Title Layout

6.3: Connecting

Humor and

Science: A

Force for

Change?

Joyce M. Shaw

Gulf Coast Research Laboratory

School of Ocean Science and Engineering

Univ. of Southern Mississippi

Ocean Springs, MS, USA

23nd Annual ASLI Conference, Boston

January 15, 2020

Abstract

Although sometimes science is thought to be humorless,

scientists enjoy poking fun at each other and the absurdities

in science. For example, Dopeia was a humor and satire of

science publication produced by members of the American

Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists that poked fun

at journals, scientists, and scholarly publishing. Other

examples of humor and satire in science include Journal of

Irreproducible Results, Annals of Improbable Research, and

the Ig Nobel Prizes. In today’s world of science

communication and popular culture, humor can use used to

inspire activism and provide a catalyst for public

engagement. This presentation looks at the use of humor

and satire to promote and influence the discussion about

scientific topics such as climate change.

Outline

• Humor and Science Communication

• Scientists and Humor

• Dopeia and its progeny

• The Generations/OK Boomer!

• Satirical News & Late Night Comedy

• Why Is This Important to Science Communication?

• Why Librarians?

• Bibliography (available as a handout)

• Appendix: Memes, Cartoons, Fun Stuff

Humor & Science Communication

• Humor including satire, comedy, and irony are considered

nontraditional communication. Over the last decade

researchers began looking at humor as a way to engage

individuals on polarizing topics such as climate change.

• While satire, comedy, and irony are considered forms of

polite often light-hearted, engagement, sarcasm is aligned

with impoliteness, used to express a negative attitude and

is considered aggressive.

• Nontraditional forms of communication are important

when employed in the arena of science discourse and

public debate.

Scientists and Humor: Dopeia

• Dopeia was published by “American Society of Fish

Prevaricators and Reptile Fabricators” and distributed at the

annual meetings of the American Society of Ichthyologists

and Herpetologists (ASIH) beginning in 1940.

• Dopeia was an irreverent, fun-house mirror image of

Copeia, official publication for ASIH founded in 1913. Dopeia

was humor by scientists for scientists.

• Dopeia was a predecessor to two other science humor

journals: The Journal of Irreproducible Results & Annals of

Improbable Research (sponsor of the Ig Nobel Awards). The

audience for these latter titles shifted from scientists only to

more general interest—college students, academics, etc.

Dopeia Sometimes Looked Like Copeia

https://www.worldcat.org/title/dopeia/oclc/426052524

http://aquaticcommons.org/23275/3/presentation%20shaw%20joyce%20dopeia.pdf

Dopeia Begat: The Journal of Irreproducible

Results & Annals of Improbable Research (&

Ig Nobel Prizes)

“The Stinker”-- the official

mascot of the Ig Nobel

Prizes.

https://www.improbable.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Irr

eproducible_Results

https://www.improbable.com/ig-about/

The Generations

Climate Change and Gen X, Y (Millennials), & Z

Cook, Cuervo, Chesters. 2018Barbiroglio, 2019

How Gens Rank Climate Change

Ballew, Rosenthal, Gustafson, Kotcher, Maibach, & Leiserowitz, 2019.

OK, Boomer!

Coughlin, 2018

Satirical News & Late Night Comedy

(used in climate change/comedy research)

• The Daily Show (Brewer & McKnight, 2015; Feldman, 2013; Feldman 2017)

“Results show that a large majority of segments… explicitly affirmed the

reality of global warming”

• The Colbert Report (Feldman, 2013) op. cit.

• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (Brewer & McKnight, 2017)

Three climate change skeptics vs. 97 scientists affirming global warming—to

provide “balanced coverage”

• Jimmy Kimmel Live (Skurka, Niederdeppe, &Nabi, 2019)

Study showed his monologue affected YA climate change risk perception

Gens X, Gen Y (Millennials), and Gen Z are the demographic reached

through these programs.

Why Is This Important to Science

Communication?

• Humor is a way to bridge between everyday social systems. It

has the power to connect people/ideas/ways of thinking. It can

destabilize and threaten fundamentalist thought. Humor works

better than trying to address both sides of the issue. (Anderson &

Becker, 2018)

• Many scientists are guilty of delivering the same message in the

same way to the Rotary Club or Congressional Staffers that they

give at a science conference. Scientists need to understand

how to use humor to “meet their audience where they are.”

(Shepard, 2016)

• Caveat: Humor can foster understanding and misunderstanding.

( Feldman, 2017)

Why Librarians?

• Provide a venue & opportunity to learn new skills (Freeman,

Bennett, Demas, Frischer, Peterson, Oliver, 2005)

• Usually trusted as an impartial arbitrator & resource provider

(Beard, 2018)

• Help scientists understand what they say as a joke can

matter. Alert to how sharing “insider information” can affect

public trust (Simis-Wilkerson, Madden, Lassen, Su, Brossard, Scheufele, Xenos, 2018)

• Provide resources (see appendix) that are appropriate,

insightful, “trendy,” and humorous

Bibliography (page 1)

• Anderson, A. A. and A. B. Becker. 2018. Not just funny after all: sarcasm as a catalyst

for public engagement climate change. Science Communication 40:524-540.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547018786560

• Ballew, M., Marlon, J., Rosenthal, S., Gustafson, A., Kotcher, J., Maibach, E., &

Leiserowitz, A. 2019. Do younger generations care more about global warming? Yale

University and George Mason University. New Haven, CT: Yale Program on Climate

Change Communication. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/do-

younger-generations-care-more-about-global-warming

• Barbiroglio, E. 2019. Generation Z fears climate change more than anything else.

Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/emanuelabarbiroglio/2019/12/09/generation-z-

fears-climate-change-more-than-anything-else/#347e1a6f501b

• Beard, D. 2018. Tale of 2 polls: What do librarians have that journalists don’t? Poynter

https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2018/tale-of-2-polls-what-do-librarians-have-

that-journalists-don%C2%92t/

• Becker, A. B. and A. A. Anderson. 2019. Using humor to engage the public on climate

change: the effect of exposure to one-sided vs. two-sided satire on message

discounting, elaboration, and counter-arguing. Journal of Communication 18 (4) A07

https://doi.org/10.22323/2.18040207

Bibliography (page 2)

• Boykoff, M. and B. Osnes. 2019. A laughing matter? Confronting climate change through

humor. Political Geography 68: 154-163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2018.09.006

• Brewer, P. R. and J. McKnight. 2015. Climate as comedy: the effects of satirical television

news on climate change perceptions. Science Communication 37: 635-657.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547015597911

• Brewer, P. R. and J. McKnight. 2017. “A Statically Representative Climate Change

Debate” Satirical television news, scientific consensus, and public perception of global

warming. Atlantic Journal of Communication 25: 166-180.

https://doi.org/10.1080/15456870.2017.1324453

• Cook, J., H. Cuervo, and J. Chesters. 2018. What do Gen X and Gen Y worry about most?

Climate change. https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/what-do-gen-x-and-gen-y-

worry-about-most-climate-change

• Cornell University. 2018. No laughing matter, yet humor inspires climate activism.

ScienceDaily March 2018. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180301151514.htm

Bibliography (page 3)

• Coughlin, J. 2018. Greener than you: boomers, gen X & millennials score themselves on

the environment. Forbes

https://www.forbes.com/sites/josephcoughlin/2018/05/05/greener-than-you-boomers-

gen-x-millennials-score-themselves-on-the-environment/#6b2b95c14d8b

• Feldman, L. 2017. Assumptions about science in satirical news and late night com3dy.

The Oxford handbook of the Science of Science Communication, edited by Kathleen

Hall Jamieson, Dan Kahan, Dietram A. Scheufele, Oxford University Press, pp. 321-332.

https://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/students/envs3173/feldman2017.

• Feldman, L. 2013. Cloudy with a change of heat balls: the portrayal of global warming

on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. International Journal of Communication 7:

430-451. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/1940/861

• Freeman, G.T., Bennett, S., Demas, S., Frischer, B., Peterson, C.A. and Oliver, K.B., 2005.

Library as Place: Rethinking Roles, Rethinking Space. CLIR Publication No. 129. Council

on Library and Information Resources, 1755 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 500,

Washington, DC 20036. http://www.Clir.org

• Miller, J. D. 2012. Climate change; generation X attributes, interests, and understanding.

The Generation X Report 1(4): 1-7. https://lsay.org/GenX_2012Iss4.pdf

Bibliography (page 4)

• Osnes, B., M. Boykoff, and P. Chandler. 2019. Good-natured comedy to enrich climate

communication. Comedy Studies 10: 224-236.

https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610X.2019.1623513

• Shepherd, M. 2016. 9 tips for communicating science to people who are not scientists.

Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2016/11/22/9-tips-for-

communicating-science-to-people-who-are-not-scientists/#3d0c6c5f297e

• Simis-Wilkerson, M., Madden, H., Lassen, D., Su, L.Y.F., Brossard, D., Scheufele, D.A. and

Xenos, M.A., 2018. Scientists joking on social media: an empirical analysis of

#overlyhonestmethods. Science Communication 40: 314-339.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547018766557

• Skurka, C., Niederdeppe, J. and Nabi, R., 2019. Kimmel on climate: disentangling the

emotional ingredients of a satirical monologue. Science Communication 41: 391-421.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547019853837

• Skurka, C., Niederdeppe, J., Romero-Canyas, R. and Acup, D. 2018. Pathways of

influence in emotional appears: benefits and tradeoffs using fear or humor to promote

climate change—related intentions and risk perceptions. Journal of Communication 68:

169-193. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqx008

• Turner, A., Welch, B. and Reynolds, S., 2013. Learning spaces in academic libraries–a

review of the evolving trends. Australian Academic & Research Libraries 44: 226-234.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00048623.2013.857383

Appendix of satirical & humorous

climate change memes and articles

Appendix: More, more, more woman

screaming/cat memes

Appendix: The Child (aka “Baby Yoda”)

Makeameme.org

Appendix—The Onion is a great

resource

https://www.theonion.com/encouraged-marine-biologists-project-oceans-will-

be-nic-1839045491 (10/15/2019)

Encouraged Marine Biologists Project Oceans Will Be Nice,

Simmering Seafood Bisque By 2040

https://www.theonion.com/climate-researchers-warn-only-hope-for-humanity-

now-lie-1828171232 (8/07/2018)

Climate Researchers Warn Only Hope For Humanity Now

Lies In Possibility They Making All Of This Up

https://www.theonion.com/report-doing-your-part-to-stop-climate-

change-now-requ-1835870092 (6/26/2019)

Report: Doing Your Part To Stop Climate Change Now

Requires Planting 30,000 New Trees, Getting 40,000 Cars Off

The Road, Reviving 20 Square Miles Of Coral Reef

Appendix: Cartoons

https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article44162106.html https://scientistswarning.forestry.oregonstate.edu/research-concludes

Appendix: Other Cartoons

https://earthmaven.io/planetwatch/news-

opinion/doonesbury-on-climate-change-can-i-get-a-

second-opinion-JsOc94-XB0GuMIm2BlJFwA

https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/tom-toles/

Questions?

Acknowledgement:

Thank you to Janessa Ullendorf—Gulf Coast Library—for the

“Generations” slide