There’s Something Funny About Humour: Towards a New Understanding of Humour in Marketing

This research aims to enhance the comprehension of humour within the realms of marketing practice and scholarship, specifically regarding its definition and classification. Although the primary emphasis is on a marketing viewpoint, the study seeks to present insights into humour that could facilitate its development. In order to address these concerns, a conceptual analysis was conducted on over a hundred papers and 19 expert interviews, which included professional comedians and researchers in humour. The study provides a new definition of humour, encompassing its main identified characteristics and highlighting its ambivalent nature as a double-edged sword capable of instigating both negative and positive outcomes. Furthermore, it provides a new typology of humour applicable to modern use such as meme marketing. Thus far, the literature had focused on the understanding and use of humour in advertising, whilst few studies had delved into other applications. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to address how humour has been wielded in marketing practice and research and how it can be understood in this academic discipline. Furthermore, although prior definitions and typologies of humour exist, they address fragmented characteristics which could benefit from a holistic approach.