1

Name of the Student

Name of the Professor

Subject Code

Due Date

How Different Aspects of Social Media Affect Humor

Introduction

Social media has become a crucial communication platform for perspective development

through humor. Since most of the existing social media platforms are the staple of the modern

digital landscape, including, but not limited to, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, the category of

humor is not immune to changes resulting from the design of the platform and the behavior of

the users, and their perception of humor. As someone who preaches that humor primarily

belongs to traditional structures, namely, TV and Film, I believe humor has evolved. It has

mutated into new formats that are particular to the internet, such as memes, short clips, and

games. As we seek to gain a further understanding and develop a clearer conceptual

understanding of such a shift, it becomes proper to consider the platform-related considerations,

such as the platform-specific features, the censorship policies, the trolling behaviors, and the age

demographics of the sources of humor.

Sandra Azar describes context collapse as merging context audience, norms, and

regulations that would typically operate in distinct domains or environments into a fluid domain

– a social media platform (Azar 15). This collapse renders it almost impossible to negotiate

humor across multiple media. This impossibility indicates that jest perceived as innocent and free

from prejudice in some conditions may receive political or socially colored meaning in others.

How memes are put together and change on different networks, such as Twitter, Instagram, and
 2

TikTok, and how they use cultural signs all witness this ongoing shift in humor production.

Shifman specifies that memes can greatly affect macro-level societal processes through cultural

exchange, influencing group behavior, beliefs, and interactions.

Narration

The format in which data is shared in various types of social media affects not only the

nature of interpersonal relationships between the members of such platforms but even the sharing

and behaving of humor. Platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit create different types

of humor due to their designated architecture. Multiple reactions, Especially because short-form

videos, viral trends, and remixes are the foundation upon which humor travels, especially among

the youth. Shifman rightly emphasizes that memes are "cultural information" that transfers from

one person to another; however, the features offered by the platform that hosts these internet-

aided artifacts—which are shareability and the ability to disseminate images and graphics

quickly—also influence their composition (Shifman 45).

Visuality can restrain humor depending on whether the chosen platform is focused on

text (for example, Twitter or Facebook) or graphics (such as Instagram or TikTok). Authors like

Bonsaksen et al. also mention that a new generation user, specifically Generation Z, is more

inclined towards 'visually rich, short-term content,' which includes memes and short videos.

These formats conform to what has become the norm of the platforms: fast interaction and

instant results (Bonsaksen et al. 3). However, older users prefer content types that require passive

engagement, like textual content, blogs, articles, and active participation in the discussion forums

on Facebook or Linkedin.

Another element that plays an important role in developing humor on SSM is censorship.

So, the censorship of the content presented on the internet differs globally, affecting the
 3

conception and perception of humor. As Lee describes in his study on Chinese social media

censorship, satire becomes a tactic for defiance. It uses coded messages and subtle ironic signals

to address official censorship, as shown on Weibo (Lee 1063). By comparison, Stanley talks

about the freedom of speech laws in Germany that compel social networking sites to quickly

delete "illegal postings," including those containing hate speech. This legal framework makes

certain forms of comedy challenging, especially satire and politics, as many are usually taken

down (Stanley 12).

Partition/Thesis

Specific sections of this paper will focus on the content medium of social media

platforms, censorship policy, the existence of trolls, and age differences in connection to the

development and use of humor in social media. Analyzing the discussed features, we observe

that humor works differently depending on the platforms, such as Instagram or TikTok, which

are more visually oriented. In contrast, on Twitter, it is more text-driven (Shifman 46). This tool

is important because understanding how structures of content medium determine humor enables

one to notice how platform structures engage users' creativity. Moreover, analyzing censorship,

especially geographical aspects, proves how rules define humor parameters in permissive and

prohibited speech worlds (Stanley 13). Lastly, analyzing the connection between trolling and

humor allows us to reveal that the conduct of observing the provocative and, as a rule, the

negative aspects of Internet interaction, humor often serves as a weapon. This work will use

scholarly articles, reports, case studies, and testimonies to support the thesis and illustrate how

and why humor in cyberspace is fraught and important for society.

Confirmation: Evidence and Analysis

Most significantly, the structure and design of social media platforms are the main

influencers of the comedy delivered on these new media platforms. This influence can be seen

especially through TikTok, Twitter, and Reddit because the way humor is dispersed differs with

the characteristics of the platform in question. The way this humor spreads so well on these

platforms is highly synonymous with the viral nature of information on social media. Still, such

platforms cannot be fully understood if one restricts the analysis to structural arrangements: the

question of censorship and trolling — both of which influence not only what can be shared but

how humor is developed under varying regulatory pressures — cannot be ignored.

