THE HUMOROUS EFFECTS IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE DURING INTERVIEWS: RHETORIC, PERFORMANCE, AND DEMOCRATIC AMBIVALENCE IN THE CASE OF DONALD TRUMP’S 2025 SPEECH
Keywords:
Key words: Political Humor, Rhetorical Performance, Affective Governance, Dominance Humor, Self-Reflexive Humor, Solidaristic Humor, Carnivalesque Inversion, Accountability Buffering, Affective Polarization, Democratic AmbivalenceAbstract
Abstract. This article develops a theoretically grounded and discourse-
analytical account of humor in contemporary political interviews, situating Donald
Trump’s 2025 interview speech within broader transformations of mediated political
communication. Drawing on classical rhetoric, Bakhtinian carnivalesque theory,
psychoanalytic relief theory, and Goffman’s dramaturgical sociology, the paper
conceptualizes political humor as a multifunctional discursive mechanism operating at
the intersection of persuasion, identity construction, affect regulation, and
accountability management. Through comparative analysis with interview
performances by Barack Obama and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the study proposes a
typology of dominance, self-reflexive, and solidaristic humor. It argues that humor in
political interviews constitutes a form of “affective governance” that simultaneously
intensifies political engagement and destabilizes deliberative norms.
References
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