Emergent Forms of Folk Discourse in Online Commentating

Every day, users create vast amounts of online vernacular narrative content through the publication of comments on news websites, YouTube videos, social media sites, and more. In focusing on comments (rather than original posts, articles, videos, etc.), we see forms of folk narrative emerge that reflect cultural groups (whether extant physically or virtually) and which respond to the vicissitudes of existence in an interconnected but multifaceted world. Many comments perpetuate well beyond their original posting date, and we can witness the development of narrative forms while also considering these comments in specific global, local, and historic contexts (e.g. Covid lockdowns, etc.). Like all forms of folklore, comments reflect their creators, giving insight into their worldviews while demonstrating the innate everyday creative powers of human beings. Earnest comments sit next to punctuated outbursts, polemical screeds, parodies of popular forms of commentating, and elaborate wind-ups. Intertextual connections abound, with links to other forms of folk narrative in digital and in-person contexts. After considering some methodological and ethical difficulties of researching such dynamic online forms, this paper will consider several examples, arguing why exploring emergent morphologies and typologies in the digital realm is of use to Folklore and other disciplines.