Humor

Counterspeakers may use humor in their responses for a variety of reasons. Some use humor to decrease the emotional burden of responding to such disturbing content. For example, Hasnian Kazim described using humor as a sort of coping mechanism. With humor, he could turn some of the abuse he received into a comic exchange, one that brought a degree of self-gratification, if not fun, to his day. 

For others who are trying to reach a larger reading audience, humor is a tool to make their posts amusing and to thus gain a larger audience. Alexandra Tweten, founder of “Bye Felipe,” an Instagram account that shares screenshots of men who have tulrned hostile or hateful after being rejected on dating apps, for example, says she tries to “have something that’s kind of funny,” even if it is just her picture caption.  “I try not to make the Instagram too dark, because I don’t want people to get too depressed and then stop following it. The original goal was to make fun of guys who are assholes, so there has to be that level of comedy.”