“Funny” Edge of Ageism – Representations of Old People in Domestic Humour

Abstract

The central topic of the paper is the humoristic production during the COVID-19 pandemic. The chief focus is on the main representations of the eldest members of the society during this dramatic period, when they were declared to be the most endangered, but also the ones who endanger others by their vulnerability. The research was limited to the first year of the critical period, when the state of emergency was declared, from March 15th to May 6th 2020, with the aim to observe the phenomenon of old age in the local humoristic discourse from the synchronic perspective. In this manner, it was possible to map the different ways of making jokes on old age. The analytic material, on the basis of which the conclusions were drawn, included both the traditional and contemporary modes of humour in which the elder people are the main actors. It was thus possible to discern which characteristics and actions are ascribed to the elder in the traditional, verbal jokes, as well as in the contemporary multi-media humoristic contents. The material included the oral jokes on the elder (verbal jokes on “grandmas and grandpas” on the Internet) as well as Internet memes with the theme of the old age, that appeared and circulated in Serbia during the period under analysis. The paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the particular forms of making jokes in the key of the so-called fourth ageism, linked to the most endangered old members, both in terms of health and social factors, in the society characterized by the wide-ranging paternalism.

Keywords

• humour
• old age
• contemporary Serbian society
• COVID 19