The Social, Political, and Psychological Affordances of Pandemic Humor and Satire in the United States of America and Iran

This essay compares and contrasts the responses of U.S.-American Iranian citizens to current health crisis by investigating a corpus humorous items, collected through survey tool on website University Amsterdam between March July 2020, during first wave COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis shows that humor was used as coping adaptive strategy in both contexts. Individual is more evident United States, where political criticism frequently relegated media press. difference partly due censorship similar impediments freedom expression Iran (traditional) press are either run or strictly regulated government. Two themes were conspicuously prevalent humor: first, racism xenophobia, especially directed against Asians; second, hoarding scarcity basic commodities, particularly toilet paper. While U.S. Americans Iranians frustrated inadequate public officials, they found different strategies outlets express their frustrations. Economic cultural differences also influenced unfolding its consequences these two contexts, which explains prominence certain motifs corpus.