Digital Humour in the Covid-19 Pandemic

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

   PDF

2. Social Media and COVID-19: Taking Humour During Pandemics Seriously

   • Shepherd Mpofu

   Pages 1-16

3. Meme-making Practices and Making Sense of the Pandemic

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17

      PDF

   2. Social Media Memes as Commentary in Health Disasters in South Africa and Zimbabwe

      • Shepherd Mpofu

      Pages 19-45

   3. Viral Jokes: Humour and Grace as Critical Devices in Memes About the COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil

      • Alexandre Werneck

      Pages 47-73

   4. ‘Coromentality’: Nigerians’ Use of Memetic Humour During the COVID-19 Lockdowns

      • Aje-Ori Agbese, Edeanya Agbese

      Pages 75-100

   5. An Analysis of Internet Memes and Discourses on Traditional Medicines as Remedies for COVID-19 in Zimbabwe

      • Mbongeni Jonny Msimanga, Lungile Augustine Tshuma, Mphathisi Ndlovu

      Pages 101-121

   6. “Can we Uninstall 2020 and Install It Again? This Version Has a Virus!”: Humourous Pundemic and Misinforming Infodemic about COVID-19 Pandemic on Social Media

      • Adamkolo Mohammed Ibrahim, Nassir Mohammed Abba-Aji, Phuong Thi Vi

      Pages 123-143

   7. Social Media Audience’s Interpretation of Selected Humor Memes on Coronavirus Pandemic in Nigeria

      • Gloria Chimeziem Ernest-Samuel

      Pages 145-164

4. Gender, Race and Family: Identity Politics in the Pandemic

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 165-165

      PDF

   2. Coronavirus Satire: A Dissection of Feminist Politics and Humour

      • Millie Phiri

      Pages 167-189

   3. ‘A Nation that Laughs Together, Stays Together’: Deconstructing Humour on Twitter During the National Lockdown in South Africa

      • Nonhlanhla Ndlovu

      Pages 191-212

   4. Fear and Loathing and Laughter: COVID-19 as an Expression of Decolonial Love

      • Mvuzo Ponono

      Pages 213-232

5. Weapons of the Masses: Humour, Ridicule and Confronting Political Power

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 233-233

      PDF

   2. #VoetsekANC and COVID Corruption: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of “A Song for the ANC”

      • Adelina Mbinjama

      Pages 235-258

   3. Humour in the Time of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Critical Analysis of the Subversive Meanings of WhatsApp Memes in Zimbabwe

      • Mphathisi Ndlovu

      Pages 259-277

   4. Humour in the Age of Contagion: Coronavirus, ‘Janata Curfew’ Meme and India’s Digital Cultures of Virality

      • Imran Parray

      Pages 279-293

   5. The Use of Meme and Hashtags on Twitter Towards Government Response During the COVID-19 Curfew Announcement from 1 June to 14 June 2020

      • Keziah Wangui Githinji, Joyce Omwoha

      Pages 295-317

   6. Dark Humour, Ubuntu and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case of Subaltern Humouring of Political Elite Deaths on Social Media

      • Shepherd Mpofu

      Pages 319-346

6. Back Matter

   Pages 347-350

   PDF

Digital humour in the COVID-19 pandemic: Perspectives from the Global South offers a groundbreaking intervention on how digital media were used from below by ordinary citizens to negotiate the global pandemic humorously. This book considers the role played by digital media during the pandemic, and indeed in the socio-political life of the Global South, as indispensable and revolutionary to human communication. In many societies, humour not only signifies laughter and frivolity, but acts as an important echo that accompanies, critiques, questions, disrupts, agitates and comments on societal affairs and the human condition. This book analyses citizens’ use of social media and humour to mediate the pandemic in a diverse range of countries, including Brazil, India, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe.  The book will appeal to academics and students of media and communication studies, political studies, rhetoric, and to policy makers.

• digital media
• COVID-19
• coronavirus
• memes
• online humour
• digital satire
• online satire
• covid-19 lockdown

• University of Limpopo, Polokwane, South Africa

  Shepherd Mpofu

Shepherd Mpofu is Associate Professor in Media and Communications at the University of Limpopo, South Africa. He is an African Humanities Programme Fellow. He is co-editor of Mediating Xenophobia in Africa (Palgrave, 2020). He regularly publishes in academic journals on themes such as media and identity, media and protests, gender and race. 

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