From bonding to biting: Conversational joking and identity display

Teasing and joking are instruments by which social control is exerted and through which social identity is displayed. Situational humor, or conversational joking - especially teasing has been seen as a double-edged sword that both diffuses and controls conflict. Little attention has been given, though, to the bonding role of joking. Through an ethnography of speaking approach, we examine conversational joking among interlocutors in two different speech communities. The data shows that there are two types of moves in joking: one that is directed at a participant in the conversation, having the potential of biting; the other that is directed at an absent other, having the potential of bonding. We compare types of situational humor with particular attention to interlocutor variables. Joking used to perform social identity is most strongly determined by the gender of participants and social distance between them. Conversational joking does not act only as a means of social control and identity display, but also functions to develop a relational identity among participants.