The Influence of Platform Structure on Humor Production

In her book Memes", Limor Shifman identified that memes and short videos have

become a popular form of comedy that prevails in the digital age, and social media platforms

cause such circulation. Algorithms that regulate TikTok, the platform for short and catchy

videos, give a perfect example of how platform algorithms dictate the humor people make and

watch. TikTok's feed encourages engagement with content, especially what attracts likes,

comments, and shares, making it relatively easy for rapid humor to spread. TikTok has features

including sound remixes known as Duet, filter, and visual effects that allow users to continually

modify and repost content, as well as features that can give a humorous spin that reflects a

constantly changing culture. Shifman mentions that there is such a thing as rupture and break in

the Tiktok humor, and most videos range from 30 seconds to a minute (Shifman 51). These brief

and easily shareable videos afford timing and visual gags in a manner that is endemic only to the

platform, turning humor into the ephemeral yet effective kind. Examples and instances involving

the TikTok platform highlight how platform architecture, the flow of user actions and responses,
 5

shows how humor constructed from user-generated remixes cut across with previous phases,

showing an escalating recursive topicality – thereby developing a basis for a viral cycle.

Shifman's definition of memes as "digital artifacts" must be particularly useful here, as it

captures how these entities operate as conveyances for humor, which circulates rapidly and

accrues layers of semiosis as it goes. This type of remix culture of TikTok is part of the larger

concept of 'feedback loops,' particularly in the humor shared on social media. In Taraneh Azar's

understanding, these feedback loops allow for constante994 reinterpretation and subsequent

mutation, which holds for memes, contributing to their dynamism and transformation (Azar 20).

Read memes on TikTok are frequently reproduced, from simple jokes to references that claim to

respond to emerging changes in multiple spheres. Indeed, this constant adapting due to the

engagement rewarding mechanism of the algorithm paves the way for humor that is a product of

a cycle of continuous innovation and reworking due to the relative opacity of the algorithm.

Little humor is found on Twitter; however, like in pop culture references, it is also

constrained by the platform's structure. For example, Twitter has a 280-character limit for a

tweet; whenever people need to be concise, the humor is blunt and to the point. In response to the

question, Azar explains that most meme posts on Twitter involve text format or image-based

jokes that apply the aspects of jokes, wordplay, and jokes relied on in a limited character space

(15). This joke is because so much of the humor on Twitter relies on inside jokes familiar to

users, and the nature of the social network makes for quick, instant comedic relief. On Twitter,

too, jokes existed through retweets, likes, and reactions, making it possible for humor to grow in

various circles and step up in various moves.

However, again, the architecture of TikTok and the structure of the Twitter-like interface

foster the spread of humor faster, although they are not without their limitations, especially when

we consider how censorship dictates what kind of humor is okay to share.

Censorship and Its Effects on Humor

Humor regulation is central to how humor is created on social media sites. This attribute

is especially the case as various governments, company stakeholders, and user advocacy groups

tend to apply more pressure on the various platforms that feature such content; the development

of humor control is one of the most sensitive questions of choice as to which form of humor is

allowed on the platforms or banned. Obviously, in the case of heavily censoring countries such

as China, humor looks quite different. According to Lee, humor posted on Chinese microblogs

such as Weibo must tread dangerous territory given that the government presides over the

platforms to delete any information that may be politically sensitive or socially liable to cause

mayhem (Lee 1066). Censorship laws operate in China to the extent that they have created a

specific tradition of jokes – heavily veiled and filled with sarcasm and very often satirical

comments toward the government. For instance, comedians in China practice censorship

circumvention; they write memes, employ symbolic messages, and use concealed messages

because the censors control their comedies; however, they can perform on government policies,

corrupt practices, and social injustice since they refer them concealed in their comedies.

The broadly symbolic and indirect types of humor, which can be decoded by the residents

of the respective area only, have emerged as the primary tools for commenting on the political

situation in the given areas where freedom of speech is often limited. Lee, for instance, uses

satire and subversive humor in his argument, and the use of humor under censorship reveals how

humor can be effective even within a restrictive framework, exploiting the feature of language
 7

and imagery up to the maximum (Lee 1066). This effectiveness in evading censorship techniques

shows that humor as a mode of conveying information is quite tenacious and can effectively

survive socially introduced restrictions that check various conduits of information. Humor that

surfaces in censored settings is a sort of 'resistance' in which humorists innovate to resist the

norms of a given society while avoiding being captured.

