Joke Books Research Articles

Taking Penguins to the Movies: Ethnic Humor in Russia

If humor provides a means of analyzing a culture, what better way of understanding today's Russia than by examining the jokes people are telling? As ethnic conflicts have become hot political issues, Russian jokes about ethnic groups have become more common and ethnic humor even more prevalent than political humor.In Taking Penguins to the Movies, Emil Draitser offers an insider's view of Russian society by presenting and analyzing Russian ethnic jokes that center on Jews, Georgians, Ukrainians, Chukchis, and other groups. Drawn from Russian joke books and the author's private collection, most of the 300 jokes and popular rhymes, ethnicity-related proverbs and sayings appear in English for the first time and have been chosen for their analytical interest and the extent to which they represent folk humor.Draitser uses humor as a means of understanding the attitudes and customs, beliefs and idiosyncrasies, and inter- and intra-group relationships of this multinational society. In analyzing the jokes, he seeks to determine what makes them funny, why certain groups are targeted, and even why a mediocre joke can be received with great enthusiasm. He traces the evolution of ethnic stereotyping, examines the circumstances under which such jokes arise, shows how they are used to project anxieties on out-groups, and suggests what they reveal about those who tell them. He also examines jokes shared by Russian Jews to show how a minority uses humor to sustain its morale.Even though Russia has seen a new proliferation of joke books with the lifting of censorship, Russian scholars have been slow to analyze their own people's humor. Taking Penguins to the Movies provides a glimpse of many ofthe sociological processes taking place in today's Russia and offers readers a few chuckles along the way.

Syntactic ambiguity as a device in British humour

The present study of ambiguity at the syntactic level in the English language focuses on its resourceful applications in the creation of jokes. Such ambiguity is therefore regarded as something to be exploited in language rather than avoided. One important conclusion will be that British humour should not be regarded as "strange" by speakers of other languages, who can only access to it by means of poor, or should we say, difficult translations, since not all types of ambiguity are translatable across languages. The study is divided into three sections, dealing firstly with bracketing of constituents and labelling of categories and functions; and secondly, focusing on transformational relationships, whereby two underlying structures are related to one surface structure. The illustrations are real jokes collected from a variety of popular joke books.

Loyal Jones: Appalachian Eiron

RESPONSE Loyal Jones: Appalachian Eiron Jim Wayne Miller Professor Higgs has presented an appropriate sampling of Loyal Jones's collected humor, and a learned analysis of that sampling. Analyzing humor is no easy task. E.B. White said it's "like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it." l But by entering into the spirit of his subject, Jack Higgs has surmounted the difficulties inherent in analyzing humor: he has kept us interested, and both the humor and its collector appear no worse for having undergone dissection. On the contrary. Jack Higgs's reflections have led us to more informed appreciation of both the humor and the humorist. Higgs is correct, I think, in asserting that the humor Loyal Jones and Billy Edd Wheeler have collected in Laughter in Appalachia2 and their other anthologies, and that Jones has collected in The Preacher Joke Book? is not regional humor in any limiting sense of the word. It is both Appalachian and characteristically American humor—which ought to suggest something about the relationship of the Appalachian region to the rest of the country; about the overlapping of the Appalachian and American experience; of Appalachian and American values and perspectives . Russell Baker, who has just published a collection ofAmerican humor, identifies the distinguishing feature of American humor as a suspicion of established authority and a spirit of rebellion—the very characteristics Higgs finds in Jones's humor. I am confident that Higgs has identified the principal sources of this humor in classical antecedents, in Calvinism, and in the so-called Southwest Humor of the American frontier. I think there can be little Jim Wayne Miller is a well-known author, lecturer, and teacher of Southern Appalachian literature. 98 doubt that Loyal Jones's humor is, more specifically, in the tradition of George Washington Harris's Sut Lovingood Yarns and is a humor at once humble and defiant. And although the proximate source of Jones's humor is this Sut Lovingood strain, Higgs involves himself in no contradiction when he also associates Jones's selections with Twain and Thoreau. I wish only to elaborate on Higgs's observation that while sports are play of the body, "humor is play of the mind," and that play is actually "of a higher order than the serious since the playful can be serious but the serious can't be playful." It would be difficult to overemphasize this observation, for we typically underestimate and undervalue the intellectual and creative functions of humor; and to do so in the case of Loyal Jones would be to appreciate insufficiently the relationship of Jones's humor to his work as teacher and scholar, and to miss the relationship of his humor collections to his work as essayist and biographer. Jones's humor is of tlie heart, surely, which is to say that it is not drily and unfeelingly cerebral. Nevertheless, Jones's humor has a decidedly cognitive function. It is a humor of both heart and head, and both domains, the cognitive and the affective, are involved in all creativity and intellectual activity. Arthur Koestler begins a book entitled The Act of Creation with a detailed examination of laughter and humor called "The Art of Discovery and the Discoveries of Art." Koestler sees humor as part of a pattern central to all discovery, problem-solving, and creativity. The person who can see a joke is also likely to be someone who can solve a problem. "The creative act of the humorist," Koestler says, "brings about a momentary fusion between two habitually incompatible matrices. Scientific discovery . . . can be described in very similar terms .... Comic discovery is paradox stated—scientific discovery is paradox resolved." 4 (I would add that the creative act of the humorist and the scientist also resembles that of the poet, who, when creating a metaphor, fuses "two habitually incompatible matrices," as when the psalmist says "The Lord is my shepherd.") The intellectual activity involved in comic discovery is just as creative and valid as that involved in scientific discovery. And it is comic discovery that we experience in Jones's humor. Dorothy Parker wrote that humor is "encapsulated criticism" and its production or...

