Cognitive underpinnings of misperceptions in morphed humor

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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.

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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)

 

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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

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