ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores a topic that in his opinion has often been ignored by researchers of language and racism and examines the links between humour and hatred. The major point has been to underline the connections between hatred and humour. The author focuses on various websites that present racist humour and display sympathies with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). He emphasizes the importance of examining the ‘meta-discourse’ of the sites’ strategic disclaimers which present and justify the humour. The indications of hatred beyond the content of the joke are necessary if the link between hatred and humour is to be established. The type of humour displayed in the KKK-supporting web sites is extreme, as is the politics of which they are a part. The author concludes that the extreme racist humour of the KKK is not just a joke, even in terms of its own meta-discourse of presentation.