Hometown Humor, U.S.A. (review)

Book Reviews Loyal Jones and Billy Edd Wheeler, eds. Hometown Humor, U.S.A. Little Rock: August House, 1991. 220 pages. Hardback. $19.95. Trade paperback . $9.95. Loyal Jones and Billy Edd Wheeler have done it again. They have compiled another delightful collection of stories to help us enjoy one of the greatest gifts we have ever been given, the gift of laughter. It is my opinion that if you can read Hometown Humor, U.S.A. and then honesdy say that you did not enjoy it immensely, you may be one of a small group known as the humor impaired. If this is the case, maybe you should seek professional care. However, if you are like the rest of us who are suffering from the stress and strain brought on by a rapidly changing and uncertain world, then I recommend several doses of Hometown Humor, U.S.A. I especially enjoyed the book because it took me back home to my roots. It took me back to a time when I was growing up at the edge of the Appalachian Mountains. It was a time before television (with very little radio), but we had great entertainment. My family and I, and usually a few neighbors, would sit around the fireplace after supper and engage in the wonderful art of storytelling. The stories we told were very much like the ones that Loyal and Billy Edd have gathered for us in their book. So when I started reading it my mind went back to a simpler time when the world moved a little slower. Hometown Humor, U.S.A. is not a joke book, it is a book of funny stories which are filled with grains of truth. It has been said that humor is just another way of getting at the truth. Well, that is the case with many of the stories in this book. For example, consider the following story from the collection. A city fellow was conversing with a farmer and asked him what time he went to work each morning. The farmer replied, "I don't go to work. I just get up and I'm surrounded by it." Having grown up on a farm, I not only saw the humor in the farmer's reply, but I knew it was the truth. Being a former schoolteacher, I also related to the following line that comes from a section of the book labeled "Church Bloopers." The "eighth graders" will be presenting Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' in the church basement on Friday at 7 p.m. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy. Any schoolteacher who does not see both the humor and truth in that line should spend more time in the classroom. 62 Along with the stories that give us both a chuckle and a deeper meaning there are those designed solely for the purpose of providing a relaxing belly laugh. One in that category is: A fellow goes to the doctor on behalf of his grandmother back a long time ago and says, "We're worried about Granny's smoking. We know she's ninety and all, but we want her to last a long time. She just smokes all the time." The doctor says, "Well, she's lived this long. I wouldn't worry about it." The fellow says, "Yeah, but she inhales." The doctor says, "Well, lots of people do." The fellow says, "Yeah, but Granny, she don't exhale." These are samples of the humor and meaning that fill the book. The material is laid out well and the stories are categorized with titles for each group that will arouse your curiosity. Two of them are "I'd Hate to Feel This Bad and Then Find Out Pm Well" and "A Shotgun, a Big Plott Hound, and A Pair of Handcuffs." With titles like these, you know you are in for some laughs. As you are about to finish the book and the laughter is subsiding, you will come upon some good reasons why you should have read Hometown Humor, U.S.A. in the first place. These reasons are included in speeches given by Dr. John Combs and Dr...

