| Abstract [eng] |
In 2016 the Lithuanian national broadcaster LRT decided to abruptly discontinue the show ‘Money Generation’ created by a Lithuanian journalist Andrius Tapinas. After this Tapinas founded Liberty TV (Laisvės TV), the first television in Lithuania funded via crowdfunding platform. It started with a political satire show called ‘Hang in There with Andrius Tapinas’. Since then television has established itself in the market and have also organised various civic initiatives through the years, but political satire still plays an important role in Tapinas’ communication and their flagman show ‘Hang in There’. While many scholars argue that the main weakness of political satire in terms of societal change is that it does not invite the audience to act, Tapinas’ public stance is to call for change of order and promote civic activism. The question arises how does Tapinas balance being a satirist and a civic activist. The subject of this work is the nature and place of satire in Tapinas’ communication in different media (Facebook account, the show ‘Hang in There’) in specific situations related to the involvement of civil society in 2020-2021: organising support for Lithuanian hospitals during the first COVID-19 lockdown (‘Hang in There, Medical Workers’), organising the repetition of the Baltic Way supporting the protests of Belarusian people – the ‘Freedom way’, encouraging people not to vote for the LLRA-KŠS (Lithuanian Poles Electoral Action–Union of Christian Families) party in parliamentary elections (the campaign ‘Goodbye, Voldemort’), and the campaign ‘The national petition ‘Pabudome ir kelkimės‘, during which citizens were invited to sign a Google document instead of a petition. The aim of the work is to determine what kind of laughter creation strategy is used by Tapinas in different media and in different situations, and how it corresponds with the civic invitation. Main tasks included: analysing Tapinas' communication during 4 specific situations on the personal Facebook account and during the show ‘Hang in There’ to identify the scope and nature of the satire; systematising the types of humour and the means of satire used, based on the main theories of the origin of laughter and J. C. Meyer's theory of basic communication functions of humour; comparing the trends in communication and assessing how the chosen media or situation change the form of laughter and how that relates to the call for a particular civic or political action. It was observed that different satire and humour strategies were used for different initiatives and promotions of the civic action. A trend has been identified that confirms the view of some researchers (McGuigan, Fiske, Glynn) that satire can expand public space and create social dialogue, engage society, and invite for action, but there is no single way to do so. Different strategies for using satire have been singled out – lighter jokes, Horatian satire, patriotic mood, public spirit were used while inviting for civic or social action (‘Hang in There, Medical Workers’ and ‘Freedom Way’). Meanwhile, the most aggressive form of satire, direct criticism, sharp laughter is used to respond to political questions (‘Goodbye, Voldemort’). The ‘National Petition ‘Pabudome ir kelkimės’’ is an example how political satire is used to blur the line between civic-political action and laughter. An analysis has shown that the intensity of satire can be relatively easily adjusted to the nature and need of the situation, thus adapting it to the corresponding call to action, so it seems possible to reconcile the two roles of political satire and civil society activist, even though they seem to contradict each other. In Tapinas case, the tendency for a civic call to use a less aggressive strategy of satire and laughter or to adjust the intensity of satire in the reflective phase of initiatives clearly indicates that the balance between the satirist and the activist is constant, as both roles remain important. |
