joke is you can tell a very horrible, mean, racist joke about the holocaust or you can tell an innocuous joke about it, or you can tell one that is profound and says something about how, perhaps, you know, humanity had never reached a greater point of darkness. and you can do that through a joke. so, you have to deconstruct the individualjoke and say, what s the target? what s going on? what s the semiotics? basically. could you bear to? i ll tell that joke, if you like. a very shortjoke. ok, i ll tell thisjoke. ..which people will then decide whether they find it funny or offensive. go on, do it. i doubt they ll find it offensive. some people might not find it funny. i think thejoke is, in a way, more profound than it is funny. but it was told to me, this joke, by a jewish literary academic called devorah baum. i d never heard the joke before. it concerns a holocaust survivor who after the war dies and goes to heaven. and when he gets to heaven, god asks the survivor to tell him a
of comedy that is off limits? in terms of the off limits of things, again, it s complicated. the truth is always complex, and the truth of comedy is complex. and in the show, as you know, i tell some jokes that are about the holocaust. my point about doing that is that it s not about the subject matter. the subject matter is not how you tell whether a joke is unacceptable. you have to deconstruct the individualjoke because what happens in any joke is you can tell a very horrible, mean racistjoke about the holocaust. or you can tell an innocuous joke about it, or you can tell one that is profound and says something about how, perhaps, you know, humanity had never reached a greater point of darkness. and you can do that through a joke. so, you have to deconstruct the individualjoke and say, what s the target? what s going on? what s the semiotics, basically? could you bear to? i ll tell that joke, if you like. a very shortjoke. 0k. i ll tell this joke. ..which people will then decide w
The banks were always a key part of the development and growth of towns and villages across the country. In my home town, we had three banks. The Bank of Ireland (where my dad was the porter for a quarter of a century; the Munster and Leinster Bank (later AIB ), and the Ulster Bank. All three were housed in fine solid buildings from a different age. Buildings that marked their importance in the town.
Several political leaders have put out pictures of themselves getting a Covid-19 vaccine hoping to reassure and persuade citizens to follow suit. Could it work? If the goal is to spread the message widely and quickly, the answer is yes.
However, it shouldn’t be surprising that this strategy is causing a stir – particularly in countries where politicians traditionally prefer oral debate over emotion-based communication using the body as a prop.
Why have ritualised, in-person demonstrations by celebrity bodies become such a widespread tool for influence and persuasion?
Using emotion to encourage participation
French sociologist Gabriel Tarde’s foundational works of the 19th century – specifically