Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran
2 University of New South Wales, Australia
Abstract
As a central component of political discourse and a prolific resource for argument, political humor targets leaders, politicians, or representatives as well as political institutions, groups, actions, and parties. Each of these groups is liable to be a political humor theme. Although previous literature has proved that analyzing the themes of political wisecracks presents valuable information about the socio-political concerns, thematic analysis of political jokes, particularly, in Iranian and American contexts, as a necessary clue for understanding serious sociopolitical issues seems to be an area in need of further analysis. In order to address this problem, this study investigated the most popular themes in Iranian and American political humor. Analysis showed that the general themes of Iranian and American political humor are more similar than different. However, while sexual infamy, racism, and gun control marked considerable themes of American humor, despotic forces and religion-related humor seemed to be exclusively Iranian.
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