The flesh is weak: humour as complaint

Cintia Rodrigues de Oliveira, Rafael Alcadipani
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21529/RECADM.2022017

Abstract

In this paper, we approach the manifestations of Internet users in online social networks when an operation initiated by the Federal Police in Brazil against corporate corruption, with great national and international repercussions, the “weak flesh”. Our aim is to understand the use of humor in demonstrations against the supposed criminal actions of corporations, especially when they harm consumers. The research is qualitative and we use thematic analysis with a focus on intertextuality. We analyze the appropriation in the memes in the social networks Facebook and WhatsApp, trying to recognize in what way the humor has been used. Our analysis has identified that memes represent a strategy of discursive resistance against corporate crimes, which manifests itself in the form of humor as a denunciation: denunciation of corporations, denunciation of our fragility towards corporations and denunciation against corporate marketing.


Keywords

complaint; memes; humour; weak flesh

Compartilhe

References


Adriaensen, B. (2015). Cultural representations of contemporary Mexican drug culture: Dark humour and irony in relation to the abject. European Journal of Humour Research, 3 (2/3), 62–79. DOI:10.7592/EJHR2015.3.2.3.adriaensen

Affonso, J., Vassalo, L., & Brandt, R.(2017).PF prepara indiciamentos dos alvos da Carne Fraca e alerta sobre esquema na Agricultura. Estadão. Política.02/04/2017.

Almeida, S. T., & Jolibert, A.(1993). A influência do humor sobre a compra impulsiva. Revista de Administração, 28(4), 36-50.

Almond, P.(2009).Understanding the seriousness of corporate crime. Some lessons for the new ‘corporate manslaughter’ offence. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 9(2), 145- 164. DOI:10.1177/1748895809102550

Attardo, S.(1994)Linguistic theories of humor. Berlin and New York, EUA: Mouton de Gruyter.

Banerjee, T., & Burroway, R. (2015). Business unity and anticorporate protests: The U.S. Fortune 500 in 2010. Mobilization, 20(2), 179-206.

Bauman, Z.(2012). A crise do sistema que hipotecou o futuro. Entrevista a Silio Bocanera. Programa Milênio Globo News. 16/01/12. Retrieved from 28 out 2017, de .

Benton, G.(1988): “The origins of the political joke”. In: Paton, G., & Powell, C. (Eds.) Humour in society: Resistance and control. Londres, UK: MacMillan, 33-55.

Blas, E. G.(2015). Os ‘indignados’ da Espanha avaliam seu legado quatro anos depois. El País. Internacional. Versão online. 15 de maio de 2015. Recebida em 28 out. 2017 de: http://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2015/05/15/internacional/

Boeije, H.(2010). Analysis in qualitative research. London, UK: Sage Publications.

Borges, S. R. P., et al. (2016) Public opinion of corporate crime: the thoughts of undergraduate business and administration students/ a opinião pública sobre crimes corporativos: o que pensam os estudantes de cursos de graduação da area de negócios. Administração: Ensino e Pesquisa – RAEP, 17(1), 33-72.

Bremmer, J., & Roodenburg, H.(2000). Uma história cultural do humor. Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Record.

Brodie, R.(1996). Virus of the mind: The new science of the meme, Seattle: Integral Press

Burke, P., Gurevich, A., & Le Goff, J.(1999). Una história cultural del humor. Barcelona, ES: Sequitur.

Cameron, J. D. (2015). Can poverty be funny? The serious use of humour as a strategy of public engagement for global justice. Third World Quaterly, 36(2), 274-290.

Carazzai, E. H., Megale, B., & Mattoso, C.(2017). Operação contra frigoríficos prende 37 e descobre até carne podre à venda. Folha de S.Paulo, Mercado. São Paulo, 17/03/2017.

Recebido em 30 mar~.2017, de: https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mercado/2017/03/1867309-pf-faz-operacao-contra-frigorificos-e-cumpre-quase-40-prisoes.shtml

Carlo, G. S. di.(2013). Humour in popularisation: Analysis of humour-related laughter in TED talks. European Journal of Humour Research, 1(4), 81–93. DOI:10.7592/EJHR2013.1.4.scottodicarlo

Charmaz, K.(2011). Grounded theory methods in social justice research. In: N. K. Denzin, & Y. S Lincoln (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (pp.359-380). Thousand Oaks, EUA: SAGE.

