On the politics of Žižek’s jokes: A critical Lacanian discourse analysis

Jokes are indispensable to Slavoj Žižek’s commentaries and theoretical reflexions on politics and culture. However, contrary, or in addition, to their putative radical meaning and their capacity to render clear certain ideological practices, some of these jokes seem to raise serious questions in relation to their politics. The current article will focus on three texts by Žižek, all of which contain a joke or pun, in order to examine the function of these jokes on a microsociological level, that is, in relation to speaker/audience dynamics, as well as exploring the broader politics they advocate and they invite us to embrace. A Lacanian discourse analysis is employed in order to open up these texts and jokes and discuss what is understood as their ideological character and disciplinary function.