[Commlist] CFP Quaderns del CAC 53 – Humour: debates, potential and uses

CFP Quaderns del CAC issue 53 – Publication: February 2027

Humour: debates, potencial and uses

**Deadline: 13 July 2026**

You can send your texts via the OJS platform of Quaderns del CAC in RACO.

< https://raco.cat/index.php/QuadernsCAC/about/submissions 
<https://raco.cat/index.php/QuadernsCAC/about/submissions>>

Quaderns del CAC is an electronic scientific journal on audiovisual 
communication published by the Catalan Audiovisual Council. It is an 
annual journal published every February entirely in Catalan, Spanish and 
English. The journal undertakes the correction and translation of the 
texts in the three languages.

Quaderns del CAC is a diamond open access journals with free access to 
their content and no article submission or processing charges to the 
authors (no APC).

Besides the monographic theme, the journal has the miscellaneous section 
"Articles", which is always open to receive articles and in which you 
can participate with texts on ongoing research on communication and 
audiovisual culture.

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Monographic theme no. 53. Humour: debates, potential and uses

The next issue of Quaderns del CAC aims to explore into the study of 
humour, a highly fertile field for the development of communication 
research.
Humour allows us to say the unsayable, generates complicity with the 
audience, breaks with the usual meaning and significance of concepts and 
provides new insights. Furthermore, no one doubts its ability to help us 
understand complex issues such as social dynamics, identity references, 
and power relations.
For this and other reasons, humour is common in many communicative 
contexts. In fiction, news and entertainment, there are formats and 
genres defined by the dominance of the humorous component. But humour is 
a highly complex subject of study.
There are many types of humour: clean, irreverent, absurd, scatological, 
satirical, grotesque, etc.  And its strong link to culture means that 
humour can even be distinguished according to its place of origin, as is 
the case when talking specifically about Catalan, Spanish, English or 
French comedy, following in the footsteps of literary studies.
‘What makes us laugh?’ is a fundamental question for understanding 
society at any given moment. However, as Terry Eagleton warned us in 
Humour (2021), the answer is not straightforward. Eagleton attempted to 
resolve this question by examining the close relationship between humour 
and the norms of coexistence between social classes. With this 
perspective, the author reminded us, to cite just one example, of the 
figure of the ‘official jester’ in royal courts, and highlighted the 
difference already noted by Aristotle between the humour of educated and 
uneducated people, which led to a distinction between vulgar humour 
(popular comedies) and elevated humour (literature).
Humorous content is, in this sense, malleable and highly dependent on 
its context. Thus, current social, cultural, economic and technological 
transformations force us to ask ourselves the question ‘what do we laugh 
at?’ from new perspectives. The debate between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture 
remains relevant and necessary, and it must now take place in relation 
to the conditions implied by the digital platformisation of cultural 
offerings. Furthermore, we cannot ignore either the worrying 
international political context or the potential of humour as a tool in 
social struggles and digital activism.
These are just some of the topics that could be covered in the next 
issue of Quaderns del CAC.
- Channels and media of humour. Humour is transformed by the evolution 
of techniques for creating, segmenting, and distributing content in 
‘old’ and new media, marked by the influence of large digital platforms.
- Political humour. Given the proximity of political communication to 
humour, the latter has great potential to shape political debate. 
Satire, for example, plays a prominent role in political communication, 
perhaps taking advantage of the resources that religious satire 
established in its time.
- Humour and gender. Advances in feminism, LGTBIQA+ movements and the 
incorporation of women into the professional field of humour (comic 
actresses, illustrators, comedians, etc.) favour new uses of humour and 
new approaches to analysis.
- Humour in audiovisual media. Humour and parody are deeply present in 
audiovisual content, including cinema, among others, and opening up an 
interesting discussion around the revision of archetypes and clichés.
- Humour and strategic communication. Humour is an important resource in 
corporate communication and advertising campaigns.
- Information and humour. The rise of formats that combine information 
and entertainment means that, increasingly, informative content is 
taking on a humorous character and vice versa.
- The boundaries of humour. The ethical and legal limits of humour have 
been a hotly debated topic in recent years. What is incorrect, 
disrespectful, offensive, censurable, cancellable or even criminal is 
sometimes difficult to establish in the context of humour.
- New humorous profiles and content. Outside the media system, new 
content creators are redefining the focus of humour, including the usual 
criticism of everyday life, the family environment, and sexual and 
emotional relationships.
- The languages of humour. Content and language are closely linked to 
humour. Translations, dubbing, and subtitles inevitably affect it, but how?
- Humour as a tool for resilience. Humour is often used in response to 
trauma and disasters, exceptional situations -such as those caused by 
COVID-19- or issues that cause great concern, such as climate change or 
job insecurity.
- Uses, styles and reception of memes. The viral potential of memes in 
various formats, environments and communicative contexts is often 
related to their humorous content.

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