Response to Madelyn's Blog

The amount of memes that I saw during the time of Hurricane Florence was wild. What shocked me even more and added to the humor of many of the posts, tweets, or memes was the fact that those who were being directly affected by Florence were the people making light of the situation. Like the individual who was forced to close their store that Madelyn refers to, many individuals, though suffering great losses, made these jokes and memes about the great destruction that was caused. These example of the people who were suffering the most but making the most jokes about the destruction, are perfect examples of relief theory. While most the country was terrified and worried about the effects of Hurricane Florence, some individuals were able to relieve this tension and worry through their nonchalant posts that found humor within the situation. While many of the posts I witnessed usually depicted once instance of the hurricane's devastation, the account that an individual made from the perspective of the hurricane enabled numerous tweets that could find humor within many aspects of the hurricane. The account is a great example of incongruity as we would not normally associate a hurricane with being able to make tweets about its plans and destruction. What makes the whole situation even more humorous is that other accounts of other hurricanes came into play and began communicating with each other. The personification of the hurricane and the destruction it caused makes individuals laugh and find humor within the situation because the tweets are treated with such casualty, despite how dangerous and threatening Florence actually was. This is again another example of relief theory that accompanies incongruity. Lastly, I agree with Madelyn that superiority theory can be found within the twitter account as the individual behind the account was most likely not affected greatly by the hurricane. Although some people may have been devastated by Florence, the account does not take this into much consideration and makes fun of the situation.