2025/07/22 by Delia Dumitrica, Mark Boukes, Delia Chiaro +2 · 1 voice
Psychology · Arts and Humanities · #Humor Studies and Applications #Communication in Education and Healthcare #Discourse Analysis in Language Studies
paper · doi:10.1177/13675494251352485
openalex publication_date 2025/07/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
The COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to an unprecedented circulation of online humor, an important part of which referred to politics and politicians. In the current study, we analyzed a sample of such humorous items (N = 361) across five European countries to find out how pandemic humor represented political leadership. We argue that COVID-19 political humor both politicized and depoliticized the figure of the politician. Pandemic political humor went beyond criticizing those in power by presenting them as iconic yet relatable personas, who were equally stunned by the magnitude of the task of crisis management. Our findings reveal the broader trends of humor depicting politics as a spectacle.