‘Cutting Edge’ is a podcast produced by the Australasian Humour Studies Network and hosted by Benjamin Nickl (University of Sydney). This week’s episode, focusing on humor and the law, features ForHum co-director Alberto Godioli as co-host, and our regular collaborator and board member João Paulo Capelotti as a special guest. You can listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Guest and co-host bios:
João Paulo Capelotti is a Brazilian legal scholar and humour studies researcher with a PhD and Master of Laws from the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR). João is a member of the International Society for Humor Studies (ISHS) and the International Society for Luso-Hispanic Humor Studies. His work explores humour and the law, focusing on Brazilian court cases and their treatment of humour. His recent publications include chapters in Judges, Judging and Humour (SpringerLink) and the DeGruyter Handbook of Humor Studies. João’s work bridges legal theory, humour, and conflict, highlighting the intersection of laughter and jurisprudence in the Global South.
Alberto Godioli is Associate Professor in European Culture and Literature at the University of Groningen and founder of the Forum for Humor and the Law. His research focuses on humor and free speech jurisprudence, and he is leading a five-year project on this topic (Humor in Court, NWO Vidi grant, 2022-2027). In 2023 he co-authored the report Humor and Free Speech: A Comparative Analysis of Global Case Law (Columbia Global Freedom of Expression). In dialogue with experts from UNESCO and the African and European Human Rights Courts among others, Alberto is currently finalizing the toolkit What’s in a Joke? Assessing Humor in Free Speech Jurisprudence (Spring 2025).