Cohen, T.(2001), “Humor”. In: Gaut, B. & Mciver Lopes, D. (Eds.), The routledge companion to aesthetics. Londres, UK: Routledge

Cohen, M. A. (2015). Willingness to pay do reduce white-collar and corporate crime. Journal of Beneffit-Cost Analysis, 6(2), 305-324. doi: 10.1017/bca.2015.43

Collinson, D. L.(1988). ‘Engineering humour: masculinity, joking, and conflict in shop-floor relations’. Organization Studies, 9(2), 181–199. DOI:10.1177/017084068800900203

Correia-Lima, B. C., Cabral, A. C. A., Bandeira-de-Mello, R., Pessoa, M. N. M., & Santos, S. M. D.(2015). Ceará, estado de graça: raízes culturais históricas que antecedem o campo organizacional do humor. Revista Organizações em Contexto, 11(21), 367-399. DOI:10.15603/1982-8756/roc.v11n21p367-399

Coutinho, M., Vassalo, L., & Affonso, J.(2017). Os memes da operação carne fraca. Estadão. Política. 17/03/2017.

Danung, J., & Attaway, L. H.(2008). ‘All your media are belong to us: An analysis of the cultural connotations of the internet meme’. Retrieved in 18 jan.2017 from http://bth.danung.com/danung_rsch.doc

Davies, C.(2007). Humour and protest: Jokes under communism. International Review of Social History, 52, 291-305. DOI:10.1017/S0020859007003252.

Fairclough, N.(1992). Intertextuality in critical discourse analysis. Linguistics and Education, 4 (2), 269-293. DOI:10.1016/0898-5898(92)90004-G

Hall, I.(2014). The satiric vision of politics: Ethics, interests and disorders. European Journal of International Relations, 20(1), 217 –236. DOI:10.1177/1354066112445187

Hertzler, J. O.(1970). Laughter: a socio-scientific analysis. New York, EUA: Exposition Press.

Heintz, S., & Ruch, W. (2018). Can self-defeating humor make you happy? Cognitive interviews reveal the adaptive side of the self-defeating humor style. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 31, 451–472. https://doi.org/10.1515/ humor-2017-0089.

Holmes, J., & Marra, M.(2002). ‘Having a laugh at work: how humour contributes to workplace culture’. Journal of Pragmatics, 34 (12), 1683–1710. DOI:10.1016/S0378-2166(02)00032-2

Hughes, M.K.(2003). ‘Through the looking glass: Racial jokes, social context, and the reasonable person in hostile work environment analysis’. Southern California Law Review, 76(6), 1437.

Inside Jobs. (2010). Direção: Charles H. Ferguson. Produção de Charles H. Ferguson & Audrey Marrs. USA: Sony Pictures Classics, 2010. Netflix.

Irigaray, H. A. R., Saraiva, L. A. S., & Carrieri, A. P.(2010). Humor e discriminação por orientação sexual no ambiente organizacional. Revista de Administração Contemporânea, 14(5), 890-906.

James, A. B. (2014). Humour as resistance: Disaster humour in post-9/11 United States, European Journal of Humour Research, 2(3), 28-41. DOI: 10.7592/EJHR2014.2.3.james

Jenkins, H.(2009). ‘If It doesn’t spread, it’s dead (part one): Media viruses and memes’. Confessions of an Aca-Fan. Retrieved in 20 jun.2017 from http://www.henryjenkins.org/2009/02.

Klein, N. (2009). No Logo. Taking aim at the brand bullies. New York, EUA: Picador.

