Naomi Sweller

“I’m going to hell for laughing at this”: Norms, humour, and the neutralisation of aggression in online communities

The subreddit r/RoastMe presents an intriguing case of how alternative norms can emerge in subversive online communities, allowing behaviours conventionally condemned as inappropriate to be reframed as acceptable. In this community, users post photos of themselves with the explicit expectation of being mocked or ridic…