Humorn och politiken : den svenska skämtpressens humor och dess roll i demokratiseringsprocessen 1918-1922

Sammanfattning: What makes something funny? This is the most basic, underlying question to this thesis, which explores the Swedish satire magazines Söndags-Nisse, Naggen and Strix on their journey through the pinnacle of the Swedish democratization process during the years 1918 to 1922. These types of magazines were of great popularity throughout all of Europe during parts of the late 19th century up until the interwar years, reaching a high – at least in Sweden – during the first world war. It is a genre that has been fairly underused in historical research, however and I intend to argue for its importance in the process of which Sweden became a democracy. Politics and policy was often of interest for the satire magazines and by applying a functional perspective on the humor and comedy inherent in the genre while at the same time seeing the magazines as public arenas we can begin to discern how the humor worked both as a stepping stone into the world of politics and as a quite unique form of social commentary within its historical media system. The thesis is structured chronologically, with each year – 1918, 1921 and 1922 – being of great importance in the history of democracy in Sweden. During the first year general suffrage was agreed upon, but it was also a year in which the war in Europe affected the living standards in Sweden. Hence many of the satire magazines had a therapeutic function, in that they – from their respective vantage points – allowed their readers to ventilate any frustrations they carried concerning what was perceived to be incompetent politicians. 1921 was the year of the first election where general suffrage – for both men and women – was applied. At this point the satire magazines had moved on to a more existential function, by acting more as opinion formers in specific political issues. The following year was dominated by Sweden’s first referendum on the question of prohibition, in which the satire magazines were again heavily involved as opinion formers. The main conclusion is thus that these types of magazines played a bigger role in this rapid development in Swedish history than previous scholars have postulated, and that we can see how the magazines were constructed as public arenas in which the humor carried specific functions towards its audience. In many ways the satire magazines made politics and policy more accessible to certain groups of people, and helped to pave the way for democracy.