TY - JOUR
T1 - Confirmation versus contestation of tourism theories in tourist jokes
AU - Cohen, Erik
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2010 Cognizant Comm. Corp.
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - Tourism has a playful side, and its apparent lack of seriousness has frequently been the butt of irony, derision, and satire, even by social scientists. Since MacCannell's attack on Boorstin's critique of tourism, social scientists have taken tourism seriously. An ironic critique of tourism became unfashionable. However, tourists are still frequently seen as funny by the general public, and tourism, in its various manifestations, remains a topic of popular humor and critical satire. Jokes about tourists constitute an important aspect of the public's perception of tourism as a social phenomenon, but have yet to be taken seriously by students of tourism; they remain a virtually unexplored topic in tourism research. This article argues that jokes about tourists are not just innocent fun, but can be fruitfully explored as indirectly conforming or contesting some of the more sweeping propositions by theoreticians of tourism about its nature and social functions. To demonstrate the argument, jokes on several specific topics, like the tourists' quest for authenticity and Otherness, the alleged reversal of quotidian life in vacations, and the restitutive role of tourism are examined. This leads to the important conclusion that jokes help to discover and illuminate some aspects of touristic situations, which have been commonly overlooked in the literature.
AB - Tourism has a playful side, and its apparent lack of seriousness has frequently been the butt of irony, derision, and satire, even by social scientists. Since MacCannell's attack on Boorstin's critique of tourism, social scientists have taken tourism seriously. An ironic critique of tourism became unfashionable. However, tourists are still frequently seen as funny by the general public, and tourism, in its various manifestations, remains a topic of popular humor and critical satire. Jokes about tourists constitute an important aspect of the public's perception of tourism as a social phenomenon, but have yet to be taken seriously by students of tourism; they remain a virtually unexplored topic in tourism research. This article argues that jokes about tourists are not just innocent fun, but can be fruitfully explored as indirectly conforming or contesting some of the more sweeping propositions by theoreticians of tourism about its nature and social functions. To demonstrate the argument, jokes on several specific topics, like the tourists' quest for authenticity and Otherness, the alleged reversal of quotidian life in vacations, and the restitutive role of tourism are examined. This leads to the important conclusion that jokes help to discover and illuminate some aspects of touristic situations, which have been commonly overlooked in the literature.
KW - Authenticity
KW - Jokes
KW - Tourism theories
KW - Tourist photography
KW - Vacations
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84855887559&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3727/108354210X12724734223478
DO - 10.3727/108354210X12724734223478
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AN - SCOPUS:84855887559
SN - 1083-5423
VL - 15
SP - 3
EP - 16
JO - Tourism Analysis
JF - Tourism Analysis
IS - 1
ER -