Abstract
Helle Ploug Hansen: A Zebra-Striped
 Circus Performance. The Scenario of
 Laughter
 This article looks at humour and laughter as
 a complex social and cultural phenomenon.
 It is based on a description of a circus
 performance in Copenhagen in which a
 plastic zebra, after having read a zebrastriped
 book, lay down on the scene in the
 performance hall. The performance is first
 analysed as a parody of a traditional circus
 performance and as an absurd form of
 humour. The article then focuses on laughter
 as a spontaneous answer from the body to an
 unknown and unpredictable phenomenon.
 Finally Bateson’s theory of communication
 is introduced in order to understand humour
 and laughter as a meta-communicative
 manifestation, that comments upon and
 challenges the social order.
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