I am convinced that work in inoculation and political humor would be mutually beneficial—developing theory and informing practice—as we try to better understand inoculating against and with political humor.
Josh Compton
This chapter advances two key approaches to inoculation and political humor research and theorizing: attempts by campaigns to inoculate against political humor, and whether political humor itself inoculates against other, more conventional political attacks. With the latter, my assumption is not that political humorists are intentionally inoculating, but instead, that inherent features of political humor trigger, under certain circumstances, inoculation processes. Such unintended effects of inoculation warrant a closer look.
“Josh Compton suggests that we pay more attention to inoculation theory. It seems reasonable to assume that making fun of ourselves would blunt the impact of others making fun of us. But is this true in politics? We should look more carefully at politicians’ conscious attempts to head off humorous jabs and even the accidental inoculation that comes through regular interviews and debates.”
–Jim Lyttle, Studies in American Humor
Compton, J. (2018). Inoculating against/with political humor. In J. Baumgartner & A. B. Becker (Eds.), Political humor in a changing media landscape: A new generation of research (pp. 95-114). Landham, MD: Lexington Books.
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