Comedic Comparisons: Absurd Juxtapositions and the Value of Digressive Truths

This chapter explores the comic properties of ethnographic comparisons. It highlights the value of ‘digressive truths’ – provisional but forceful insights, emerging from the absurdity of superficial ethnographic juxtapositions. We draw on our recent experiences with hosting a science radio show for Danish national radio, which had the somewhat ambitious objective of uncovering the ten basic truths about humanity. Each episode was structured around unlikely comparisons between seemingly disparate phenomena. We argue that every ‘insight’ gained emerged because the unlikely comparisons were processed through a comedic structure of set-up and punchline. The outcome was, however, an awkward and often comedic paradox by digressively juxtaposing phenomena, which, by their very nature, could not be meaningfully compared. The twisted perspectives that were brought forth allowed for a different kind of gaze on social life, the so-called digressive truths, which exist only for as long as the effects of the comedic juxtaposition endure in surprise and laughter.