Humlab Talk: Humour scandals and humour literacy in the digital world
4 September, 2025
at 13:15 – 14:45 (UTC+2/CEST)

Humour is one of the universal phenomena in culture that flourishes also in the digital space. Memes follow scandals and scandals follow memes. In this talk, I will give examples of politically incorrect humor (trigger warning!) and discuss them in the light of the contemporary context of cancel culture. The diverse reactions to humour are exceedingly discussed in social media, making this the forum where ideas about humour are formulated and challenged. It is clear that humor cannot be muzzled, because it is like a dragon from fairy tales: the more heads you chop off, the more grow in its place. I will introduce the idea of humour literacy and give an overview of the first results of an ongoing EU project HUMLIT

Liisi Laineste is a Researcher Professor at the Department of Folkloristics of the Estonian Literary Museum, where she leads the working group of humour research. Her main research object is folk humor and its online manifestations. She has published articles and edited books and journal issues on ethnic humour, internet folklore and online communication, many of which represent an interdisciplinary angle and combine folkloristics with linguistics, psychology, sociology or communication studies. She has a standing interest in digital humanities.