SEMANTIC MECHANISMS OF HUMOR

SYNTHESE LANGUAGE LIBRARY

TEXTS AND STUDIES IN

LINGUISTICS AND PHILOSOPHY

Managing Editors:

ELISABET ENGDAHL, University of Wisconsin JAAKKO HINTIKKA, Florida State University, Tallahassee

S TAN LEY PET E R S, The University of Texas at Austin

Editorial Board:

EMMON BACH, University of Massachusetts at Amherst J 0 AN B RES NAN, Stanford University

J 0 H N L YON s, University of Sussex JULIUS M. E. MORAVCSIK, Stanford University

PA TRICK SUPPES, Stanford University DAN A S COT T, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh

VOLUME 24

VICTOR RASKIN

Purdue University

SEMANTIC MECHANISMS

OF HUMOR

D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY

A MEMBER OF THE KLUWER •• ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS GROUP

DORDRECHT/BOSTON/LANCASTER

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Raskin, Victor, 1944. Semantic mechanisms of humor.

Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Wit and humor-History and criticism. 2. Semantics. I.

Title. PN6147.R33 1984 809.7 84-16093 ISBN-13: 978-94-009-6474-7 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-6472-3 DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-6472-3

Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company, P.O. Box 17,3300 AA Dordrecht, Holland.

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All Rights Reserved © 1985 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland

Softcover reprint of the hardcover I st edition 1984 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or

utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and

retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner

BHTanHID H (rrOKOMHOMY) AneKCaH~py PaCKHH~~, OT KOTOp~X MHe ~OCTanOCb ~YBCTBO IDMOpa

To Vitaly and Alexander ('7" t) Raskin, who gave me the sense of humor

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ~

PREFACE xill G~ ~ Structure xill Examples xv Technicalities and Miscellanea xvi Acknowledgments xvill

CHAPTER ONE: SURVEY OF HUMOR RESEARCH 1 Introduction 1 1. What Is Humor? 1 2. Is Humor Good or Bad? 9 3. Conditions for Humor 11 4. Physiology, Psychology, and Evolution of Humor 19 5. Classification of Humor 24 6. Theories of Humor 30 7. Structure of Humor 41

CHAPTER TWO: THEORY 45 Introduction 45 1. Verbal Humor 45 2. Linguistic Theory: Format 47 3. Linguistic Theory: Applications 51 4. Linguistic Applications to Humor:

Research Strategy 53

CHAPTER THREE: SEMANTIC THEORY 59 Introduction 59 1. Goals of Semantic Theory 59 2. Elements of Contextual Semantics 67 3. Format of Semantic Theory 76

viii TABLE OF CONTENTS

4. Script-Based Lexicon 80 5. Combinatorial Rules 85 6. Justification and evaluation of semantic theory 92

CHAPTER FOUR: SEMANTIC THEORY OF HUMOR 99 Introduction 99 1. Main Hypothesis 99 2. Joke Telling As Non-Bona-Fide-Communication 100 3. Script Overlap 104 4. Script Oppositeness 107 5. Semantic Script-Switch Triggers 114 6. Analysis of a Sample Joke 117 7. Theories of Humor: Script-Based Interpretation 127 8. Apparent Counterexamples 132 9. Joke Construction 139

CHAPTER FIVE: SEXUAL HUMOR 148 Introduction 148 1. Sexual/Non-Sexual Opposition: Overt, Unspecified 149 2. Sexual/Non-Sexual Opposition: Overt, Specified 154 3. Non-Sexual Opposition in Explicitly Sexual Humor 160 4. Specific Sexual Opposition in Explicitly Sexual Humor 165 5. Sexual Humor in the Russian Chastushka 170 6. Sexual Scripts, Oppositions and Triggers:

A Summary 177

CHAPTER SIX: ETHNIC HUMOR 180 Introduction 180 1. Script of Language Distortion 181 2. Script of Dumbness 185 3. Script of Stinginess 189 4. Script of Craftiness 191 5. Non-Standard Specific Scripts in Ethnic Jokes 194 6. Smaller Targeted Groups in Ethnic Humor 200 7. National Superiority Jokes 202 8. Pseudo-Ethnic Jokes 205 9. Jewish Humor 209

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER SEVEN: POLITICAL HUMOR

Introduction 1. Denigration of a Political Figure 2. Denigration of a Political Group or Institution 3. Denigration of a Political Idea or Slogan 4. Exposure of National Traits 5. Exposure of Political Repression 6. Exposure of Shortages 7. Exposure of Specific Political Situations 8. Soviet Political Humor

