Shitposting to the Senate: humor, affect, and the working class in the Fetterman–Oz race

John Fetterman's 2022 defeat of Mehmet Oz to become a Senator of Pennsylvania featured heavily circulated humorous jabs at Oz, so much so that the use of humor became a defining element of Fetterman's strategy. Our central claim is that Fetterman's use of humor affectively connects the candidate to both the locality of Pennsylvania and the working class while orienting voters against Oz. That connection is achieved through two interrelated strategies: first, in jokes casting Oz as a geographic outsider, and second in positioning Oz as a class outsider. We build on theories of humor and affect with focus on how humor supplements the candidates' claims to identity generally, and locality specifically. We finally unpack the implications of this situated form of ridicule for public discourse and political communication.