Humour as Izdevka (Gibe)

Gibe in a form of cruel and rude mockery is a widespread discursive strategy among the users of a popular Russian messenger, Telegram. Mocking humour is filled with anger, resentment and sarcasm. Aggressive laughter at events or people is directed against stupidity, vanity, corruption, and hypocrisy in the social and political life of the world and the country. The tone of messages violates the rule for the "one who is laughing" to maintain emotional detachment from the event. The chapter analyses two cases: 1) a mocking reaction of Telegram users towards an insulting phrase said by a Russian official; 2) caustic sarcasm aimed at the decisions of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In the first case, the ethical evaluation is based on resentment and the thirst for justice; in the second, on the historical self-irony rooted in the similarity of the requirements of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to the experience of having ethnic and social quotas, which used to exist in the Soviet Union.