3. Just Kidding! Negotiating the Line Between Humour and Offence

This chapter investigates how people experience and negotiate the fine line between humour and offence in the context of television. Since humour exists not only in comedy programmes, but can also be found in advertising, reality television or even factual television programmes such as political discussions, we were attentive to any moments at which our participants detected ill-fitting humour when watching television. We explore what exactly people do with humorous content they find offensive, not what this kind of humorous content does ‘in general’. Such a contextualised approach illustrates the ethical and transformative potential of so-called ‘negative’ affect. Thus, rather than perceiving offence as an ‘ugly’ feeling with merely negative consequences for society, this chapter demonstrates that the avoidance of offence can also operate as a strategy for evading responsibility and action and thereby hindering social change.