Tactical frivolity is a form of public protest involving humour; often including peaceful non-compliance with authorities, carnival and whimsical antics. Humour has played a role in political protests at least as far back as the Classical period in ancient Greece. However, it is only since the 1990s that the term tactical frivolity gained common currency for describing the use of humour in opposing perceived political injustice. Generally, the term is used to denote a whimsical, nonconfrontational approach rather than aggressive mocking or cutting jokes.
History of humour in political protest
The study of humour by social historians did not become popular until the early 1980s and the literature on this subject studying periods before the 20th century is relatively sparse. An exception is the frequently cited Rabelais and His World by Mikhail Bakhtin, a Russian scholar considered by some to be the most important thinker of the 20th century. The work discusses the life and times of the writer and satirist François Rabelais with emphases on what the author considers to be the powerful role of humour...
lonely extrovert
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