Humor Scholarship Research Articles

The Year's Work in American Humor Studies, 2010

The “Year’s Work in American Humor Studies,” an annual feature of Studies in American Humor since 1999, reviews humor scholarship and related materials, including humor theory, published during the specified year from many disciplinary perspectives. The review gives special emphasis to studies of humor in American culture, broadly conceived.

Humor Scholarship and TESOL: Applying Findings and Establishing a Research Agenda

Research in the areas of second language (L2) pragmatics and of conversational humor has increased in recent decades, resulting in a strong base of knowledge from which applied linguists can draw information for teaching purposes and undertake future research. Yet, whereas empirical findings in L2 pragmatics are beginning to find their way into textbooks, recommendations and activities, intended to integrate humor into the L2 classroom with the goal of increasing learners' proficiency in the use and understanding of L2 humor, remain based on intuition alone. Despite parallel developments in L2 pragmatics and humor studies, the two areas of scholarship have largely ignored each other, with humor scholars focusing mainly on native language uses of humor, and applied linguists avoiding the study of humor by L2 users. The purpose of this article is to bring these two fields together by outlining some major linguistic and sociolinguistic findings of humor scholarship, discussing how these understandings might help us integrate humor into the L2 classroom in a principled manner, and suggesting directions for future research on humor and L2 learners.

Humor, Unlaughter, and Boundary Maintenance

Abstract Some joke performances are meant to elicit differential responses-laughter from some, and unlaughter from salient others-and so serve as powerful methods for heightening group boundaries. This article illustrates this thesis by analyzing audience responses to practical jokes and to the Muhammad cartoons that aroused worldwide controversy in 2006. To further make this case, I will delineate a theory of the audience for humor. Such a theory has heretofore been largely missing from both folklore and humor scholarship; instead, the lion’s share of scholarly attention has gone to the performers, with the audience’s role taken for granted. In boundary-heightening humor, the audience response is the subject of special attention, and it is interpreted in terms of contemporary notions about the importance of having a sense of humor and especially of being able to laugh at oneself.

Humor, Unlaughter, and Boundary Maintenance

Some joke performances are meant to elicit differential responses—laughter from some, and unlaughter from salient others—and so serve as powerful methods for heightening group boundaries. This article illustrates this thesis by analyzing audience responses to practical jokes and to the Muhammad cartoons that aroused worldwide controversy in 2006. To further make this case, I will delineate a theory of the audience for humor. Such a theory has heretofore been largely missing from both folklore and humor scholarship; instead, the lion’s share of scholarly attention has gone to the performers, with the audience’s role taken for granted. In boundary-heightening humor, the audience response is the subject of special attention, and it is interpreted in terms of contemporary notions about the importance of having a sense of humor and especially of being able to laugh at oneself.

Victor Raskin on jokes

AbstractVictor Raskin's clear delineation of the differences between humorous and bone fide serious communication and his systematic formal account of how jokes work was not only a major contribution to linguistics but also made possible revolutionary advances in other areas of the social sciences of humor. It was Raskin's account of the fictional, conventional, and mythical scripts used in jokes that freed us from the earlier tendentious and misleading analyses of jokes in terms of “stereotypes.” The General Theory of Verbal Humor enables us more easily to explain, transform, unpack, and compare quite disparate kinds of jokes from elephant jokes to Polish jokes and to explain how and why jokes have evolved over time. Raskin's contribution to humor scholarship has been that of a master.

Humor Scholarship on Names

Humor Scholarship on Names

Book Reviews

The Afro‐Argentines of Buenos Aires 1800–1900. George Reid Andrews. Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years. Elizabeth Wayland Barber. The Saint: A Complete History in Print, Radio, Film and Television of Leslie Charteris' Robin Hood of Modem Crime, Simon Templal; 1928–1992. Burl Barer. Aspects of British Calendar Customs. Eds. Theresa Buckland and Juliette Wood. Reading the Social Body. Catherine B. Burroughs and Jeffrey David Ehrenreich, eds. Ethnomimesis. Robert Cantwell. Al Capp Remembered. Elliott Caplin. Holy Days and Holidays. Edward M. Deems. The Cultural Studies Reader. Ed. Simon During. Songs About Work: Essays in Occupational Culture For Richard A. Reuss. Ed. Archie Green. The Politics of Pictures: The Creation of the Public in the Age of Popular Media. John Hartley. Breaking the Ties that Bind: Popular Stories of the New Woman, 1915–1930. Ed. Maureen Honey. Mythical Trickster Figures: Contours, Contexts and Criticisms. Ed. William H. Hynes and William G. Doty. Edward Stratemeyer and the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Deidre Johnson. Seven Minutes: The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon. Norman M. Klein. Meeting the Madwoman: An Inner Challenge for Feminine Spirit. Linda Schierse Leonard Speaking the Unspeakable: A Poetics of Obscenity. Peter Michelson. Feminism/Postmodemism. Ed. Linda J. Nicholson. Humor Scholarship: A Research Bibliography. Don L.F. Nilson. The Crawfish Book. Glen Pitre. Dick Tracy and American Culture: Morality and Mythology, Text and ContextS. Garyn G. Roberts. Gender in Popular Culture: Images of Men and Women in Literature, Visual Media, and Material Culture. Eds. Susan W. Rollins and Peter C. Rollins. Adult Comics: An Introduction. Roger Sabin. Society's Impact on Television: How the Viewing Public Shapes Television Programming. Gary W. Selnow and Richard R. Gilbert. Animating Culture: Hollywood Cartoons from the Sound Era. Eric Smoodin. Media and Public Policy. Ed. Robert J. Spitzer. Football and Its Fans: Supporters and Their Relations with the Game, 1885–1985. Rogan Taylor. The Less Noble Sex: Scientific, Religious, and Philosophical Conceptions of Woman's Nature. Nancy Tuana. Almanac for Americans. Willis Thornton. Christmas on the American Frontier 1800–1900. John E. Bauer. Happy Birthdays Round the World. Lois S. Johnson. Jewish Holidays and Festivals. Ben M. Edidin. Round the Year with the World's Religions. Royston Pike. Season Feasts and Festivals. E.O. James. Yearbook of English Festivals. Dorothy Gladys Spicer. Imagining America: Dutch Youth and Its Sense of Place. Mel Van Eltern The Remote Control in the New Age of Television. Ed. James R. Walker and Robert V. Bellamy, Jr. Professors, Politics and Pop. Jon Wiener.“It 's Time for My Story”: Soap Opera Sources, Structure and Response. Carol Traynor Williams. Bodylore. Ed. Katharine Young.

Review: Humor Scholarship: A Research Bibliography. Bibliographies and Indexes in Popular Culture, Number 1 by Don L. F. Nilsen

Review: <i>Humor Scholarship: A Research Bibliography</i>. Bibliographies and Indexes in Popular Culture, Number 1 by Don L. F. Nilsen

Humor scholarship: a research bibliography

Introduction Humor and the Individual The Humor of Personal Interactions Language Play and Rhetorical Devices Humor and the Media National Styles of Humor Humor and Ethnicity Humor in Mythology and Religion Humor and the Fine Arts Humor, Maturity, and Education Humor Theory and Epistemology Appendix: Humor Resources Index

Humor scholarship on rhetoric and discourse analysis

Humor scholarship on rhetoric and discourse analysis