😂 Humor as a Political Weapon: New research published in The European Journal of Humour Research reveals that politicians, including Donald Trump and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, increasingly use aggressive humor to attack opponents and rally supporters.

🎤 Strategic Joke-Telling: A study by Beer Prakken analyzed tweets and speeches from May 2019, finding that Trump used humor frequently in rallies (1.2 instances per minute) but rarely on Twitter (9% of posts), with 92% of his tweets being aggressive.

📺 Inverse Patterns: Ocasio-Cortez, conversely, used almost no humor in her speeches but featured comedy in 29% of her tweets, with her online humor also being predominantly aggressive.

🎭 "Dark Play" Normalizes Radical Ideas: The research highlights how politicians use deceptive humor, termed "dark play," to test extreme ideas. If met with positive reactions, these jokes can evolve into serious policy or beliefs, potentially leading to radicalization.

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