Section 3: Broader Social Context: How is Humor Shaped by Social Relations and Culture?
9 Failed Humor
Abstract
Although the potential of humor to fail is a well-recognized phenomenon, it received little empirical attention from scholars until relatively recently. This chapter will provide a summary of the initial research and findings on this topic, most of which come from the field of linguistics. It will then outline the directions that have been taken more recently, highlighting, in particular, two current trends. First, the ways in which inquiry has begun to investigate and thus conceptualize failed humor in more nuanced ways are explored, with consequent changes to our understanding of successful ...
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