@ARTICLE{Khraban_Tetiana_Humor_2026,
 author={Khraban, Tetiana and Khraban, Mykhailo},
 number={No 1},
 journal={Studia Socjologiczne},
 pages={23-49},
 howpublished={online},
 year={2026},
 publisher={Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii PAN},
 publisher={Komitet Socjologii PAN},
 publisher={Wydział Socjologii UW},
 abstract={This article analyzes the characteristics of sarcastic discourse in the Ukrainian military environment, focusing on three types of material: visual memes, fairy tale narratives, and online comments. The empirical corpus consists of 627 items collected from the Facebook community "Standarty khotevshykh v NATO" [Standards for those wishing to join NATO], which unites over 41,000 participants. The dataset, which encompasses the period from January 2024 to October 2025, comprises 76 visual posts, 17 "fairy tales", and 413 comments, all of which contain explicit or implicit markers of irony or sarcasm. The study adopts a multimodal discursive approach, treating verbal, visual, and paralinguistic forms as elements of social practice. Thematic analysis facilitates the identification of recurrent semantic structures and latent meanings. The findings indicate that sarcastic discourse among Ukrainian military personnel functions as a multimodal communicative system. Visual memes create contrasts between official rhetoric and everyday reality; fairy tales articulate institutional critique through allegory while provoking strong affective responses; and comments moderate interaction by transforming aggressive sarcasm into affiliative humor and self-irony. Collectively, these practices operate as an adaptive mechanism that enables Ukrainian soldiers to maintain psychological balance, reinforce group identity, and sustain cohesion under conditions of stress and limited autonomy.},
 title={Humor as Armor: Sarcastic Communication and Group Cohesion in Ukrainian Military Online Discourse},
 URL={http://www.czasopisma.pan.pl/Content/138714/PDF-MASTER/02_Kharban_Tetiana_archiv.pdf},
 doi={10.24425/sts.2026.158653},
 keywords={Ukrainian military discourse, sarcasm, Facebook jokes, non-institutional communication},
}