AFTERWORD

APPENDICES: ADDITIONAL JOKE EXAMPLES

Appendix 1: 50 Simple jokes Appendix 2: 25 Complex jokes

REFERENCES

SUBJECT INDEX

NAME INDEX

ix

222 222 223 227 229 230 232 234 235 237

247

248 248 253

258

268

281

ACKNOWLEDG MENTS

The author would like to acknowledge with gratitude the permissions to quote passages and/or jokes from: Without Feathers by Woody Allen, Warner Books, 1976, © 1972,1973,1974,1975 by Woody Allen, published by arrangement with Random House, Inc., granted by Random House, Inc.; "Laughter" by Henri Bergson from Comedy by Wylie Sypher (ed.), Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1956, © 1911 by Macmillan Company, reprinted by permission of Doubleday & Company, Inc.; "How do they tell Polish jokes in Poland?" by Christie Davies, presentation at the April Fools' Day (WHIM) Conference on Linguistic Humor, Tempe, AZ: Unpublished MS, 1982, granted by the author; Forbidden Laughter: Soviet Underground Jokes by Emil Draitser, Los Angeles: Almanac Press, 1978, granted by Almanac Press; The Humor of Humor by Evan Esar, © 1952, by permission of the publisher, Horizon Press, New York; Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious by Sigmund Freud, Penguin Books, 1976, used with kind permission of Sigmund Freud Copyrights Ltd.; Sweet Madness: A Study of Humor by William F. Fry, Jr., Palo Alto, CA: Pacific Book Publishers, 1963, granted by Pacific Books Publishers; Nepodtsenzurnaya russkaya chastushka /The Uncensored Russian Chastushka/, compiled by \1adimir Kabronsky, New York: Russica Books, 1978, granted by Russica Publishers; Pulling Our Own Strings, edited by Gloria Kaufman and Mary Kay Blakeley, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1980, granted by Indiana University Press; Wit as a Weapon: The Political Joke in History by Egon Larsen, London: Frederick Muller, 1980, granted by Frederick Muller Limited; Rationale of the Dirty Joke by Gershon Legman, New York: Grove Press & Basic Books, 1968, and No Laughing Matter: Rationale of the Dirty Joke (2nd series) by Gershon Legman, New York: Breaking Point, 1975, granted by the author's agent, Kryptadia, Inc.; Laughter and Liberation by Harvey Mindess, Los Angeles: Nash, 1971, granted by the author; The Big Book of Jewish Humor, edited by William Novak and Moshe Waldoks, New York: Harper and Row, © 1981 by William Novak and Moshe Waldoks, reprinted by permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.; 2000 New Laughs for Speakers by Robert Orben, No. Hollywood, CA: Wilshire Book Company, 1978, originally published as 2500 Jokes to Start 'em Laughing by

xi

xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Robert Orben, © 1971, 1972, 1979 by Robert Orben, reprinted by pennission of Doubleday & Company, Inc.; The Origins of Wit and Humor by Albert Rapp, New York: Dutton, 1951, granted by the author's widow, Mrs. Albert (Helen) Rapp; the book Doctor Knock-Knock's Official Knock-Knock Dictionary by Joseph Rosenbloom, © 1976 by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., New York, N. Y. 10016; A Treasure-Trove of American Jewish Humor by Henry D. Spalding, Middle Village, N.Y.: Jonathan David, 1976, granted by Jonathan David Publishers, Inc.; The Official Jewish/Irish Joke Book by Larry Wilde, New York: Pinnacle, 1974, granted by the author.

The author is also grateful for the pennissions to print: three jokes orally delivered by Johnny Carson on the "Tonight Show," granted by Carson Productions, Inc.; one joke orally delivered on TV by Rich Little, granted by Mr. Rich Little; and a verbalization of the drawing and caption of a Stan Hunt cartoon in the February 12, 1979, issue of The New Yorker, granted by The New Yorker.

