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Playing With Otherness: Within and Beyond Stereotypes in Visual Representations
make the most of things, to cope with dissatisfactions that might not be of their
own making. It commends the individual for adapting to social conditions (ills.
15, 17, 18) rather than urging the individual to seek to change conditions that were
unacceptable (Billig 2005: 11). Yet, the same author, referring to Hageseth, writes
that there was pessimism present in humor, expressed by irony, satire, sarcasm, or
put-down humor (Hageseth cited in Billig 1988: 60). Demeaning ethnic stereotypes
were reinforced by jokes at the expense of the vulnerable groups, which reflects a
whole way of experiencing the world and its vicissitudes.
In this insecure world, the positive humor, although less often present, fulfilled
the function of increasing group solidarity. The same purpose was also served by the
negative representations of the Other, as the disparagement of the Other cements
the solidarity of “us.” From this point of view, someone might be considered funny
by “us” but not by everybody. However, the positive jokes, those jokes that evoke a
smile and laughter of all sides, do not use a negative image. They serve to create a
good climate and atmosphere by increasing group solidarity. Billig claims that the
positive mindset is not directed at social change but at inner change, and in that way
an individual learns to bear the unbearable in life. The negatives have to be rescued
from amnesia. In his view, the ridicule is deeply rooted in social processes rather than
being a character trait that can be reversed by learned optimism (Billig 2005: 32). In
this sense the images in the daily press and the satirical press, as examples of public
discourse, reflect the changes that were then taking place in Poland and resulted
from social practice. Thus, the images do not provide a record of an individual’s
management of (or coping with) the surrounding social reality.
‘The research on humor stresses the differences between joke and wit. According
to the definition of wit, it denotes the sudden discovery of a resemblance between
distant ideas; true wit focuses on the resemblance of ideas, and false wit on the re¬
semblance of words. True wit can be translated into foreign languages. In the past,
wit was a highly regarded form of humor, however, more often present in anecdotes
than in jokes or caricatures. It appears to have been highly appreciated as amusing
cleverness in its purest form. It highlights the issue of the distance between ideas
and the suddenness with which they are conjoined.
Certainly, wit determines the horizons of the sense of humor. However, does
the sense of humor’ comprise, in the same manner, jokes, ridiculing, teasing, and
mocking? If it reflects an individual civilized perspective, then the world, seen at
26 According to Daniel Wickberg, the concept of “sense of humor” has a short history, at least in its
contemporary sense. It started to be used during the 1840s, and only by the 1970s was being used in
its modern sense to denote the altogether familiar notion of the sense of humor as a personality char¬
acteristic. The emergence of this notion was linked to a broader change in thinking about the person.
People were no longer being considered principally in terms of social position or physiological make-up.
Instead, they were conceived of as autonomous individuals, possessing the enduring characteristics of
individuality (Wickberg cited in Billig 2005: 12).
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