Week # 4 - September 17, 2009

Are you laughing yet? Basic elements, factors, and subjects of effective humor. Linguistic studies of competence in communicating humor. REVIEW! Diversity focus: • Analyzing various types of humor theories through American examples of humor: from abstractionism to value deviation. • Presenting and discussing intended and accidental humor of the “American” language and its users. • For example: a case study of the defeated expectation humor that points out perceptions of women’s life stages and superiority of age (experience).

Berger, Arthur Asa: Anatomy of Joke. In An Anatomy of Humor. Transaction Publishers. 1998. Pp. 57-61.

La Fave, Lawrence et al: Superiority, Enhanced Self-Esteem, and Perceived Incongruity. In Humor and Laughter: Theory, Research, and Applications. Edited by Anthony J. Chapman and Hugh C. Foot. Transaction Publishers. 1996. Pp. 63-92. 

Rothbart, Mary K.: Incongruity, Problem-Solving and Laughter. In Humor and Laughter: Theory, Research, and Applications. Edited by Anthony J. Chapman and Hugh C. Foot. Transaction Publishers. 1996. Pp. 37-54.