Humour
Related: amusement - black comedy - burlesque - caricature - comedy - entertainment - irony - laughter - parody - ribaldry - ridicule - satire - send-up - spoof
Anthology of Black Humor (1940) - André Breton [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK] more ...
Rationale of the Dirty Joke (1968) - Gershon Legman [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK] more ...
The Joke and Its Relation to the Unconscious (1905) - Sigmund Freud [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK] more ...
Definition
Humour (humor in American English) is a form of entertainment and a form of human communication, intended to make people laugh and feel happy. The origins of the word "humour" lie in the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which stated that a mix of fluids, or humours, controlled human health and emotion.
Different types of humour which appeal to different sectors of humanity exist – for instance, young children particularly favour slapstick, while satire tends to appeal more to the older and better-educated. Humour often varies by locality and does not easily transfer from one culture to another. This happens because humour often relies on a context, and someone not understanding the context will usually not understand the humour. Various techniques serve to deliver humour. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humour [Jul 2004]
Stith Thompson classification of humor
Here is what I believe the Stith Thompson classification of humorThe folklore scholar Gershon Legman devoted several pages to the French conte-en-vers genre in an article entitled "Toward a Motif-Index of Erotic Humor." Legman underlined the significance of this genre in the context of folklore research:
The conte-en-vers is therefore the real connecting link between the earlier folktale collections and the modern scientific collections, and is the real repository of the native and original humorous material for nearly two centuries (1650-1850), where little of an original nature and almost nothing native will be found in the jestbooks. The entire literature of the conte-en-vers, whether dated from the burlesque and Aretinesque academies of the 1550's in Italy, or from La Fontaine's contes, "tires de Boccace" as he perfectly frankly admits, in the 1660's ... represents in sum an exceptionally large repertory of jokes and tales, purposely sought from the folk at a period when the jestbooks were already forgetful or contemptuous of folk sources, and far gone in sterile mutual plagiarism (Legman 1962, 237).
... Thousands of obscene motifs in which there is no point but the obscenity itself might logically come at this point, but they are entirely beyond the scope of the present work. They form a literature to themselves, with its own periodicals and collections. In view of the possibility that it might become desirable to classify these motifs and place them within the present index, space has been left from X700 to X749 for such motifs (Thompson 1955-8, 5:514). --Catherine Grise via [1]
X. HUMOR
X0 – X99. Humor of discomfiture
X0. Humor of discomfiture
X100– X199. Humor of disability
X100.Humor of disability
X110.Humor of deafness
X120.Humor of bad eyesight
X130.Other physical disabilities
X200– X599.HUMOR OF SOCIAL CLASSES
X200– X299. Humor dealing with tradesmen
X200.Humor dealing with tradesmen
X210.Jokes about millers
X220.Jokes about tailors
X230.Jokes about butchers
X240.Jokes about cobblers (shoemakers)
X250.Jokes about other artisans and tradesmen
X300– X499. Humor dealing with professions
X300.Humor dealing with professions
X310.Jokes on lawyers
X330.Jokes on magistrates
X350.Jokes on teachers
X370.Jokes on scholars
X410.Jokes on parsons
X460.Humor concerning other professions
X500– X599. Humor concerning other social classes
X500.Humor concerning other social classes
X510.Jokes concerning usurers
X520.Jokes concerning prostitutes
X530.Jokes concerning beggars
X540.Jokes on madmen
X550.Jokes on secret societies
X600– X699. Humor concerning races or nations
X600.Humor concerning races or nations
X610.Jokes concerning Jews
X650.Jokes concerning other races or nations
X680.Jokes concerning various cities
X700– X799. Humor concerning sex
X700.Humor concerning sex
X750.Jokes on old maids
X760.Jokes on courtship
X800– X899. Humor based on drunkenness
X800.Humor based on drunkenness
X900– X1899.HUMOR OF LIES AND EXAGGERATIONS
X910– X1099. Lie: the remarkable man
X910– X959.Lie: the remarkable man: his birth, growth, death,
physical powers, strength
X910.Lie: the remarkable man
X920.Lie: the large man
X930.Lie: remarkable person’s physical powers and habits
X940.Lie: remarkably strong man
X960– X1019.Lie: remarkable person’s skills
X960.Lie: remarkable person’s skills
X980.Lie: occupational or professional skills
X1010.Lie: remarkable mental skills
X1020– 1079. Remarkable man’s extraordinary possessions
X1020.Lie: remarkable possessions of remarkable man
X1030.Lie: remarkable buildings
X1060.Lie: other possessions of remarkable man
X1070.Extraordinary man’s family
X1080– X1099.Lie: occupations of remarkable man
X1100– X1199. Lie: great hunters and fishermen
X1100.Lie: the remarkable hunter
X1110.Lie: the wonderful hunt
X1120.Lie: the great marksman
X1130.Lie: hunter’s unusual experiences
X1150.Lies about fishing
X1200– X1399. Lies about animals
X1200.Lie: remarkable animals
X1210.Lies about mammals
X1250.Lies about birds
X1280.Lies about insects
X1300.Lies about fish
X1320.Lies about reptiles
X1340.Lie: extraordinary amphibia and other animals
X1370.Lies about imaginary animals
X1400– X1499. Lies about plants, fruits, vegetables and trees
X1400.Lies about plants, fruits, vegetables and trees
X1410.Lies about fruits
X1420.Lies about vegetables
X1450.Lies about field crops
X1470.Lies about trees
X1480.Lies about flowers
X1490.Lie: miscellaneous plant motifs
X1500– X1599. Lies about geography and topography
X1500.Lies about geography and topography
X1510.Lies about land features
X1520.Lies about mountains and hills
X1530.Lies about remarkable soil
X1540.Lies about water features
X1550.Geography and topography – miscellaneous motifs
X1560.Lies about cities
X1600– X1699. Lies about weather and climate
X1600.Lies about weather and climate
X1610.Lies about winds and storms
X1620.Lies about cold weather
X1630.Lies about hot weather
X1640.Lies about dry weather
X1650.Lies about precipitation and dampness
X1660.Lies about climate
X1700– X1799. Lies: logical absurdities
X1700.Lies: logical absurdities
X1710.Lies about numbers
X1720.Absurd disregard of anatomy
X1740.Absurd disregard of natural laws
X1750.Absurd disregard of the nature of objects
X1760.Absurd disregard of the nature of non-material things
X1780.Absurdity based on the nature of the object
X1790.Other logical absurdities
X1800– X1899. Miscellaneous lies and exaggerations
X1800.Miscellaneous lies and exaggerations
X1810.Tall tales about miscellaneous objects
X1850.Other tall tales
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