Abstract With humor increasingly at the center of social conflict, debates over the boundaries of subversive humor have moved to the forefront of public discourse. As a result, there is a growing need for a more grounded understanding of public humor literacy – understood as the ability to engage with humor in the public sphere in a way that is informed, reflective, and supportive of democratic discourse. By discussing five theses on the nature of publicly mediated humor, this article formulates a programmatic starting point for a framework on public humor literacy, and contributes to the growing academic and societal acknowledgement that humor increasingly functions as a politicizing form of public discourse and a tool for political engagement.
Jonas Nicolaï (Mon,) studied this question.