Contrasting Dimensions behind the Use of Irony and Humour in Times of Crisis: Covid and the Ukrainian War
Contrasting Dimensions behind the Use of Irony and Humour in Times of Crisis: Covid and the Ukrainian War

Summary/Abstract: In this article the discourse of irony and humor is explored in two sets of memes generated intimes of crisis, namely the recent Covid pandemic and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.Different versions of macro memes are examined in both sets through the lens of the InferredContradiction Theory of irony (Alba-Juez 2014). The main research questions were: 1) Whattype(s) of irony is/are exploited to make the memes humorous? 2)What type of inference is foundin the inferred contradiction that is essential for the comprehension of the ironic humor in thememes? 3) What is the main function of the irony (and humor) in the memes? A qualitativediscourse-pragmatic analytic method was used, together with a simple quantitative analysis ofthe types of irony used. The analysis shows that the humorous irony in the memes is alwaysbased in some kind of contradiction that has to be inferred at some discourse-linguistic level,displaying instances of not only propositional but also illocutionary irony, as well as other kindsof irony where the inferred contradiction is found in the subplicit information that is shared bythe interlocutors, or even in the images shown. The results reveal that most of the jokes in thememes were sarcastic and thus the inferred contradiction led to the negative evaluation of someperson or situation. The irony in the majority of the memes was of the conversational, negativeand propositional types, and the functions fulfilled by the ironic humor were found to servecontrasting and contradictory motivations (aggressiveness towards the out-group andaffiliation with the in-group), as well as that of amusing the readers.

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