Kneip V. (2012) Corporate reaction to anticorporate protest: multinational corporations and anticorporate campaigns. In: Fahlenbrach K., Klimke M., Scharloth J., Wong L. (eds) The Establishment Responds. Palgrave Macmillan Transnational History Series. Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Kuipers, G.(2005). ‘“Where was King Kong when we needed him?” Public discourse, digital disaster jokes, and the functions of laughter after 9/11’. The Journal of American Culture, 28(1), 70–84. DOI:10.1111/j.1542-734X.2005.00155.x

Kuipers, G.(2008). The sociology of humor. In: Raskin, V. (ed). The Primer of Humor Research. New York, EUA: Mouton de Gruyter.

Linstead, S.(1988). “Jokers Wild”: Humor in organisational culture. In: Powell, C. & Paton, G. E. C. Humor in society. Resistance and control. London: Macmilian Press, 123-148.

Maiolino, N. B., & Kuiper, N. A. (2014). Integrating humor and positive psychology approaches to psychological well-being. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 10, 557–570. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v10i3.753.

Marone, V.(2016). Looping out loud: a multimodal analysis of humour on Vine. European Journal of Humour Research, 4(4),50–66. DOI:10.7592/EJHR2016.4.4.marone

Martin, R. A.(2007). The psychology of humor: an integrative approach. Burlington, EUA: Elsevier.

Medeiros, C. R. O., & Alcapadipani, R.(2016). In the corporate backstage, the taste of revenge: Misbehaviour and humor as form of resistance and subversion. Revista de Administração, 51(2),123-136. DOI:10.5700/rausp1229

Melo, F. V. S., Farias, S. A., & Kovacs, M. H.(2017). Estereótipos e estigmas de obesos em propagandas com apelos de humor. Organizações & Sociedade, 24(81),305-324. DOI: 10.1590/1984-9230816.

Meyer, J. C.(2000). Humor as a double-edged sword: Four functions of humor in communication. Communication Theory, 10(3), 310-331. DOI:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2000.tb00194.x

Miller, D.(1997). Material culture and mass consumption. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.

Na rota do dinheiro sujo (2018). Direção: Erin Lee Carr, Alex Gibney, Kristi Jacobson, Brian McGinn, Jesse Moss, Fisher Stevens. USA: Netflix.

Payne, B. K.(2012). White-collar crime. The essentials. Georgia, EUA: Sage Publications.

Obdrlik, A.(1942). Gallows humor: a sociological phenomenon. American Journal of Sociology, 45(5),709-716.

Oliveira, C. R. (2019). Crimes corporativos: o espectro do genocídio ronda o mundo. Revista de Administração de Empresas, 59(6), 435-441.

Ostrower, C.(2015). Humor as a defense mechanism during the Holocaust. Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, 69( 2), 183 –195. DOI: 10.1177/0020964314564830

Pearce, K., & Hajizada, A. (2014). No laughing matter humor as a means of dissent in the digital era: The case of authoritarian Azerbaijan. Demokratizatsiya, 22(1),67-85.

Powell, C., & Paton, G. E. C.(1988). Humor in society. Resistance and control. London, UK: Macmilian Press.

Propp, V.(1992). Comicidade e riso. São Paulo: Ed. Ática.

Raskin, V.(1985). Semantic mechanisms of humor. Dordrecht, Holanda: Reidel.

Rodrigues, S. B., & Collinson, D. L.(1995) ‘Having fun’? Humour as resistance in Brazil. Organization Studies, 16(5),739-768.

Romero, E. J., & Cruthirds, K. W. (2006) The use of humor in the workplace. Academy of Management Perspective”, 20(2),58-69. DOI:10.5465/AMP.2006.20591005

Rosenmerkel, S. P.(2001). Wrongfulness and harmfulness as components of seriousness of white-collar crime. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 17(4),308–327. DOI: 10.1177/1043986201017004002

Roth, G. L., & Vivona, B.(2010). Mirth and murder: crime scene investigation as a work context for examining humor applications. Human Resource Development Review, 9(4),314-332.

Sanders, B. (1995).Sudden glory: laughter as subversive history. Boston, EUA: Beacon.

Scherer-Warren, I.(2014). Manifestações de rua no Brasil 2013: encontros e desencontros na política. Caderno CRH, 27(71), 417-429. DOI: 10.1590/S0103-49792014000200012.

