Cognitive underpinnings of misperceptions in morphed humor

Cover Page

Cite item

Abstract

A meme as a cultural and semiotic phenomenon has been actively studied within the framework of humor research; however, the question why memes may not elicit a humorous response remains unanswered. This article examines the causes of typical cognitive errors in the perception of humor in the so-called morphed units (memes, image macros, photoshopped images and virals) characterized by a combination of signals of one or different modalities and potentially capable of eliciting a humorous response in the meme consumer. The goal of the study is to describe and classify such errors on the example of a morphed unit from the sad keanu meme cycle. The conducted survey yielded empirical data permitting further qualitative analysis of the respondents' answers regarding the perception of the proposed meme. The obtained results show that in an ideal situation a stimulus image should metonymically activate script structures essential for the understanding of a morphed unit; a script may include allusive experiences which correlate with previously appropriated culture-specific situations. The paper defines meme interpretation errors as related either to the process of perceiving a stimulus at the level of the i consume memes metascript or а cognitive failure occurring during the activation of the scripts constituting the humorous opposition if only the relevant scripts are conceptualized and internalized by the individual. Any type of interpretation failure may be attributed to partial or zero cultural literacy in the meme consumer. A failed humorous response in the situations of sufficient cultural literacy of the subject may be explained by social and pragmatic factors, such as the consumer’s norms and values which may differ from those of the meme originator. The study claims that the main source of cognitive errors lies in the inability of a meme consumer to activate the scripts (or their parts) relevant to the understanding of humor. This methodology can be applied for any multimodal humour research.

Full Text


Figure 1. Different forms of individual experience in their interrelation


Figure 2. A morphed unit as a script-triggering signal

 
Figure 3. The precedent image (left) and the stimulus morphed unit from the SAD KEANU  meme cycle

 
Figure 4. Examples of photoshopped images from the SAD KEANU meme cycle

 

 Table 1. The questions (B) in the survey and the respondent’s answers (O)

В1: Briefly describe what is going on in the picture (place, events).

О1: Three people are sitting on the same bench.

В2: How would you describe the people in the picture?

О2: People in a gloomy mood.

В3: What associations does this picture evoke in you?

О3: An ordinary picture in a park in any city.

В4: If this picture seems funny to you, what exactly makes you laugh?

О4: This picture seems very ordinary to me.

 

Table 2. The ideal (С1, С2, МС) and idiosyncratic (Сi, МСi) scripts in juxtaposition

The ideal scripts

The idiosyncratic scripts

С1 sad (A1) keanu (S1)

Сi moody (A1) people (Si) are sitting (Pi) on a bench (Ai) in a park (Ai)

С2 forrest gump (S2) is giving (P2) a pep (A2) talk (O2)

МС i (Sмс) consume (Pмс) a meme (Oмс)

МСi i (Sмс) am viewing (Piмс) an ordinary (Aiмс) picture (Oiмс)

 

×

About the authors

Sergei V. Ageev

Saint Petersburg State University of Economics

Email: ageev.s@unecon.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0121-994X

Associate Professor at Saint Petersburg State University of Economics, Russia. His research interests have evolved from the genre-specific study of metaphor and neologisms to broader areas of cognitive linguistics, semiotics and pragmatics.

Saint Petersburg, Russia

Evgeny A. Pushkarev

HSE University

Email: epushkarev@hse.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8348-5805

Associate Professor of the Department of Foreign Languages at HSE University, Saint Petersburg. His research and teaching interests deal with cognitive linguistics, pragmatics, and the evolution of language and neurolinguistics. His current research focuses on the mechanisms of humor production in acts of memeiosis as well as the ways humorous memes can be interpreted by the viewers.

Saint Petersburg, Russia

Natalia V. Antonenko

Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering

Author for correspondence.
Email: nantonenko@lan.spbgasu.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9628-1040

Associate Professor at Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering. Her research interests lie in the areas of cognitive linguistics, pragmatics, lexicology and EFL teaching.

