In recent years, the terrorist network Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has generated what might be referred to as a ‘spectacle of fear’ through strategic dissemination of execution videos and other graphic material. In response, social media users, activists and others circulate “counter-spectacles” (Kraidy, 2018), attempting to circumvent ISIS’ spectacle of fear. An important case in point is the global hacking network Anonymous declaring ‘war’ against ISIS, including a global call for a ‘Troll ISIS Day’.
This article develops a theoretical framework for understanding the spectacle of fear generated by ISIS and the counter-spectacle created through Anonymous’ trolling practices and explores empirically how Anonymous use humor to combat fear through the memes produced on ‘Troll ISIS Day’. Bottom-up, cultural forms such as memes are increasingly woven into strategies for countering the fear associated with terrorism, and they represent the potential for humor to generate public engagement. However, as these memetic counter-spectacles draw on incongruent humor characteristic of meme culture, they both contest and adopt strategies of fear, pointing to ethical challenges inherent in the counter-spectacle.