Sex jokes and ideology: A sociopragmatic inquiry of the place of humour in gender performance and practices

Through a discourse analysis of data gathered via YouTube, Facebook, and WhatsApp, we investigate the association between gender, sociocultural stereotypes, and ideologies that form the substrata of sex jokes. We also examine the place of such discourses in supporting, licensing, or authenticating social and individual beliefs and regulating social behaviour. The study pays attention to metaphoric preferences and other linguistic strategies in Ghanaian/African prurient humour and their effects on the (de)construction of gendered spaces. Specifically, questions asked include the types of metaphors used and their functions, the underlying cultural values and ideologies in the linguistic expressions, the origin and significance of some of these expressions, and the imagery of sex as a weapon for control and aggression. The study shows that women are often depicted as passive, whereas men are illustrated as active. We conclude that through the use of humour, which is usually perceived as “harmless talk,” text producers covertly sustain the gender status quo and this becomes a vicious cycle that is reinforced through generations as individuals are inculcated in society through language. Treating such discourses as harmless jokes only makes it easy for perpetrators to explore their sexist ideologies without a sense of guilt.