It is also problematic in Western countries where social media has to follow content

regulation laws designed to deprive people of the distribution of dangerous information, such as

hate speech, fake news, and other unlawful materials. Stanley looks at how these laws impact

humor, especially in Germany, where social media companies must promptly delete content

prohibited under NetzDG law (Stanley 14). Using regulations to eliminate dangerous content,

Stanley notes that they invariably result in the censorship of satire and politically sensitive humor

since these are easily filtered as dangerous content. Moderators withdraw satirical memes even

though they refer to such subjects as political, religious, or social questions; hence, creative ideas

are shadowbanned, and humor is no longer an instrument for critical thinking.

Trolling and Its Role in Shaping Humor

Trolling is another key aspect of the transformation of humor in social networks. Trolling

is usually considered a type of destructive antisocial behavior that interferes with other people's

conversations on the web. However, it greatly contributes to forming the humorous contexts of

websites like Reddit. According to Phillips and Milner, the source of humor on platforms like

Reddit is that it entails anonymity, hence creating a 'humor of the deprived,' mockery, sarcasm,

and social critique (Phillips and Milner 80). When it comes to 'trolling,' in this sense, it is not just

about wanting to hurt people and insult them. However, it is a form of joke-telling that
 8

undermines cultural norms or values by presenting taboo subjects or subverting standard

ideologies.

Trolling is often described as posting provocative messages in an attempt to entice an

opponent to react – it can be playful and constructive, or it can descend into an all-out

cyberbullying situation. Nonetheless, it profoundly influences humor because, to be profane,

users often elicit socially acceptable behaviors. Trolls seek opportunities to express their relish in

someone else's distress, which Montez (2021) defines as schadenfreude. This humor is especially

rife with communities such as 4chan and Reddit, whose occupants create content to spur desired

reactions. While this form of humor may be perceived as negative, it does not seem different

from a more widespread social trend of using humor to subvert hierarchy and open up new

possibilities.

In addition, McConnell and Wohl highlight that trolling is also participatory humor in

which individuals join in the construction of messages with the purpose of subverting

expectations. Phillips and Milner further say that trolling in Reddit is not a form of solitary

'pranking' but involves a group of humorists collaborating to co-produce content to problematize

hegemonic values and institutions (Phillips and Milner 80). This participatory aspect of trolling

is vital as it affords humor the position of a collective social protest that allows individuals to

protest situations that would ordinarily be very hard to address through protest.

Refutation/Counterclaim

Whereas many academics see humor as something that overpowers, lampoons, and

subverts on social media sites, others have recently noted that the culture of humor becoming

dominant in these sites is increasingly circumscribed by the forces of diminishing to mere silly,

frequently perverse actions. They highlighted the fact that such sites such as Reddit and 4chan
 9

encourage a form of comedy based on hate speech bullying. According to Montez (21), since

users can post anonymously, they cannot be held to account and often post pathologically

deliberately to troll (Montez 5). Consequently, trolling is considered a type of entertainment over

the suffering of others, an aggressive type of entertainment where the diver introduces the target

or targets to a story with virulent consequences in real life, cyber-bullying, and religious hatred

speeches.

Although this argument touches upon some of the harms associated with online humor, it

needs to adequately consider what those uses of humor represent and what other purposes they

serve. Internet trolling is not always a product of hatred, as people use humor when creating a

post. Phillips and Milner (2017) continue the idea that, as in any other activity, trolling is playful,

and people create and perform trolls to entertain and comment on the state of society, even if it is

not always positive. Trolling on sites such as Reddit can foster an environment of satire and

discussion of social issues, politics, and other forms of culture. The act of trolling, when applied

correctly, can be construed as a kind of subversiveness or an Object means through which an

Otherwise marginalized populace can spectacularly unsettle the normalized generated debate, as

opposed to grief (Phillips and Milner 80). This aspect can be considered meta-humor, where the

form of play as humor leads to the opening of politically inspired comments on a norm.

Additionally, social media censorship greatly affects humor, forcing people to switch

how they exercise humor. The following is from Lee's article (2016). The author pointed out that

humor is subversive in the context of internet censorship in China. Clients engage in satire,

irony, and humor to opine on societal problems or resist authority without the likelihood of

getting punished (Lee 1067). In such contexts, humor is not innocent; it is not destructive or

disruptive; it is existence and rebellion. So, the creativity of working through censorship by using
 10

humor is also an interesting way for people to explain how they are willing and able to protest

against injustice and inequality. Consequently, although trolling and other types of jokes can

actively damage, they also represent channels that channel creativity, political protests, and

criticisms.

