The semiotic and pragmatic functions of humour in Kenyan instagram memes

Résumé

The growing popularity of social media has changed the way meaning is created and negotiated shared in digital communications. However, while humor shapes much of Kenya’s online culture, research has largely ignored the actual mechanics through which words, images, and cultural context come together to build the humorous messages. Therefore, the objectives of this study was to describe the semiotic and pragmatic functions of the humour in Kenyan Instagram memes. The study adopted descriptive research design. Data was gathered by systematically extracting platform-native contextual metadata, engagement metrics, and user comments from a high-follower creator's page. Through systematic random sampling, the study identified 40 Kenyan Instagram memes posted in the period July 2025 to January 2026. However, after reaching data saturation, only 19 were analysed within the framework of Berger's (1993) Humour Theory using multimodal content analysis and thematic analysis. The results showed that humour is frequently generated through incongruity between expectation and reality. The memes are multimodal communicative constructions, where the linguistic and visual resources are used together to form meaning and communicate socially and communicatively. Humour in memes also plays an important role as a social and communicative function; it can be used to comment on sensitive topics indirectly, but with an effect, while simultaneously fostering a sense of connection between the users of memes by sharing reality and experiences. The findings revealed that unpacking the context of Kenyan digital humour required deep cultural familiarity. Without an understanding of everyday Kenyan life, outsiders would struggle to interpret the intricate multimodal layers of the memes. The study concluded that Kenyan Instagram memes are important multimodal sites of meaning making where humour, language, visual resources, pragmatic processes and cultural knowledge are part of the mix. Linguists should investigate whether code-switching between English, Kiswahili, and Sheng is the main trigger for humor, or if the disconnect comes from the clash between the text and the images.