Saint Petersburg, Russia

References

  1. Архипов И.К. Делу - время, потехе - час. О смешном и несмешном // Логический анализ языка. Языковые механизмы комизма / отв. ред. Н. Д. Арутюновой. М.: Индрик, 2007. С. 112-120. [Arkhipov, Igor K. 2007. Delu - vremya, potekhe - chas. O smeshnom i nesmeshnom (Work done, time for fun. What is funny and what is not). In Nina D. Arutiunova (resp. ed.), Logicheskii analiz yazyka. Yazykovye mekhanizmy komizma (Logical Analysis of the language. Linguistic Mechanisms of Comicism), 112-120. Moscow: Indrik. (In Russ.)].
  2. Выготский Л.С. Мышление и речь. М.: Национальное образование, 2016. [Vygotsky, Lev S. 2016. Myshlenie i rech' (Thinking and Speech). Moscow: Natsional'noe obrazovanie. (In Russ.)].
  3. Канашина С.В. Интернет-мем и прецедентный феномен // Вестник Томского государственного педагогического университета. 2018а. №4 (193). С. 122-127. [Kanashina, Svetlana V. 2018а. Internet meme and precedent phenomenon. Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin 4 (193). 122-127. (In Russ.)]. https://doi.org/10.23951/1609-624X-2018-4-122-127
  4. Канашина С.В. Семантические особенности интернет-мема как полимодального дискурса // Вестник Московского государственного лингвистического университета. Гуманитарные науки. 2018б. №16 (811). С. 74-80. [Kanashina, Svetlana V. 2018б. Semantic aspects of internet meme as a multimodal discourse. Vestnik of Moscow State Linguistic University. Humanities 16 (811). 74-80. (In Russ.)].
  5. Карасик В.И. Алгоритмы построения комических текстов // Вестник Российского университета дружбы народов. Серия: Лингвистика. 2018. Т. 22. № 4. С. 895-918. [Karasik, Vladimir I. 2018. Algorithms of comic texts construction. Russian Journal of Linguistics 22 (4). 895-918. (In Russ.)]. https://doi.org/10.22363/2312-9182-2018-22-4-895-918
  6. Кошелев А.Д. О природе комического и функции смеха // Язык в движении. К 70-летию Л. П. Крысина / отв. ред. Е.А. Земская, М.Л. Каленчук. М.: Языки славянских культур, 2007. С. 277-326. [Koshelev, Aleksey D. 2007. O prirode komicheskogo i funktsii smekha (About the nature of the comic and the function of laughter). In Elena A. Zemskaya, Mariya L. Kalenchuk (resp. eds.), Yazyk v dvizhenii. K 70-letiyu L. P. Krysina (Language in action. On the 70th anniversary of Krysin L. P.), 277-326. Moscow: Yazyki slavyanskikh kul'tur. (In Russ.)].
  7. Никитина О.А., Гудкова О.А., Зандер Ф. Интернет-мем как мультимодальный феномен немецкоязычного интернет-дискурса // Язык и культура. 2018. № 43. С. 74-87. [Nikitina, Olga A. & Olga A. Gudkova & Sander Ferdinand. 2018. Internet meme as a multimodal phenomenon of the German Internet-discourse. Yazyk i kul'tura 43. 74-87. (In Russ.)]. https://doi.org/10.17223/19996195/43/5
  8. Павлина С.Ю. Прагматические и стилистические особенности британских и американских политических карикатур на тему COVID-19 // Russian Journal of Linguistics. 2022. № 26 (1). C. 162-193. [Pavlina, Svetlana Y. 2022. Pragmatic and stylistic perspectives on British and American COVID-19 cartoons. Russian Journal of Linguistics 26 (1). 162-193. (In Russ.)]. https://doi.org/10.22363/2687-0088-27107
  9. Стефанкова Л.Н. Скрипты и их оппозиция как способ моделирования комического эффекта в коротком рассказе // Актуальные проблемы филологии и педагогической лингвистики. 2014. №16. С. 334-338. [Stefankova, Larisa N. 2014. Scripts and their oppositions as a way of comic effect modeling in short story. Current Issues in Philology and Pedagogical Linguistics 16. 334-338. (In Russ.)].
  10. Терентьева Е.В., Павлова Е.Б. Семиотическая организация русскоязычных экологических интернет-мемов // Научный диалог. 2023. № 12 (9). С. 184-206. [Terentyeva, Elena V., Pavlova, Elena B. 2023. Semiotic Organization of Russian Environmental Internet Memes. Nauchnyi Dialog 12 (9). 184-206. (In Russ.)]. https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2023-12-9-184-206
  11. Щербакова О.В. Когнитивные механизмы понимания комического: дис. ... кандидата психологических наук: 19.00.01. - Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет, 2009. [Shcherbakova, Olga V. 2009. Kognitivnye mekhanizmy ponimaniya komicheskogo (Cognitive mechanisms of understanding the comic): Thesis. Saint Petersburg State University. (In Russ.)]. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.22854.16963
