Humor as a Double-Edged Sword: Four Functions of Humor in Communication

The critical analysis assignment was assigned for us to make a continuous and critical case about one humorous artifact, supported by John C. Meyer’s article “Humor as a Double-Edged Sword: Four Functions of Humor in Communication.” When looking over the comedians for this assignment, I chose Michael Che because he is one of my favorite comedians. Still, I also thoroughly enjoyed his special Michael Che Matters and saw a deeper meaning in what he was saying. Michael Che uses humor to get his message across on racial prejudice and how he links his jokes to Black Lives Matter. Through his deeper meaning crafted in his jokes, I then decided to write about his power to weld a joke as more of an informative argument about racism to his audience. Michael Che chose the title of Michael Che Matters which alludes to “Black Lives Matter” in the title of this speech, which points to the racial issue’s centrality in the talk. Through this, I decided to write about Che’s argument and his use of the clarification function, humor can illuminate and explain ideas, and his use of the superiority theory, “notes that people laugh inwardly or outwardly at others because they feel some sort of triumph over them or feel superior to them in some way.”
As I revised my paper and looked at by my peers in the class workshop, I saw that I missed opportunities to relate Che’s work to the secondary source. I began to get very general in my paper, only stating this, “Thus, humor causes a chain rea...