Laughter ≠ Humour: Sounding, Face and Masculinity Between Prison and Street

Humour and laughter have received increasing attention in narrative criminology, but existing scholarship has tended to collapse them into a single analytic entity. In this paper, we foreground the awkward spaces that lie in the space between. Based on two research projects carried out with street and justice-involved men in Scotland, where the fusion of masculinities, humour and 'patter' has for many years formed an important aspect of culture and identity, we first examine the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in moments where laughter follows humour. We then move onto an examination of humour without laughter and laughter without humour, developing a juxtaposition between humour as offence and laughter as defence, analysing both as strategies to maintain face and manage shame. In so doing we contribute to the probing of the often unseen or intangible aspects of narratives in criminological contexts that nonetheless can be deeply revealing.