Editing Joke (section)

== Electronic ==
The advent of [[electronic communication]]s at the end of the 20th century introduced new traditions into jokes. A verbal joke or cartoon is [[email]]ed to a friend or posted on a [[bulletin board]]; reactions include a replied email with [[Smiley|a :-)]] or [[LOL]], or a [[Email forwarding|forward]] on to further recipients. Interaction is limited to the computer screen and for the most part solitary. While preserving the text of a joke, both context and variants are lost in internet joking; for the most part, emailed jokes are passed along verbatim.{{sfn|Frank|2009|pp=99–100}} The framing of the joke frequently occurs in the subject line: "RE: laugh for the day" or something similar. The forward of an email joke can increase the number of recipients exponentially.

[[Internet humor|Internet joking]] forces a re-evaluation of social spaces and social groups. They are no longer only defined by physical presence and locality, they also exist in the connectivity in cyberspace.{{sfn|Mason|1998}} "The computer networks appear to make possible communities that, although physically dispersed, display attributes of the direct, unconstrained, unofficial exchanges folklorists typically concern themselves with".{{sfn|Dorst|1990|pp=180–181}} This is particularly evident in the spread of [[topical joke]]s, "that genre of lore in which whole crops of jokes spring up seemingly overnight around some sensational event … flourish briefly and then disappear, as the mass media move on to fresh maimings and new collective tragedies".{{sfn|Dorst|1990}} This correlates with the new understanding of the internet as an "active folkloric space" with evolving social and cultural forces and clearly identifiable performers and audiences.{{sfn|Dorst|1990| p=183}}

A study by the folklorist Bill Ellis documented how an evolving cycle was circulated over the internet.{{sfn|Ellis|2002}} By accessing message boards that specialised in humour immediately following the 9/11 disaster, Ellis was able to observe in real-time both the topical jokes being posted electronically and responses to the jokes. {{blockquote|Previous folklore research has been limited to collecting and documenting successful jokes, and only after they had emerged and come to folklorists' attention. Now, an Internet-enhanced collection creates a time machine, as it were, where we can observe what happens in the period before the risible moment, when attempts at humour are unsuccessful{{sfn|Ellis|2002|p=2}}}} Access to archived message boards also enables us to track the development of a single joke thread in the context of a more complicated virtual conversation.{{sfn|Ellis|2002}}