Forum: Joking, laughter and play in International Relations: A forum of emerging research in humour and global politics

This forum critically examines humour’s rising significance in International Relations (IR). It blends interdisciplinary insights to explore how humour shapes political realities, mediates conflict and engages audiences in a mediatised era. Four key themes emerge: humour’s impact on political identities and ontological security, evident, for instance, in the Danish Cartoon Crisis and far-right memes; its strategic deployment in digital diplomacy during conflicts like the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Israel/Gaza, where it can both escalate and tranquilise tensions; audience reception, where humour often reinforces beliefs and can feed the kinds of divisive logics associated with populism; as well as critiques of Eurocentrism and the de-colonial potentials of African humourists and the geopolitical work of political cartoonists. Highlighting humour’s interplay with power, identity and (technological) agency, the forum reveals its dual role in both intensifying and ‘distracting from’ global conflicts and questions of justice. It challenges conventional IR frameworks by positioning humour as a vital, yet understudied, force in political life. These analyses underscore humour’s ability to empower or disempower across contexts, deepening our grasp of its transformative potential; advancing critical IR scholarship by unpacking humour’s complex, affective and paradoxical dynamics in contemporary global politics.