TY - JOUR AU - Scotto di Carlo, Giuseppina PY - 2014/05/12 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Humour in popularization: Analysis of humour-related laughter in TED talks JF - The European Journal of Humour Research JA - EJHR VL - 1 IS - 4 SE - Articles DO - 10.7592/EJHR2013.1.4.scottodicarlo UR - https://europeanjournalofhumour.org/ejhr/article/view/43 SP - 81-93 AB - <p>This paper investigates the role of humour in TED talks, which are popularising speeches aiming at knowledge dissemination.</p> <p class="Default">Through the analysis of humour used in Eugene Cordero’s 2012 talk <em>‘A TED speaker’s worst nightmare’</em>, Sebastian Wernicke’s <em>Lies, damned lies and statistics,</em> and Julia Sweeney’s <em>It’s time for ‘The Talk’</em>, the paper analyses TED talks as an innovative tool of popularization, which breaches the typical triangularization ‘scientist-mediator-audience’, bringing scientists directly into contact with their audiences.<strong> </strong></p> <p>Drawing upon Raskin (1985) and Attardo’s (1994) theories on humour, the paper analyses how  humour in TED talks arises from a pleasant psychological shift of <em>incongruity</em>, when it is the “consequence of the discrepancy between two mental representations”; from a sense of <em>superiority</em>, when a person laughs about his/her own misfortunes or of others; or from a <em>release reaction, </em>when laughter is used to release tensions deriving from taboo topics, such as sexuality, politics, and religion.</p> <p>The talks show how humour is an endemic feature of this genre of popularising texts. In contrast with other forms of ‘canonical’ popularisation, these talks are not only delivered in a simple, clear, original, and relevant way, but also in a way that is enjoyable for the audience, which actively interacts with the speaker through humour.</p> <p> </p> ER -