WHEN HUMOR (IS NOT) HUMOR?: AN ANALYSIS OF THE WAYS OF SIGNIFYING PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN CONSERVATIVE DISCOURSE.

Abstract

In this article, I aim to investigate the ways of signifying public universities in Brazil amidst the functioning of conservative discourse. Therefore, assuming the theoretical perspective of materialist discourse analysis, I analyze a meme published on the social media platform Instagram that mobilizes traditional procedures of humorous discourse (for example, sarcasm and mockery), producing, however, a note of condemnation from a federal public university. The goal is twofold: (i) to reflect on how humorous material can be regarded both as an act of humor and an act of offense - in this case, denying the existence of humor itself; and (ii) based on the understanding of the previous item, to describe the arrangement of affiliations and positions historically articulated and projected in the analyzed meme, in order to understand the discursive functioning that gives rise to the clash.