Passions of the cut sleeve: the male homosexual tradition in China

The first detailed treatment of the Chinese homosexual tradition in any Western language, Passions of the Cut Sleeve shatters preconceptions and stereotypes. Gone is the image of the sternly puritanical Confucian as sole representative of Chinese sexual practices--and with it the justification for the modern Chinese insistence that homosexuality is a recent import from the decadent West. Rediscovering the male homosexual tradition in China provides a startling new perspective on Chinese society and adds richly to our understanding of homosexuality. Bret Hinsch's reconstruction of the Chinese homosexual past reveals unexpected scenes. An emperor on his deathbed turns over the seals of the empire to a male beloved; two men marry each other with elaborate wedding rituals; parents sell their son into prostitution. The tradition portrays men from all levels of society--emperors, transvestite actors, rapists, elegant scholars, licentious monks, and even the nameless poor. Drawing from dynastic histories, erotic novels, popular Buddhist tracts, love poetry, legal cases, and joke books, Passions of the Cut Sleeve evokes the complex and fascinating male homosexual tradition in China from the Bronze Age until its decline in recent times.

The Mammalian Fetus: Comparative Biology and Methodology ed. by E. S. E. Hafez (review)

"What are you doing?" put to a man moving earth, where answers range from "I'm digging a hole" to "I'm building a cathedral." The present editors and authors are building the cathedral, for "environment" is taken to include a time period of approximately 3 billion years, and "physiology" is considered to include evolution during that period. Much, much material is inserted and correlated with present knowledge of physics and chemistry. Nearly half the book concerns itself with adaptations that came about through natural selections prior to written history, which actually enfolds all but a small fraction of our earth's existence. A second portion with respect to time takes up the periodic adaptations to changes that come about primarily because of movements of the solar system. The third emphasis on time, which is the shortest, is involved with rapid responses to change in the immediate environment. One obtains the impression that physiology and life itself are actually part of the environment, and that all functions change together. The thesis is also presented that behavior and physiology are not separate disciplines, but that behavior is a physiological response to stimulation from the environment. Each chapter gives basic information on some field of development as related to the environment, and in some the details are remarkably succinct. Obviously the field is so large that this book is not a compendium in that respect. However, such examples as the counter-current activity of the kidney and the change of circulation of the mammal at birth are especially well treated. The osmotic regulation of animals is explained for several species. Relation of size to locomotion is considered. The types of gas exchange are well presented. The above are generally treated from a genetic point of view. Adaptations chiefly due to movements in the solar system include reactions observed at high altitude and in cold climates. The last section deals with sensory physiology related to obtaining food and avoiding predators (or becoming predators); bouyancy is described in a separate chapter; color changes and the teleologie reasons therefore are taken up; and methods of temperature regulation are outlined. This is no joke book. It is written as a text and is full of meat. The Russian physiologist B. Bykov has said that physiology is the study of organisms in their interactions with the environment, and Dr. Bligh states that the purpose of this book is to amplify Bykov's statement. That purpose has been accomplished. Robert W. Virtue 727 Birch Street Denver, Colorado 80220 The Mammalian Fetus: Comparative Biology and Methodology. Edited by E. S. E. Hafez. Springfield, 111.: Charles C Thomas, 1976. Pp. 368. $29.75. This book represents a few of the strengths and virtually all of the weaknesses of trying to construct a significant medical text from a short symposium. This particular symposium was held in December 1973 in honor of the contributions of Dr. Charles Stewart Mott in whose memory the Center for Human Growth and Development at Wayne State University had been named. 1 60 Book Reviews Of the 17 papers divided into four sections, less than half are worth the time and effort to read. Several of the papers, however, are outstanding reviews and could stand on their own. This first chapter is the best. Entitled "Control of the Fetal Circulation," it reviews most ofwhat is known about this subject. Since the authors, Rudolph and Heymann, did much of the original research, the review is certainly authoritative . Much of the information is available piecemeal from other sources, but this is a clearly written and clearly illustrated summary of their work. Chapter 2 examines the role of abnormal hemoglobin synthesis in intrauterine death. After a brief review of fetal red cell production first in the yolk sac, then in liver and spleen, and ultimately the bone marrow, the authors hypothesize a key role of hemoglobin synthesis in first trimester abortions. Their argument, however , seems entirely hypothetical and based on circumstantial evidence. They feel that since epsilon globin molecules normally disappear reciprocally with the appearance of gamma chains at the end of the first trimester, failure to initiate gamma globin production would leave the fetus without the ability to produce...

