Situational irony in Australian prison radio: humour as a tool for coping and resistance

This article examines the use of humour in a selection of prison radio shows in Australia. Prison radio consists of radio and other audio that involves incarcerated people and their communities, either produced inside prisons – limited to and targeting a prison-based population – or produced outside of correctional centres and broadcasting to a wider public. Drawing on approximately broadcast content from Jailbreak , Beyond the Bars , and Radio Seeds , we identified 30 humorous instances, of which 17 were best understood as examples of situational irony. Through a thematic analysis, we argue that situational irony in prison radio serves as both a coping mechanism and a subtle form of resistance, which gives a platform to narratives of desistance from crime and improving the quality of life condition inside prisons. Situational irony provides a humorous framing of the incongruities and restrictions inherent to prison life. While humour was not frequent across the data set, it offered moments of agency, levity, and collective resistance. This study contributes to growing scholarship on prison radio and suggests the need for further research into the editorial constraints that shape humour and expression in carceral media.