‘I’m just going to be silly with this person’: exploring the ethics of humour and irony in Ultimate Frisbee

Abstract

In this article, I argue for an extension of existing sociocultural conceptualisations of ethics within sport and physical culture through analysing pleasurable ethics within Ultimate Frisbee. Drawing on postmodern theories of humour and irony and Foucauldian ethics, I argue that humour and irony are practices through which many Ultimate Frisbee players embody their preferred ethical athletic self. However, I balance my argument for the ethical possibilities of humour and irony by considering a stark counter example. Subsequently, I conclude by advocating for ongoing consideration of the productive possibilities offered by sociocultural analyses of ethics within sport and physical cultures.

Keywords:

• ethics
• humour
• irony
• Foucault
• Ultimate Frisbee
• pleasure
• aesthetics of existence

Acknowledgements

I’d like to acknowledge the constructive feedback from Richard Pringle, Jay Laurendeau, Gavin Weedon and Bob Rinehart on earlier versions of this article.

Notes

1. As I acknowledge in the section on irony, I cannot guarantee how others, particularly non-Ultimate players, might have interpreted our humour.

2. Because Ultimate is self-refereed, the players on the field make and resolve all refereeing calls themselves. Thus, Darren’s marker had stopped play by calling a violation. Players are expected to calmly discuss and resolve calls before resuming play, yet angry reactions like Darren’s are not uncommon and can lead to the game slowing down with excessive calls being made and argued over.