Jokes and targets / Christie Davies.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davies, Christie.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wit and humor--Social aspects.

Wit and humor.

Wit and humor--Psychological aspects.

Wit and humor--Political aspects.

Physical Description:

ix, 314 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2011.

Summary:

Jokes and Targets takes up an intriguing and entertaining topic-the social and historical origins of jokes about familiar targets such as bankers, used car salesmen, rustics, the military, blondes, aristocrats, and the practitioners of a great variety of kinds of sex. Christie Davies explains why political jokes flourished in the Soviet Union, why Jewish men tell jokes about Jews and sports, why Europeans tell jokes about American lawyers but not about their own lawyers, and why sex jokes often refer to France rather than to other countries. One of the world's leading experts on the study of humor, Davies provides a wide-ranging and detailed study of the jokes that make up an important part of everyday conversation. Book jacket.

Contents:

Mind over matter: a general theory of jokes about the stupid and the canny

Blondes, sex, and the French

Jewish women and Jewish men

Sex between men : places, occupations, and classes

The great American lawyer joke cycle

The rise of the Soviet joke and the fall of the Soviet Union

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-299) and index.

ISBN:

9780253356192

0253356199

9780253223029

0253223024

OCLC:

663954286