  12. Щурина Ю.В. Интернет-мемы как средство межкультурной коммуникации // Известия Волгоградского государственного педагогического университета. 2013. № 6 (81). С. 34-39. [Shchurina, Yuliya V. 2013. Internet-memy kak sredstvo mezhkul'turnoi kommunikatsii (Internet memes as a means of intercultural communication). Ivzestia of the Volgograd State Pedagogical University 6 (81). 34-39. (In Russ.)].
  13. Attardo, Salvatore & Victor Raskin. 1991. Script theory revis(it)ed: Joke similarity and joke representation model. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 4 (3/4). 293-347. https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.1991.4.3-4.293
  14. Bain, Alexander. 2006. The Emotions and the Will. Replica of the completely revised 1888 third ed. New York: Cosimo Classics.
  15. Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhailovich, Vern W. McGee, Caryl Emerson & Michael Holquist. 1986. Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Austin: University of Texas.
  16. Beaugrande, Robert de & Wolfgang U. Dressler. 2016. Introduction to Text Linguistics. London: Routledge.
  17. Börzsei, Linda K. 2013. Makes a meme instead: A concise history of Internet memes. New Media Studies Magazine 7. 1-25.
  18. Burgess, Jean. 2014. ‘All your chocolate rain are belonging to us?’: Viral video, YouTube and the dynamics of participatory culture. Art in the Global Present. 86-96. https://doi.org/10.5130/978-0-9872369-9-9.e
  19. Dancygier, Barbara & Vandelanotte Lieven. 2017. Internet memes as multimodal constructions. Cognitive Linguistics 28 (3). 565-598. https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2017-0074
  20. Dynel, Marta. 2016. “I has seen image macros!” Advice animals memes as visual-verbal jokes. International Journal of Communication 10. 660-688.
  21. Dynel, Marta. 2020. Covid-19 memes going viral: On the multiple multimodal voices behind face masks. Discourse & Society 32 (2). 175-195. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926520970385
  22. Figueroa-Dorrego, Jorge & Cristina Larkin-Galinanes. 2009. A Source Book of Literary and Philosophical Writings about Humour and Laughter: The Seventy-Five Essential Texts from Antiquity to Modern Times. Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press.
  23. Fillmore, Charles J. 1977. Scenes-and-frames semantics. In Antonip Zampolli (ed.), Linguistics structures processing, 55-81. Amsterdam/New York/Oxford: North Holland Publishing Company.
  24. Gasparov, Boris. 2010. Speech, Memory, and Meaning: Intertextuality in Everyday Language. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
  25. Hussein, Ahmed T. & Lina Nabil Aljamili. 2020. Covid-19 humor in Jordanian social media: A socio-semiotic approach. Heliyon 6 (12). 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05696
  26. Kavitha, Gopinath. 2018. A study of memes using semiotics. Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 9 (1). 219-224. https://doi.org/10.5958/2321-5828.2018.00039.6
  27. Kristeva, Julia. 1980. Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art, trans. L. S. Roudiez. Oxford: Blackwell.
  28. Laineste, Liisi & Piret Voolaid. 2017. Laughing across borders: Intertextuality of internet memes. The European Journal of Humour Research 4 (4). 26-49. https://doi.org/10.7592/ejhr2016.4.4.laineste
  29. Lakoff, George. 1987. Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind. The University of Chicago Press.
  30. Lankshear, Colin & Michele Knobel. 2019. Memes, macros, meaning, and menace: Some trends in internet memes. The Journal of Communication and Media Studies 4 (4). 43-57. https://doi.org/10.18848/2470-9247/cgp/v04i04/43-57
  31. Larkin-Galiñanes, Cristina. 2017. An overview of humor theory. In Salvatore Attardo (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Language and Humor, 4-16. 1st ed. Routledge.
  32. Lintott, Sheila. 2016. Superiority in humor theory. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 74 (4). 347-358. https://doi.org/10.1111/jaac.12321
  33. McGhee, Paul E. 1979. Humor, its Origin and Development. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.