The Nonsense Book of Riddles, Rhymes, Tongue Twisters, Puzzles and Jokes from American Folklore

The Nonsense Book of Riddles, Rhymes, Tongue Twisters, Puzzles and Jokes from American Folklore

Humor among the Treaty Makers and Fur Traders or Joe Miller's Joke Book in the Pacific Northwest

Humor among the Treaty Makers and Fur Traders or Joe Miller's Joke Book in the Pacific Northwest

Folk Beliefs in Southern Joke Books

Folk Beliefs in Southern Joke Books

A Classification for Shaggy Dog Stories

THE FOLLOWING TYPE INDEX for stories was begun as a classification job in Indiana University Folklore Archives while I was archivist from September I958 to June I96o. Although approximately 300 Indiana University texts constitute largest single collection represented, they make up only about half of all jokes that were finally indexed. After hearing by chance about a large collection of stories preserved by Columbia Broadcasting System from a I958 radio contest,l I decided to expand project and also include analogous materials from print. Bibliography of Texts shows wide range of publications that was sampled; some references came from folklore journals and anthologies, but many were from miscellaneous popular works. A survey of a dozen years of monthly joke page in Boys' Life yielded some three dozen stories. A series of articles in Esquire in I937 and I942 contained twenty examples. From many joke books available, those of Bennett Cerf were selected and found to be rich in dogs; one pocket-sized anthology of shaggies from England was also found. Two collections of stories used in advertising were indexed, and miscellaneous personal reading, plus jokes heard during course of project, provided further scattered references. Altogether, finished classification includes more than 200 types and subtypes of stories, which are organized in six sections. sections are lettered and individual stories are numbered after manner of Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk Literature so that new material can be added any place. Numbers have been skipped frequently to facilitate additions. A joke from one printed work and not attested from oral sources was included only if it constituted a subtype of a known folk joke or was similar to other oral material. As original basis for selecting jokes, it was assumed that they were ridiculous in setting, long and drawn-out in style, and likely to be followed by more groans than laughs. A detailed definition of story emerged after excerpting such jokes from archives (along with all stories labeled by collectors or informants as shaggy dogs), examining jokes designated as dogs in printed collections, and then working out a system to classify them all. Therefore, a survey of sections of classification must precede a formal definition of genre. Section A of index, The 'Original' Shaggy Dog Story, is a concession to widely held idea that first such joke must have been about a that was shaggy.2 It is fruitless to inquire whether any given joke was forerunner of all current stories, but probably some form of joke in Section A gave us their popular name. use of term shaggy dog has been extended to cover three main groups of jokes. first two sections of index constitute one such group, for principle behind jokes in Section A is exactly same as in B, what Eric Partridge has called the psychological non sequitur.3 Partridge's term admirably describes The Ordinary Shaggy Dog Story. He