Ben Fried

I had a blast talking with @leev.bsky.social on his great STS Peoples & Things podcast. Topics discussed: Firesign Theatre, the history of recording, Trevor Pinch, obscure robot statues. @ucpress.bsky.social @firesigntheatre.bsky.social
newbooksnetwork.com/firesign

Photo of the Adidas Runners London group’s tempo session at Lincoln’s Inn Fields on 24 April 2025

One last tempo session with the lovely #AdidasRunners bunch yesterday and… I am marathon ready!
I am so excited to run the @manchestermarathon.bsky.social for #TeamMND @mndassoc.bsky.social. Here is the link to my fundraiser: www.justgiving.com/page/benedet...
Please help us reach the goal ❤️

A wonderful conference comes to an end. We laughed, we learned, we ranged across media, languages, periods. It was such a pleasure to listen to our participants and their groundbreaking research. Deep thanks to them, to our audience, to @durhamuniversity.bsky.social and @durhamhistory.bsky.social!

And the last speaker of our conference on “Laughter as a Political Coping Mechanism”: Aidan Jones! Aidan is presenting on “The Death Penalty, Humour, and the United States.”

A. Austin Garvey deepens our focus on Ukraine, comparing wartime Punch cartoons and contemporary Ukrainian memes in “Visual Humour in European Home Fronts: Britain and Ukraine.”

Zlata Osipova speaks first, on “We Against Them: Humor as a Unifying Force in Ukraine’s Resistance.” How does humour build solidarity and a collective opposition?

The final panel begins! “Humour in Extremis” will go from Ukraine to the United States, with presentations from A. Austin Garey, Zlata Osipova, and Aidan Jones.

Such an engaging, illuminating panel! (And we’re all still laughing.)

Simbarashe bringing the house down with popular Zimbabwean jokes from Whatsapp and Facebook (social media a release for so much pent-up expression)

Rounding off our panel, and taking us into the world of social media, Simbarashe Marowa and Ushe Kufakurinani present on “Social Media and Playful Engagements on the Political Economy: The Case of Zimbabwe”!

Radio comedy gave listeners a way to address the past and negotiate the transition to the postwar world, Katharina argues in her terrific paper.

Katharina Friege picks up the baton and brings us to radio comedy (and the postwar scene): “Broadcasting Humour: Rubble, Reconstruction, and the Radio in Great Britain and Western Germany, 1945-1960.” Humour on the airwaves brought people into the society after the war

Sophie Dubillot kicks things off with “Visual Humour by Returning French Prisoners of War and Forces Workers in Liberation France.” A complex history of return, disappointment, and critical humour

Lunch over, coffee cups refilled, we begin again with our panel on Postfascism. Our featured speakers are Sophie Dubillot, Katharina Friege Simbarashe Marowa and Ushe Kufakurinani (sadly, Xiaofei Tu withdrew because of illness). From France to Zimbabwe, visual humour to radio!

The panel sums up!

Paolo and Raquel take us from the Civil War to Franco’s regime and onward to the return of democracy, tracing the fate of the Catalan avant-garde through Brossa’s life and work

Finally, direct from Barcelona, Paolo Scotton and Raquel Cercós speak about the Catalan writer Joan Brossa and “When Poetry Turns Into Revolt”!

Our third speaker is Natalie Schwabl, presenting on “Coping with Fascism through Humour: Anticlerical Caricatures in Post-War Croatia (1945-1946).” Another fascinating paper, another era and area illuminated

Oeser’s remarkable presentation explores the varieties of laughter, from mockery that can be turned against other victims to mockery that targets the powerful

Alexandra Oeser speaks next, tackling one of the most difficult subjects: laughter in concentration camps. Through the life and work of Nina Jirsikova, Oeser delves into laughter as a weapon of oppression as well as laughter as resistance

As Jessica says, the conference is now exploring cinema as well cartoons, magazines, graphic novels, and radio!

Introduced by Jessica Wardhaugh, Francesco Saccà begins with comic writing and satire in Marc’Aurelio, an Italian anti-fascist magazine. A fascinating examination of Fellini’s early career in its pages (and other film directors too)

And now the first panel of the day! “Fascism and Dictatorship,” with Francesco Saccà, Alexandra Oeser, Natalie Schwab, and Paolo Scotton and Raquel Cercós. Their talks will range from Fellini’s antifascist writing to caricatures in Croatia, from poetry to laughter in the camps.

We started day 2 of the ‘Laughter as a Political Coping Mechanism’ conference with Alya Aglan’s wonderful keynote, translated in English by @benfried.bsky.social. Alya tells us that wartime humor changes the unbearable reality. Without words, humor captures the essential @durhamhistory.bsky.social

A great day done (apart from the conference supper!). Another fascinating series of papers -- and another thread -- tomorrow. @durhamuniversity.bsky.social @durhamhistory.bsky.social

Our last speaker of the day, taking us home till tomorrow, is Andrés Francisco Dapuez. His paper is about hunger and jokes in Argentina: "Moral Consumption, Throwing Polenta Away, and Joking About the State."

And now Valentina Marcella on "Coping with Authoritarianism: Humour and Satire in Turkey" (with a sharp focus on satirical magazines).

Next up is Roman Mamin on "The Pragmatic Horizons of Late Soviet Jokes"!

Nhi Yen Le kicks things off with "How the Duck Quacked Back," on satire, censorship, and resistance in 1930s colonial Vietnam

And now the last panel of the day: all-online, tackling "Humorous Resistance," and bringing together Nhi Yen Le, Roman Mamin, Valentina Marcella, and Andrés Francisco Dapuez. Kindly moderated by Xiaofei Tu