Conclusion

Therefore, it is as safe to conclude that the architecture of the SM interfaces has a bearing

on the creation and dissemination of humor and its reception. TikTok, Twitter, and Reddit all

facilitate rather different kinds of humor due to the nature and layout of these sites. The feed,

which algorithmically favors engagement on TikTok, for example, means that intentionally

funny content quickly goes viral. At the same time, the platform confines the platform, which

allows for only 280 characters, in the case of Twitter, enabling the crafting of light, witty humor.

It is worth mentioning that the kinds of humor acceptable to Weibo and other platforms or the

German government also inform the acceptable kinds of humor. So, there are trends towards

coded anti-authoritarian humor. Last but not least, negative phenomena such as trolling are also

essential in analyzing the uses of humor on Reddit since, on this platform, humor functions as a

social critique and a means of community participation.

Thus, as social media platforms experience constant changes, so will the humor

accompanying each. Essentially, platform architecture, censorship, and trolling are key factors in

how humor is shaped and how it should be managed in the increasingly murky environment that

defines the future of the internet.

Works Cited

Azar, Taraneh. "Context Collapse: The Fluidity of Memes and Evolution of Social

Commentary." Northeastern University Political Review, 15 June 2020

Bonsaksen T, Thygesen H, Leung J, Lamph G, Kabelenga I, Østertun Geirdal A. Patterns of

Social Media Use across Age Groups during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study across

Four Countries. Social Sciences. 2024; 13(4):194.

https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13040194

Brubaker, P. J., Montez, D., & Church, S. H. (2021). The Power of Schadenfreude: Predicting

Behaviors and Perceptions of Trolling Among Reddit Users.

"The Impact of Censored Memes: A Closer Look." Oli and Alex, 15 Jan. 2024,

Lee S. Surviving Online Censorship in China: Three Satirical Tactics and their Impact. The

China Quarterly. 2016;228:1061-1080. doi:10.1017/S0305741016001454

Phillips, Whitney, and Ryan M. Milner. The Ambivalent Internet: Mischief, Oddity, and

Antagonism Online. Polity Press, 2017.

Ryan, Tracii. "How Social Are Social Media? A Review of Online Social Behaviour and

Connectedness." Journal of Relationships Research, vol. 5, 2014

Shifman, Limor. Memes in Digital Culture. MIT Press, 2014

Stanley, Cody. "Online Content Regulation: An International Comparison." International Law

and Policy Brief, 8 Dec. 2021

Zhang, Ronggang, and Jung, Eun Hwa. "The More Engaging, the More Enjoyable? Age Matters

in Predicting Perceived Enjoyment with Different Facebook Activities." Frontiers in

Psychology, vol. 13, 2022

Yeo, Sara K., et al. "Following science on social media: The effects of humor and source
likability." Public Understanding of Science 30.5 2021: 552–569.
Gal, Noam. "Ironic humor on social media as participatory boundary work." New Media &
Society 21.3 2019: 729–749.
Zhang, Mengying, et al. "Impact of anthropomorphic features of artificially intelligent service
robots on consumer accepted stance: the moderating role of sense of humor."
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 33.11 2021: 3883–3905.
Li, Da, et al. "HEMOS: A novel deep learning-based fine-grained humor detecting meth-social
met concealment analysis media." Information Processing & Management 57.6 2020:
102290.
Shin, Hyunju, Isabella Bunosso, and Lindsay R. Levine. "The influence of chumor humor on
consumer evaluations of services." International Journal of Consumer Studies 47.2 2023:
545–562.
Heiss, Raffael, and Jörg Matthes. "Funny cats and politics: Do humorous context posts impede or
foster the elaboration of news posts on social media?." Communication Research 48.1
(2021): 100-124.
Li, Fangxuan, and Zhiqun Zhou. "How does travel social media inflhumor humor influence
viewers' visit intention?." Current Issues in Tourism 2024: 1–17.
Xiao, Sijia, et al. "Random, messy, funny, raw: Finstas as intimate reconfigurations of social
media." Proceedings of the 2020 CHI conference on human factors in computing
systems. 2020.
Yeo, Sara K., and Meaghan McKasy. "Emotion and humor as misinformation
antidotes." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118.15 2021: e2002484118.
Manor, Ilan. "The Russians are laughing! The Russians are laughing! How Russian diplomats
humor in online public diplomacy." Global Society 35.1 2021: 61–83.