Can we at least all laugh together now? Twitter and online political humor during the 2016 election

Abstract

This chapter evaluates the differences in humorous content found on Twitter versus other social media sites during the 2016 presidential election. A content analysis of 700 humorous still images, memes, and cartoons demonstrates slight differences between the socialmedia information environments. Humorous images in the Twitterverse tended to be slightly more partisan, invoke slightly more masculine stereotypes in portrayals of candidates, and were less likely to use emotionally evocative content. On both Twitter and elsewhere, humorous still images consisted largely of attacks and were relatively devoid of policy information. The results are explained in light of the nature of Twitter as a social media platform, specifically its character delimitation for text and the news orientation of its user base.