Are these humorous activist posts effective or do these jokes fall flat?
Humour is inherently subjective. What makes one person laugh may not even be remotely funny for another. This makes the use of humour in digital activism a risky tactic. How do you know if your post will make your audience laugh? What if the post is seen as insensitive or making light of a serious issue? What if you alienate a potential supporter of your cause by doing so?
In this interactive post, I’m sharing three examples of humour in digital activism with my thoughts on whether the use of humour effectively delivers the message the activist wants or fails to land the message. As touched upon in my previous post, there is an ongoing trend amongst social media activists to spread messages through the use of humour. My task here is to show you, the reader, some more concrete examples of this, and to give my own view on how these efforts play out.
In a misguided effort to make the objective, subjective, I’m going to assess these posts with the following metrics:
- Accessibility rating out of 5 – Is the joke easily understood by multiple audiences? Or is it too niche?
- Messaging rating out of 5 – Is the message easily understood by multiple audiences or is it lost in the humour?
- Sensitivity rating out of 5 – Is the joke in bad taste? Or does it further humanise an issue and incorporate sensitivity?
1) Fridays for Future Stockholm – Ban Deep Sea Mining (BDSM)
In this TikTok video by the Stockholm chapter for Fridays for Future, a young activist is protesting the Norwegian government’s efforts to expand deep sea mining in the North Sea. The activist tells the audience that she is about to explain BDSM. She then explains that BDSM means ‘Ban Deep Sea Mining’ before the clip cuts out.
Accessibility Rating – 3/5
The joke is that BDSM is also a well-known acronym for a spectrum of sexual behaviours and preferences. In that context, the term stands for bondage, domination and submission, and masochism.
The video plays on this dual meaning to get the user’s attention but, in this instance, we must remember the audience for Fridays for Future is mostly young people. Whilst older teenagers or older audiences may know what it means, younger teens or tweens who are involved in the climate strike movement may not necessarily know what it means. They’d have to potentially Google it…and well, try explaining that to their parents. So, it gets a 3 out of 5 from me on accessibility.
Messaging Rating – 5/5
By beginning the video by saying that they will explain BDSM, the video subverts expectations as to what the video is actually about. The use of the acronym at the beginning would make someone stop scrolling TikTok to find out where this video is going and then when they realise it is about deep-sea mining, they could be primed to learn more about the issue. The Fridays for Future Stockholm TikTok account followed up this video with a more detailed explanation of deep-sea mining, why it is so damaging to the environment, and how others can pressure the Norwegian government to stop it. All in all, it is a highly effective way of hooking people in with funny messaging and converting them to your cause.
Sensitivity rating – 4/5
As mentioned in the accessibility ranking, the joke is more adult in nature which may not be sensitive to the organisation’s young audience. However, it doesn’t attack or shame anyone who is part of the BDSM community, so I don’t think it is in bad taste.
2) The Female Lead – Women living on ‘easy mode’
The Female Lead – an educational charity that makes women’s stories more visible – has a significant social media presence with 1 million TikTok followers and 2.4 million Instagram followers. On their feed, they regularly re-share posts from other accounts about feminism to amplify messaging to broader audiences. In this video, they re-share a video from a TikTok user. This video is in response to a comment on another video that “women are living on easy mode” because of the use of make-up.
In this video, she sarcastically agrees with the comment and outlines ways that women’s lives are harder in terms of systemic issues such as gender-based and sexual violence or financial inequity. However, she frames these as positive proof points that women do have it easier.
Accessibility rating – 2/5
As a feminist, I felt like I understood the sarcasm and dark humour she was trying to convey very clearly. However, I can see how this may go over some people’s heads and the sarcasm may not be as obvious to everyone.
Messaging rating – 3/5
The message is strong and lists tangible examples of the systemic issues that hold women back. However, the video is long for TikTok, and it is just one person talking to the camera listing examples of gender inequality. The length and format of the video are likely to put many users off from engaging with her message.
Sensitivity rating – 5/5
Personally, I do not think this is making light of the serious issues facing women. When she lists the products that women rely on to keep themselves safe from sexual or gender-based violence, it is clear that she is angry on behalf of women.
3) March for Our Lives – Bulletproof TikTok Sound
March for Our Lives is a campaigning organisation founded by the victims of the Parkland school shooting in the United States of America. They campaign to change gun safety laws in the country. In this TikTok video, an employee of March for Our Lives describes how the harassment she gets from opponents of the campaign has hardened her. She does this whilst Bulletproof by Le Roux is playing in the background.
Accessibility rating – 3/5
This was a popular TikTok meme/trend in 2020 with a lot of people using this video format to mock embarrassing moments or hardships they’ve faced and credit them for helping them to build a thick skin. For example, this video used this song soundbite with text that said “You think you can hurt me? I went viral for flattening some children”. For most TikTok users, this video would make sense. However, if you weren’t using the platform at the time, the joke could go over your head, and you might not connect this video to a now-forgotten TikTok trend.
Messaging rating – 1/5
Whilst the video effectively calls out the absurdity of a young person being bullied because of their work to campaign for gun safety, the video does not convey what the March for Our Lives campaign is working towards. It assumes the audience has existing knowledge about the campaign, the organisation, and the political environment their employees are working in. This means that even if the video reached many TikTok users with this trending sound, it would not necessarily convert this new audience into supporters of the March for Our Lives cause. Without that critical context, the video is forgettable and the message is easily lost.
Sensitivity rating – 1/5
This video made me laugh because the song lyrics are so at odds with the message of the March for Our Lives campaign. It is the absurdity and irony of this song choice that makes the video funny. The comments on this video specifically call out the irony of the lyrics with respect to the campaign. But it is in bad taste and could be seen as making light of the deaths due to gun violence in America. This could alienate supporters of this cause.
On the other hand, I can see why March for Our Lives used this TikTok sound. Sometimes humour must be insensitive to get across the absurdity of an issue. It is ludicrous that young children are wearing bulletproof backpacks to school because of gun violence. It is ridiculous that people are harassing campaigners seeking to change gun safety laws after seeing their friends die due to gun violence. Within this context, is it really that insensitive to use this sound to highlight the absurdity of the situation?
Have your say!
Overall, I found the use of humour in these videos an effective tool for digital activism. Audiences are bombarded with content and it is easy for an activist message to become background noise. Humour can cut through this noise and get you to hear a message in a different way as demonstrated by these videos.
But as mentioned, this is still subjective, so I want to hear from you about whether the use of humour by these activists hits home or not. What do you think about these videos? Are they effective or cringe? Do the jokes land for you or are you confused? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
- A big thank you from our team
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- How governments fight online activism