Abstract
Informal roles in sport teams (i.e., roles that develop naturally within the team without formal prescription) have the potential to influence team functioning (Cope et al., 2011). One such role is the team comedian—an athlete who consistently uses humour in their team environment (Cope et al., 2011). Despite the various interpersonal functions of humour (e.g., enhancing relationships, maintaining social dominance; Martin et al., 2003), there is a dearth of literature that examines team comedians and their use of humour within sport teams. Previous research efforts have been generally limited to quantitatively examining the humour styles of coaches (Grisaffe et al., 2003) or athletes (Sullivan, 2013) and associated outcomes. The purpose of the current study was to examine the nature of team comedians on sport teams in depth, focusing on the antecedents of occupancy of this role, specific behaviours, and associated outcomes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 athletes (4 focus groups) and 9 coaches (1 focus group and 4 individual interviews) from 4 interdependent sport teams. Deductive and inductive thematic analysis of the interview data suggested that the interaction of athletes' personality (e.g., extraversion) and situational factors (e.g., practice vs. in-game) may allow athletes to emerge as team comedians, and that these individuals typically used verbal and physical types of humour. Both positive (e.g., relieving tension within team) and negative (e.g., diverting teammates' attention) outcomes were noted. The current study offers valuable insights pertaining to informal role transmission processes, and emphasizes the dynamic nature of humour within sport settings.
