Humor as a Political Act: Study of Indonesian Presidents’ Humor

Surahmat Surahmat; I Dewa Putu Wijana; Suryo Baskoro

doi:10.24071/joll.v23i1.5097

Humor as a Political Act: Study of Indonesian Presidents’ Humor

Surahmat Surahmat^(1*), I Dewa Putu Wijana⁽²⁾, Suryo Baskoro⁽³⁾,

(1) Universitas Negeri Semarang Universitas Gadjah Mada
(2) Universitas Gadjah Mada
(3) Universitas Gadjah Mada
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study aims to explain the use of humor by Indonesian presidents for political communication. Presidents’ use of humor is an interesting phenomenon, given that they are social subjects who wield great power within a country. Their social position leads to different characteristics and social impacts due to the humor used. This research uses a qualitative descriptive approach. Data was collected from books, news sites, and YouTube channels documenting the humor of the three Indonesian presidents. Data were then analyzed using pragmatic analysis. The results show that presidential humor varies according to personal preferences, speech objectives, and contexts. Presidents use joke, conversational humor, and pun to joke, tease, praise, satirize, criticize, and delegate power. Joking, teasing, and praising are used on friends and political allies. Meanwhile, satirizing and criticizing are applied to political opponents. Humor is a middle ground for presidents, enabling them to achieve speech objectives without explicitly expressing their intention. Politically, humor functions to (1) represent oneself positively and represent opponents negatively, (2) build relationships and positioning with opponents and allies, and (3) exercise control and discipline. However, the relationship between form, style, and illocutionary of presidential humor is often ambiguous. Such conditions seem related to political relations' dynamic and equal nature, where friends and foes are not always crystal clear.

Keywords

humor; political humor; presidential humor

Full Text:

PDF

References

Ann, A., & Calhoun, L. G. (2001). Perceived personality associations with differences in sense of humor: Stereotypes of hypothetical others with high or low senses of humor. Humor, 14(2), pp. 117–130.

Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Baxter, J. (2010). Discourse-analytic in approaches to text and talk. In L. Litosseliti (Ed.), Research Methods in Linguistics (pp. 117–137). London: Continuum International Publishing Group.

Budiyanto, D. (2009). Penyimpangan implikatur percakapan dalam humor-humor Gus Dur. Litera, 8(2), pp. 105–117.

Butler, N. (2015). Joking aside: Theorizing laughter in organizations. Culture and Organization, 21(1), pp. 42–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/14759551.2013.799163

Carpenter, D. M., Webster, M. J., & Bowman, C. K. (2019). White house wit: how presidents use humor as a leadership tool. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 49(1), pp. 23–55. https://doi.org/10.1111/PSQ.12492

Čekrlija, Đ., Mrđa, P., Vujaković, L., & Aluja, A. (2022). Relationship between humor styles and alternative five factors of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 194, pp. 111625. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.PAID.2022.111625

Dubberley, W. S. (1988). Humor as resistance. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 1(2), pp. 109–123. https://doi.org/10.1080/0951839880010201

Elison, E. (2014). Ketawa Bareng Bung Besar (F. Wijdan, Ed.). Bandung: Penerbit Imania.

Fairclough, N. (2001). Language and Power. London: Routledge.

Faridl, A. M. (2011). Implikatur-implikatur percakapan dalam wacana humor Gus Dur (Undergraduate Thesis). Universitas Sebelas Maret.

Hall, S. (1997). The work of representation. In S. Hall (Ed.), Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practice (pp. 13–71). London: Sage Publications, Inc; Open University Press.

Innocenti, B., & Miller, E. (2016). The Persuasive Force of Political Humor. Journal of Communication, 66(3), pp. 366–385. https://doi.org/10.1111/JCOM.12231

Johnson, A., & Mccord, D. M. (2010). Relating sense of humor to the five factor theory personality domains and facets. American Journal of Psychological Research, 6(1), pp. 32–40.

Kessel, M. (2011). Talking war, debating unity: Order, conflict, and exclusion in ‘German humour’ in the first World War. In M. Kessel & P. Merziger (Eds.), The Politics of Humour: Laughter, Inclusion and Exclusion in the Twentieth Century (pp. 82–107). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Khusnita, A. S. (2013). The Implicature of Humor Utterances in Humor Lucu Ala Gus Dur (Undergraduate Thesis). Diponegoro University.

Larkin-Galiñanes, C. (2017). An overview of humor theory. In S. Attardo (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Language and Humor (1st ed., pp. 4–16). New York, NY: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315731162-2

Lu’lu, N. (2022). Humor sebagai Komunikasi Politik Gus Dur dalam Berpolitik (Undergraduate Thesis). Walisongo State Islamic University.

Maremera, G. (2020). Robert Mugabe quotable quotes and jokes. Seattle, WA: Amazon Books.

Martin, R. A. (2007). The psychology of humor: An integrative approach. San Diego, CA: Elsevier Academic Press.

Martin, R. A., Puhlik-Doris, P., Larsen, G., Gray, J., & Weir, K. (2003). Individual differences in uses of humor and their relation to psychological well-being: Development of the humor styles questionnaire. Journal of Research in Personality, 37(1), pp. 48–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(02)00534-2

Martineau, W. H. (1972). A model of the social functions of humor. In J. H. Goldstein, & P. E. McGhee (Eds.), The psychology of humor (pp. 101-125). New York: Academic Press

Priharyadi, B. A., & Ariyanto. (2015). Gaya bahasa dalam humor-humor karya Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) (Undergraduate Thesis). Universitas Gadjah Mada.

Qomariyah, N. (2021). Khazanah humor Gus Dur: Analisis akar historis humor Gus Dur sebagai sarana demokratisasi (Undergraduate Thesis). Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Ampel .

Rahman, A. (2020). Gitu aja kok repot. Yogyakarta: Penerbit Noktah.

Raskin, V. (1985). Semantic Mechanisms of Humor. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company

Rhea, D. M. (2007). Seriously Funny: A Look At Humor in Televised Presidential Debates (Doctoral Thesis). University of Missouri-Columbia. https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10355/4784/research.pdf

Rhea, D. M. (2012). There They Go Again: The Use of Humor in Presidential Debates 1960–2008. Argumentation and Advocacy, 49(2), pp. 115–131. https://doi.org/10.1080/00028533.2012.11821783

Săftoiu, R., & Popescu, C. (2014). Humor as a branding strategy in political discourse: A case study from Romania. Estudios de Lingüística, 47(85), pp. 293–320.

Sorensen, M. J. (2008). Humor as a Serious Strategy of Nonviolent Resistance to Oppression by Majken Jul Sorensen. Peace & Change, 33(2), pp. 167–190.

Tirado, F., & Gálvez, A. (2008). Positioning theory and discourse analysis: Some tools for social interaction analysis. Historical Social Research, 33(1), pp. 224–251. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20762264

Waisanen, Don. (2015). Comedian-in-chief: Presidential jokes as enthymematic crisis rhetoric. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 45(2), pp. 335–360.

Webb, R. G. (1981). Political uses of humor. ETC: A Review of General Semantics, 38(1), pp. 35–50. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42575872

Wijana, I. D. P. (2018). Political humor in Indonesian. KnE Social Sciences, 3(5), pp. 312–331. https://doi.org/10.18502/KSS.V3I5.2340

Zhadanova, V. V., & Shirobokov, A. N. (2019). Humor as a tool of political discourse: From media personalities to candidates for the presidency. RUDN Journal of Studies in Literature and Journalism, 24(1), pp. 109–116. https://journals.rudn.ru/literary-criticism/article/view/21021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/joll.v23i1.5097