Good Humor, Bad Taste: A Sociology of the Joke

Giselinde Kuipers

Published by De Gruyter Mouton 2006

Good Humor, Bad Taste

A Sociology of the Joke

Giselinde Kuipers

Volume 7 in the series Humor Research [HR]

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110898996

Overview
Contents

About this book

Good Humor, Bad Taste is the first extensive sociological study of the relationship between humor and social background. Using a combination of interview materials, survey data, and historical materials, the book explores the relationship between humor and gender, age, regional background, and especially, humor and social class in the Netherlands. The final chapter focuses on national differences, exploring the differences between the American and the Dutch sense of humor, again using a combination of interview and survey materials.

The starting point for this exploration of differences in sense of humor is one specific humorous genre: the joke. The joke is not a very prestigious genre; in the Netherlands even less so than in the US. It is precisely this lack of status that made it a good starting point for asking questions about humor and taste. Interviewees generally had very pronounced opinions about the genre, calling jokes "their favorite kind humor", but also "completely devoid of humor" and "a form of intellectual poverty". Good Humor, Bad Taste attempts to explain why jokes are good humor to some, bad taste to others.

The focus on this one genre enables Good Humor, Bad Taste to have a very wide scope. The book not only covers the appreciation and evaluation of jokes by different social groups and in different cultures, and its relationship with wider humor styles. It also describes the genre itself: the history of the genre, its decline in status from the sixteenth century onward, and the way the topics and the tone of jokes have changed over the last fifty years of the twentieth century.

Author information

Giselinde Kuipers, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Reviews

"[...] Good Humor, Bad Tast is an important book"
Elliott Oring in: Journal of American Folklore 2009

"This is an insightful and very clearly espressed study of an important social phenomenon ‒humor. Besides, it contains, if I may say so without losing cast in Batavia, some very funny jokes."
Christie Davies in: American Journal of Sociology 2008

"[...] this is a valuable and insightful contribution to the scholarship on jokes and humor that opens up many possibilities for future research."
Moira Smith in: Journal of Folklore Research 2/2008

Topics

i-vi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	i
Acknowledgements Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Chapter 1. Introduction: Jokes, humor, and taste Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. Style and social background
Chapter 2. The joke: Genesis of an oral genre Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
Chapter 3. Joke telling as communication style Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	40
Chapter 4. The humor divide: Class, age, and humor styles Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	68
Chapter 5. The logic of humor styles Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
Part II. Taste and quality
Chapter 6. The repertoire: Dutch joke culture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	120
Chapter 7. Temptation and transgression Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	148
Chapter 8. Sense and sociability Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	170
Part III. Comparing humor styles
Chapter 9. National humor styles: Joke telling and social background in the United States Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
Chapter 10. Conclusion: Sociology and the joke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Appendix 1. The jokes used in the Dutch survey Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
Appendix 2. Dutch humorists and television programs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	256
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	262
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	269
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	286

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
Audience: Scholars in the fields of Social and Cultural Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, Cultural History, Folklore, Communication and Media Studies, Gender Studies, and Humor Studies.
Pages
- Front matter: 8
- Main content: 293
Keywords: Humor; jokes; sociolinguistics; sociology

eBook

Published: December 22, 2011
ISBN: 9783110898996

Hardcover

Published: July 18, 2006
ISBN: 9783110186154