Humor Orgies as Ritual Insult

Abstract

In-group members can display a sense of solidarity by earning license to direct verbal putdowns toward one another in the presence of others. An explanation of the process by which in-group members can maintain a sense of solidarity through putdowns in everyday life, however, is lacking in the literature. Set in a corner donut shop in southern California, this article describes how a group of old straight white middle-class men direct improvisational putdowns toward each other and explains how this banter maintains a sense of group solidarity for these men. The article puts forth a view of ritual insult in the form of “humor orgies” as emergent interactional phenomena characterized by successive, situation-dependent turns whereby group members play with interpersonal meanings in “givin’ it” “on top” and “takin’ it” “on bottom.” The findings raise questions about the extent to which superiority theories of humor are adequate and also suggest a need for ethnographies of everyday improvisational humor in public, non-workplace settings.