Schnurr, S.(2008). Surviving in a man’s world with a sense of humour: an analysis of women leaders’ use of humour at work. Leadership, 4(3),299-319. DOI: 10.1177/1742715008092363

Scott, J.C.(1985). Weapons of the weak: everyday forms of peasant resistance. New Haven, EUA: Yale University Press.

Shifman, L.(2014). ‘The cultural logic of photo-based meme genres’. Journal of Visual Culture 13(3), 340–358. DOI:10.1177/1470412914546577

Silva, R. R. C. C., & Brito, M. J.(2014). Humor no espaço organizacional: Um estudo interpretativo em um call-center. GESTÃO.Org - Revista Eletrônica de Gestão Organizacional, 12(2),113-124.

Sorensen, M. J.(2013). Humorous political stunts: speaking “truth” to power? European Journal of Humour Research 1(2), 69- 83. DOI:10.7592/EJHR2013.1.2.sorensen

Speier, H.(1998). Wit and politics: an essay on laughter and power. American Journal of Sociology, 103(5),1352-1401.

Steir-Livny, L.(2016). Is it OK to laugh about it yet? Hitler rants YouTube parodies in Hebrew. European Journal of Humour Research, 4(4),105–121. DOI:10.7592/EJHR2016.4.4.steir

Stokker, K.(1995). Folklore fights the nazis: Humor in occupied Norway 1940-1945. Madison, EUA: University of Wisconsin Press.

Tabacaru, S., & Lemmens, M.(2014). Raised eyebrows as gestural triggers in humour: the case of sarcasm and hyper-understanding. European Journal of Humour Research, 2(2),11-31. DOI:10.7592/EJHR2014.2.2.tabacaru

Tay, G.(2014). Binders full of LOLitics: Political humour, internet memes, and play in the 2012 US Presidential Election (and beyond). European Journal of Humour Research, 2(4), 46-73. DOI:10.7592/EJHR2014.2.4.tay

Taylor, P., & Bain, P.(2003). Subterranean worksick blues: humour as subversion in two call centres’. Organization Studies, 24(9), 1487-1509. DOI:10.1177/0170840603249008

The Corporation. (2004). Direção: Mark Achbar & Jennifer Abbott. Produção de Mark Achbar; Bart Simpson. USA: Big Picture Media Corporation, 2004. 1-DVD.

The Great Hack. (2019). Direção de Karim Amer & Jehane Noujaim. Produção de Karim Amer, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Judy Korin & Pedro Kos .USA: The Othrs , 2019. Netflix.

Tsukawaki, R., & Imura, T. (2020). The light and dark side of self-directed humor: The development and initial validation of the Dual Self-Directed Humor Scale (DSDHS). Personality and Individual Differences, 157, 109835. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2020.109835

Uol.Economia(2017). Churrasco de papelão? Memes brincam com a operação carne fraca. Retrieved in 30 abr.2017 from https://economia.uol.com.br/album/2017/03/21/vai-um-churrasco-de-papelao-memes-brincam-com-a-operacao-carne-fraca.htm

Unnever, J. D., Benson, M. L., & Cullen, F. T. (2008). Public support for getting tough on corporate crime: Racial and political divides. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 45(2), 163-190. doi: 10.1177/0022427807313707

Valadão Júnior, V. M., Medeiros, C. R. O., & Teixeira, F. D. (2017). Luz, Câmera, Ação! Quando a resistência ao poder e controle organizacional provoca o riso. Revista Interdisciplinar de Gestão Social, 6(2), 75-92.

Vivona, B. D.(2014). “To laugh or not to laugh”: Understanding of the appropriateness of humour and joking in the workplace. European Journal of Humour Research, 2(1), 1-18. DOI:10.7592/EJHR2014.2.1.vivona

Warren, E.(2016). Rigged Justice: How weak enforcement lets corporate offenders off easy. Retrieved in 20 jan.2017 from https://www.warren.senate.gov/

Westwood, R., & Johnston, A.(2013). Humor in organization: From function to resistance. Humor, 26(2),219-247. DOI:10.1515/humor-2013-0024




Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.