DOOL

In the beginning, was the word. Then God coughed. And the cough turned into laughter. And we laughed about everything. We laugh when we are happy or sad. Then we laugh for no reason. We laugh at others or ourselves. We laugh to help ourselves or others sane. At home, in the street, and in formal and informal contexts. We can laugh anywhere and anytime.

We laugh alone, or we laugh together. We try to communicate with others, to feel better with ourselves, and to feel better together. We laugh in times of peace, but we also laugh in times of no peace. And, in the times of Coronavirus, we laughed out loud. When the pandemic started, the laughter was already here. A laugh a day keeps Corona away.

The DOLL project starts with studying multifaceted humour in the Coronavirus period, from a systemic perspective. Interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary. Cross-cultural and cross-linguistic. Putting together Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Literature, Psychology, Sociology, Hermeneutics, Communication, History, Visual Arts, Systems Thinking, Economics, Medicine, etc. This way, we can see the functions that humor fulfills (cultural, strategic, critical, social, cathartic, aesthetic, rhetorical) or its anthropological, psychological, and societal roles.

The starting point of the project is that language (with its discourses and narratives) is the main vector of cultural expression. And, in the nexus of the language, humor is related to culture, behavior, paradigms, actions, values, and memories. This is why this project is proposed by a PI linguist.

In this context, making fun of Corona together was a way to adapt to the New Normal through Humour. People felt the need to laugh with others to find an emotional balance, so during the pandemic, online support groups based on shared humor naturally emerged. It was about being locked up alone or with family and friends, but also with everyone on the internet, in a global connection.