Laughter and the Normative Banal: The Challenge of the Digital

Abstract

The habitual and normal is not laughable. What is laughable is untenable deviation. Thus, it is either the triumph of the normative or its failure in the face of a new desired norm that is consolidated in laughter. In this regard, laughter expresses the dynamics of comprehension, socialization, and the development of subjectivity; it is the ability to transcend culture inherent in it. Meanwhile, laughter itself appears to be normative in relation to appropriateness: topic, time, place, channel and measure (in relation to art — genre). In the context of digital communication formats, the problem of appropriateness is exacerbated. It does not come down to the issue of recognizing the laughable. There is a possibility of a sharp reduction in the field of the implementation of laughter culture. The work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, grant No. 22-18-00591 “Pragmasemantics as an interface and operational system of meaning formation”.

Keywords

• the banal
• internet
• control
• responsibility
• pragmasemantics
• laughter
• subjectivity
• appropriateness
• value‐regulative systems
• digitalization