FYW Blog Week 8: Response to Hurricane Florence

I agree that this concept of turning something serious, like a hurricane, into a joke can be really funny. Personally, I am a huge fan of Twitter, as it is a platform for everything from news to humor. The social media site is a great source for humor because I feel like people are always creating crazy accounts to do things just like this. While I never saw this Hurricane Florence account, I have seen many similar Twitter pages in the past that are funny as well. This particular Twitter account is a textbook example of the relief theory, as the tension was building with a serious issue like this hurricane that got almost everyone on the east coast out of school for days. This person then turned it into a comedic topic, releasing the tension that was built. At Furman we can relate to this though, as the tension built for us to be hit hard and classes were cancelled for two days, yet we didn’t get a single drop of rain during that span. The incongruity theory is definitely relevant as well, as the concept of a hurricane having a social media account, and even the concept of satirizing a hurricane is pretty absurd. I also thought the point that was made about the superiority theory being relevant was interesting too though, because that was a perspective I hadn’t really thought about. It’s interesting to think about who must be running the account, and definitely is most likely somebody who knows they won’t be affected by the hurricane, and they probably won’t know anyone else who is. When thinking about all the theories of humor, Twitter never really crosses my mind as an example. Now it is apparent though that the theories of humor can be found on Twitter everywhere, and this Hurricane Florence account is a prime example.