Taking children’s humor seriously: A study of humor in children diagnosed with obesity and the medicalization of body weight

Abstract

Within the social studies of children and childhood, children’s humor is an under-explored area. In this article, I explore the use of humor by children diagnosed with severe obesity while attending long-term rehabilitation together with their families. In the children’s use of humor, I found a transition from the use of “fat jokes” to “biopedagogical humor,” which involved jokes about instructions related to food and physical activity as conveyed by members of the rehabilitation team. I interpret their humor as signifying how they were affected by the biopedagogical messages involved in treatment and how they started self-monitoring their food intake and physical activity. I claim that their humor also can point to a process of medicalization of their condition, where their understanding of themselves as “fat” was replaced by “I suffer from obesity.”