  34. Minsky, Marvin. 1975. A framework for representing knowledge. In P. Winston (ed.), The Psychology of Computer Vision, 55-81. McGraw-Hill.
  35. Naciscione, Anita. 2010. Stylistic Use of Phraseological Units in Discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co.
  36. Norrick, Neal R. 2004. Non-verbal humor and joke performance. Humor - International Journal of Humor Research 17 (4). 401-409. https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.2004.17.4.401
  37. Paciello, Marinella, Francesca D’Errico, Giorgia Saleri & Ernestina Lamponi. 2021. Online sexist meme and its effects on moral and emotional processes in social media. Computers in Human Behavior 116. 106655. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106655
  38. Pushkarev, Evgeny A. & Julia S. Rastvorova. 2022. States of idiosyncratic idealized cognitive models in acts of pragmatic meaning. Language Sciences 93. 101498. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2022.101498
  39. Raskin, Victor. 1984. Semantic Mechanisms of Humor. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-6472-3
  40. Shank, Roger C. & Robert P. Abelson. 1977. Scripts, Plans, Goals and Understanding. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  41. Shifman, Limor. 2012. An anatomy of a YouTube meme. New Media & Society 14 (2). 187-203. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444811412160
  42. Shifman, Limor. 2013. Memes in Digital Culture. The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9429.001.0001
  43. Sinha, Chris. 1999. Grounding, mapping, and acts of meaning. In Theo Janssen & Gisela Redeker (eds.), Cognitive Linguistics, 223-256. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110803464.223
  44. Taecharungroj, Viriya & Pitchanut Nueangjamnong. 2015. Humour 2.0: Styles and types of humour and virality of memes on Facebook. Journal of Creative Communications 10 (3). 288-302. https://doi.org/10.1177/0973258615614420
  45. Terentyeva, Elena V. & Elena B. Pavlova. 2023. Semiotic organization of Russian environmental Internet memes. Nauchnyi Dialog 12 (9). 184-206. https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2023-12-9-184-206
  46. Tsakona, Villy. 2018. Intertextuality and cultural literacy in contemporary political jokes. In Arie Sover (ed.), The Languages of humor: Verbal, visual, and physical humor, 86-104. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350062320.0012
  47. Tsakona, Villy. 2020. Scrutinising intertextuality in humour: Moving beyond cultural literacy and towards critical literacy. The European Journal of Humour Research 8 (3). 40-59. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR2020.8.3.Tsakona2
  48. Tsakona, Villy & Jan Chovanec. 2020. Revisiting intertextuality and humour: Fresh perspectives on a classic topic. The European Journal of Humour Research 8 (3). 1-15. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR2020.8.3.Tsakona
  49. Vandaele, Jeroen. 2002. Introduction: (Re-)constructing humour: Meanings and means. The Translator 8 (2). 149-172. https://doi.org/10.1080/13556509.2002.10799130
  50. Vásquez, Camilla & Erhan Aslan. 2021. “Cats be outside, how about meow”: Multimodal humor and creativity in an internet meme. Journal of Pragmatics 171. 101-117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2020.10.006
  51. Yus, Francisco. 2018. Identity-related issues in meme communication. Internet Pragmatics 1 (1). 113-133. https://doi.org/10.1075/ip.00006.yus
  52. Yus, Francisco. 2021. Incongruity-resolution humorous strategies in image macro memes. Internet Pragmatics 4 (1). 131-149. https://doi.org/10.1075/ip.00058.yus
  53. Way, Lyndon C. S. 2021. Trump, memes and the Alt-right: Emotive and affective criticism and praise. Russian Journal of Linguistics 25 (3). 789-809. https://doi.org/10.22363/2687-0088-2021-25-3-789-809
  54. Zappettini, Franco, Douglas. M. Ponton & Tatiana V. Larina 2021. Emotionalisation of contemporary media discourse: A research agenda. Russian Journal of Linguistics 25 (3). 586-610. (In Russ.)].

Copyright (c) 2024 Ageev S.V., Pushkarev E.A., Antonenko N.V.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

This website uses cookies

You consent to our cookies if you continue to use our website.

About Cookies