2021, pp. 275–299., https://doi.org/10.1177/1470785321991346.

Humor and Business !?

Humor usage by sellers and sales performance: The roles of the exploration relationship phase and types of humor

Renaud Lunardo, Laurent Bompar, Camille Saintives

Recherche et Applications en Marketing (English Edition), vol. 33, 2: pp. 5-23. , First Published February 19, 2018.

 This paper attempts to answer John S. Wagle's call for research on the connection between humor and business (1985). With a focus on the connection between use of humor and sales performance, this paper through two studies based on 322 interviewees asserts that "the effect of humor usage on trust depends on relationship phases, humor having no positive effect during the exploration phase but a negative effect" (18). In other words, "humor has a positive effect over the whole range of relationship phases [between business partners]" (19) and yet "this effect turns out to be negative during the exploration phase" (ibid).

Based on Jap & Ganesan (2000) and Kusari et al. (2013), the relationship phases in this paper refer to the following four phases: exploration (reducing uncertainty: assessing compatibility, performance, and potential benefits), build up, maturity (sharing information and investment, establishing relational norms), and decline (business-partner relationship beginning to deteriorate, purposes served or dissatisfaction experienced, disengagement).

According to Lunardo, Bompar, and Saintives, use of humor is not a good idea in the first phase--exploration--when business partners like the buyer and the seller are accessing each other's business potentials. In addition, when offensive humor is sensed in this phase, negative effects ensue.

Examples of constructive humor and offensive humor are included in this article as follows (16):

Jap, Sandy D., and Shankar Ganesan. “Control Mechanisms and the Relationship Life Cycle: Implications for Safeguarding Specific Investments and Developing Commitment.” Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 37, no. 2, 2000, pp. 227–245., https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.37.2.227.18735.

Kusari, Sanjukta, et al. “Trusting and Monitoring Business Partners throughout the Relationship Life Cycle.” Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, vol. 20, no. 3, 2013, pp. 119–138., https://doi.org/10.1080/1051712x.2012.757716.

Lunardo, Renaud, et al. “Humor Usage by Sellers and Sales Performance: The Roles of the Exploration Relationship Phase and Types of Humor.” Recherche Et Applications En Marketing (English Edition), vol. 33, no. 2, 2018, pp. 5–23., https://doi.org/10.1177/2051570718757905.

Wagle, John S. “Using Humor in the Industrial Selling Process.” Industrial Marketing Management, vol. 14, no. 4, 1985, pp. 221–226., https://doi.org/10.1016/0019-8501(85)90013-6. 

Rod A. Martin & Thomas E. Ford: The Psychology of Humor: An Integrative Approach SECOND EDITION (2018)

(Picture taken from "The Psychology of Humor 2nd Edition An Integrative Approach." Elsevier. (https://www.elsevier.com/books/the-psychology-of-humor/martin/978-0-12-812143-6. May 8, 2021.)

The Psychology of Humor: An Integrated Approach is a joint effort of Rod A. Martin and Thomas E. Ford. This book is composed of the following 11 chapters:

• Chapter 1. Introduction to the Psychology of Humor
• Chapter 2. Classic Theories of Humor
• Chapter 3. Contemporary Theories of Humor
• Chapter 4. The Personality Psychology of Humor
• Chapter 5. The Cognitive Psychology of Humor
• Chapter 6. The Physiological Psychology of Humor and Laughter
• Chapter 7. The Developmental Psychology of Humor
• Chapter 8. The Social Psychology of Humor
• Chapter 9. The Clinical Psychology of Humor: Humor and Mental Health 
• Chapter 10. The Health Psychology of Humor: Humor and Physical Health 
• Chapter 11. Applications of Humor in Education and in the Workplace

As the chapter titles reveal, this is not another humoristic publication that seeks to painstakingly offer one more new theory of humor that tries painfully to explain all cases of humor. It is a comprehensive survey of humor theories and studies with a focus on psychology but without negligence of other concerning fields.

Gil Greengross, in his review of the book "Survival of the Funniest," pinpoints the following aspects of the book:

• "Martin correctly points out, expecting humor research to be funny is analogous to assuming that writings about human sexuality should be sexually arousing (p.30)" (90-91).
• "[H]umor is a product of natural selection and why evolutionary explanations should be considered" (91).
• "Both are enjoyable, do not have any obvious or immediately serious function, and are performed in safe environments with familiar people (p.234)" (93).
• "[T]he absence of a research methods chapter" (94).

Although some may read this book with little excitement for it is not a tome of theoretical breakthrough, it is more than a general survey of the already-known textbook list of thoughts on humor. In many fields of studies, psychological or otherwise, The Psychology of Humor helps retrieve and revive some of the lost or forgotten researches from the past, as in the Gelastic Laughter section from "Chapter 6: The Physiological Psychology of Humor and Laughter":

• Gelastic Laughter
• The neurological condition gelastic epilepsy, first documented in 1873 (Holmes & Goldman, 2012), causes  patients  to  experience  seizures  in  the  form  of  uncontrolled  bouts  of  laughter.  Motor convulsions, eye movement abnormalities, and autonomic disturbances often accompany laughter during seizures. Furthermore, patients typically lose consciousness and report unawareness of these “laughter attacks” (151).

It is not inappropriate to come to the conclusion that The Psychology of Humor is not meant to be an introductory book for a beginner, but with its thorough survey and archaeological efforts, it is no doubt a worthy work even for an informed humorist.

MLA8

• Greengross, Gil. “Book Review: Survival of the Funniest.” Evolutionary Psychology, vol. 6, no. 1, 2008, p. 147470490800600., doi:10.1177/147470490800600111. 
• Holmes, Christina M., and Mitchell J. Goldman. “Seizures Presenting as Incessant Laughter: A Case of Gelastic Epilepsy.” The Journal of Emergency Medicine, vol. 43, no. 6, 2012, doi:10.1016/j.jemermed.2012.02.068. 
• Martin, Rod. A, and Thomas E. Ford. The Psychology of Humor: An Integrative Approach. 2nd ed., Elsevier, 2018.