All joking aside Towards an understanding of humor and aggression in adolescents’ media entertainment

Aggressive media entertainment content has been a hot topic for over fifty years with scholars and practitioners asking about the conditions which may augment or depress potential effects. One factor that has often been raised in these discussions is humor. Namely, whether the frequent pairing of aggression and humor in media entertainment may trivialize aggression (as it is “just a joke”) and subsequently send the message that this is acceptable behavior to replicate. This concern has been sharply raised for adolescent audiences, given their high preponderance of media entertainment use and their proclivity towards contentious behaviors. However, empirical work on adolescents’ preferences for aggression and humor in media entertainment as well as the ways in which both aggressive and humorous content (co-)occur is lacking. Against this background, three empirical studies have been carried out to provide an in-depth understanding of adolescents’ differential preferences for types and contexts of aggression and humor in media entertainment and the possible lessons they may gain from this content. The findings indicate that (1) humor is highly present in adolescents’ preferred television entertainment in a wide variety of forms; (2) when aggressive content is present, humorous content frequently co-occurs; and (3) adolescents’ preferences for aggressive humor does not seem to increase real-life aggression. The findings as a whole provide room for calmness and optimism. The versality of humor seen throughout this dissertation suggests humor can serve as a powerful tool in media entertainment and provides a clear starting point for empirical research on this topic.