“I Tried to Make Him Laugh, He Didn't Get the Joke…” – Taking Punk Humour Seriously

This is the first of a two-part extended article. This first part seeks to outline the ways in which humour – through rhetorical codes and strategies including satire, pun, metaphor and metonymy, hyperbole, invective, irony, sarcasm, allegory, exaggeration, parody, repetition, self-deprecation, profanity and the embrace of the absurd or ridiculous were and are central to an understanding of punk language and practice. Within part two of this paper, published in Punk & Post Punk Vol.2 No.3, further emphasis is placed on the visual identity of punk and hardcore groups, and on the strategies employed by designers to reflect and support punk’s satirical core.

Published by Punk + Post Punk, Intellect Ltd, Bristol. Volume 2, Issue 2 October 2013, pp.119-145.

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