Conclusion: Why humour? Why AI? And what is a sonic conclusion?

Instead of a written recap of the main chapters, we, the editors, have opted for a sonic summary and creative audio experience. It was crafted by the sound scholarship and aural expertise of Helen Wolfenden from Macquarie University, and Jacob Craig from The University of Sydney, all based in Sydney/Warrane, Australia. In this experiment, we answer the question of “Why Humour?” with the response that it is a fundamental but underexplored feature of everyday life, which is all the more powerful because of that. This discussion was paired with another novel experiment involving AI-generated images that reflect each chapter’s themes and precede each chapter.

Let’s talk about the audio first. The decision to conclude with sound rather than text derived from our excitement for this project and our desire to tell as many people as possible in as many ways as possible about this thing called humour studies. So, we chose sound because it can connect with a person on a more visceral level than the written word and offers a more enveloping sensory experience. Like humour, sound is ephemeral but also deeply resonant and curiously appealing. By concluding with a new form of dialogic scholarship that suits ears trained for the pleasures of creative audio content on podcasts, we want this immersive medium to launch the listener, you, on your own inquiries and unlock all kinds of new vantage points from which to interpret the eight scholarly scholarship narratives assembled here.

Now on to the AI images. After the manuscript’s completion, we asked the authors to immediately react to these visuals and record their responses. The purpose of these artificial intelligence-generated images is twofold. Firstly, these digital derivations allow authors to reflect on their scholarship through the lens of non-human interpretation: what results when an algorithm processes their work? It is a chance for reflection by these humour scholars. Secondly, the images underscore the constructed nature of humour, raising the questions of authorship, morality, ethical integrity, and professional responsibility to knowledge production in our contemporary world: all issues that the construction of AI content touches upon. As we discuss in the recording, humour can mask its own artifice to appear natural, deceptively simple, and essentially good. The authors’ chapters examine these attributes through the everyday artefacts and social practices of humour; thus, they expose complexities within the discourse of things generally considered to be funny, amusing, and of an entertaining nature. This bears out yet another parallel to the common sales pitch for AI.

We find in all this the applicability of humour to a myriad of things that inform human life and culture in general, and on the nexus with morality in particular. From Jessica Milner Davis’ examination of stereotypes to Robert Phiddian and Ron Stewart’s evaluation of political satire and newspaper cartoon caricature, humour is a powerful means of expression that transcends cultural boundaries and provides potent social commentary. It is both a constitution of and a reaction to the world we live in, which is filled with the heroically good and the monstrously evil. Mark Rolfe’s and Lucien Leon’s treatments of political humour at the intersection of Trumpian cult politics and online meme-activism make clear that it is vital for understanding some of the most striking aspects of our current age. The contagious nature of the Joker’s laughter, as explored by Anna-Sophie Jürgens, Anastasiya Fiadotava, and David C. Tscharke, and the dissection of synthetic laughter in a box by Ben Nickl, demonstrates humour’s multifaceted impact in the most varied forms and the most viral guises. Finally, as part and parcel of our social fabric, humour can also be wielded as both a form of resistance and a mechanism of social control in society, as discussed in the works of Will Visconti and MW Shores.

We conclude with an invitation to the listener, to you, to delve deeper into the intricate layers of humorous expression along with us.