Engaging Humor

10. The Context of Internet Humor

10. The Context of Internet Humor If 1998 and 1999 were not favorable years for the person of William Jefferson Clinton,1 they were exceedingly favorable for humor about him. By the end of January 1999,late-night television talk-show hosts had told some 1,712 jokes about President Clinton and 749 jokes about others associated with the scandal.2 A search for “Bill Clinton jokes” on the World Wide Web identified thousands of sites that contained or referred to such humor.3 These sites might contain the posting of a single joke; or an archive of jokes, joke lists, and parodies; or graphic illustrations, cartoons, and photos; or original attempts at satire; or some combination of the above. The immensity and anonymity of the World Wide Web lend a superorganic character to the humor that is located on it.4 Bill Clinton jokes, blond jokes, lawyer jokes, Princess Diana jokes all seem to exist in a realm above and beyond particular individuals . They seem to constitute a single phenomenon to be conceptualized, analyzed, and interpreted as a whole. They appear to be the unified expression of a culture responding to the exigencies of time and circumstance.5 Certainly, there is much to be gained from examining the total corpus of a joke cycle for messages about the temper of the times and the character of the culture.Given the anonymity and lack of context of joking in cyberspace,6 it might be assumed that this is the only approach. In fact, it is not. For cyberspace is not anonymous and Web sites do not lack context. In many respects , communication in cyberspace may be less anonymous than many conventional face-to-face encounters.While the real names and addresses of the inhabitants of cyberspace may be unknown (and even this may only be sometimes true), more may be known and knowable about the creators and 130 engaging humor purveyors of humor in cyberspace than about many joke tellers encountered face-to-face in everyday social interaction. I have closely examined twenty sites that have posted Clinton humor on the WorldWideWeb.These were haphazardly—although not randomly—chosen from a list of sites identified by a popular search engine. Only some of these sites were joke archives or joke lists. In most cases, Clinton jokes were situated within aWeb site that contained several kinds of materials.They were not simply , or even primarily, lists of jokes. Five sites contained detailed personal information about theWeb masters—their personal philosophies,employment histories,personalexperiences,andavocations.Fivesitesincludedphotographs of the Web master. Almost half provided e-mail addresses at which the Web master might be contacted.7 All in all, the posting of jokes and other kinds of humorontheWebisonlysometimesananonymousactivity.Oftenagreatdeal can be learned about the creators and purveyors of the humor,and sometimes something can be learned about the audiences for that humor as well. Many things should be considered when examining a joke site. For example , what kinds of statements, warnings, disclaimers, and manifestos frame the site? At one site,which contains a substantial collection of Clinton jokes,8 the viewer is instructed: “Please click on my sponsors that you see throughout the site and then just come back once you’ve checked them out. You’re enjoying the site so please help a poor republican [sic] teenager make some money.” After some advertising links, the statement “Bill Clinton Sux” appeared below a picture of Bill Clinton with an international prohibition symbol superimposed on it. Further below, the page reads “This site has the best Clinton Jokes on the Internet. Poor Mr. Clinton has a lot on his mind right now. He has the sex scandal, Hillary for a wife, and the possibility of being impeached. So I thought lets [sic] make his life a little worse. So hear’s [sic] this site. Keep up the good work Bill and I’ll always worship you, you the PIMP!!!” It was not difficult to ascertain the attitudes of the Web site master toward Bill Clinton. The antipathy expressed toward Hillary Clinton suggested that thisWeb master’s attitudes predated the sex scandal involving Monica Lewinsky . The advertising that appeared throughout the site was also significant. Most was for gambling, although it also included ads for Icom.com, offering Web hosting, as well as At Hand Network Yellow Pages and “The Best LarissaWebring Sites.” The gambling advertisements indicated that this anti-Clinton Republican teenager may not have been aligned with the...