Humour and Comedy in Digital Game Live Streaming

Bibliographic Data

ID12656845
AuthorsM R Johnson (0000-0003-4622-650X, The University of Sydney, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume26
Issue6
Pages3045-3067
Publication date2022-06-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Media & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-4448 • E-ISSN: 1461-7315
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14614448221095160
OpenAlexW4281762240
LanguageEN
Citations received17
References cited55

This article considers the nature and functions of humour in digital game live streaming on Twitch. Most streamers and viewers seem uncomfortable with ‘serious’ in-game narrative content, resulting in weighty or emotional moments in games becoming sources of comedy and humour. Many also subvert the platform’s power dynamics by mocking community standards or the possibility of being banned, while some go even further and treat streamers themselves as fair game for mockery. This article thus examines how the humour of play, games and the Internet combine and evolve in an emerging and distinctive ‘stream-humour’, which can be sometimes playful and supportive yet sometimes shade into antagonism, rule-bending and hostility. Examining these dynamics on Twitch, in turn, provides a valuable window into how platform infrastructures and cultures generate norms and cultures of humour and amusement, and strengthens our understanding of online communities and platform power in this and similar contexts

Aesthetics · Amusement · Art · Comedy · Literature · Live Streaming · Media studies · Multimedia · Narrative · Power (physics · Sociology · Video game · Visual arts · Computer Science · Digital Games and Media · Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Psychology · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Psychology