The author would also like to thank the publishers of his previous work for permissions to use the material of: "Problems of justification in semantic theory" by Victor Raskin, in: W. U. Dressler and W. Meid (eds.), Proceedings of the 12th International Congress of Linguists, Innsbruck: Institut fi1r Sprach­wissenschaft der Universitll.t Innsbruck, 1978, granted by Institut fi1r Sprachwissenschaft der Universitll.t Innsbruck, A-6020, Innsbruck, Innrain 52, Austria; "Semantic mechanisms of humor" by Victor Raskin, in: C. Chiarello et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, Berkeley, CA: University ofCalifomia, 1979, granted by the Berkeley Linguistics Society; "Theory and practice of justification in linguistics" by Victor Raskin, in: P. R. Clyne et al. (eds.), The Elements: A Parasession on Linguistic Units and Levels, Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society, 1979, granted by the Chicago Linguistic Society; "Script-based lexicon" by Victor Raskin, Quaderni di Semantica, Vol.II: 1,1981, granted by Professor Mario Alinei, Editor; "The semantics of abuse in the chastushka: Women's bawdy" by Victor Raskin, Maledicta, Vol.V, 1981, granted by Maledicta Press; and "A script-based semantic theory of humor," in: D. L. F. Nilsen (with AIleen P. Nilsen) (ed.), The Language of Humor. The Humor of Language, Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University, 1983, granted by the editor.

PREFACE

GOAL

This is the funniest book I have ever written - and the ambiguity here is deliberate. Much of this book is about deliberate ambiguity, described as unambiguously as possible, so the previous sentence is probably the fIrst, last, and only deliberately ambiguous sentence in the book.

Deliberate ambiguity will be shown to underlie much, if not all, of verbal humor. Some of its forms are simple enough to be perceived as deliberately ambiguous on the surface; in others, the ambiguity results from a deep semantic analysis.

Deep semantic analysis is the core of this approach to humor. The book is the fIrst ever application of modem linguistic theory to the study of humor and it puts forward a formal semantic theory of verbal humor. The goal of the theory is to formulate the necessary and sufficient conditions, in purely semantic terms, for a text to be funny. In other words, if a formal semantic analysis of a text yields a certain set of semantic proptrties which the text possesses, then the text is recognized as a joke. As any modem linguistic theory, this semantic theory of humor attempts to match a natural intuitive ability which the native speaker has, in this particular case, the ability to perceive a text as funny, i.e., to distinguish a joke from a non-joke.

The proposed set of necessary and sufficient conditions consists of the following two semantic properties: fIrst, in order to be ajoke, any text should be partially or fully compatible with two different scripts and secondly, a special relation of script oppositeness should obtain between the two scripts.

STRUCTURE

The fIrst part of the book, Chapters 1 - 4, attempts to make the last paragraph comprehensible to the reader who is neither a linguist nor a humor researcher.

The book proposes a semantic theory of humor, and both of the com­ponents, semantic theory and humor, need an introduction.

xiii

xiv PREFACE

An introduction to the general study of humor is provided by Chapter 1. There is very little there on the linguistics of humor because nothing much is available in the literature. Throughout the centuries, most of the thinkers and, lately, researchers in the field of humor have been philosophers, aestheticians, sociologists, psychologists, and practitioners, i.e., humorists and comedians who have had some thoughts about their profession. The latter three categories still dominate the international gatherings in the field, such as the First (Cardiff, Wales, 1976), Second (Los Angeles, 1979) and Third (Washington, D.C., 1982) International Conferences on humor. The survey chapter introduces the basic ideas, problems, and concepts of humor research by exposing the reader to a layer after layer of heterogeneous and often mutually contradictory writings on the subject. The result, I hope, is somewhat less frustrating to read than it was to write the chapter, for without some familiarity with its content the rest of the book can hardly be appreciated or even comprehended.

Chapter 2 is a transition from an introduction to humor to an introduction to semantic theory. On the one hand, it limits and specifies the material of the book to verbal humor. On the other, it sets up the framework of the linguistic approach adopted in the book and the format of the application oflinguistics to humor. It even gives the reader a preview of a few semantic concepts in order to make a point about their insufficiency for an analysis of humor without a comprehensive formal theory.

Chapter 3 provides a proper introduction to the script-based semantic t~eory on which the book is based. A background in formal semantic theory is supplied in the first sections and then the basic concepts of the theory, script and combinatorial rule, are introduced, analyzed and illustrated. It is emphasized in the chapter that only a contextual semantic theory is useful for the study of humor , and the script-based semantic theory is demonstrated to accommodate the context much better than any of its predecessors.

Chapter 4 is the central and most important part of the book, and the purpose of the previous three chapters is to build up enough common ground for the central issues of the book to be dealt with in this chapter. Besides applying the script-based semantic theory to the text of the joke, the chapter explores the joke-telling mode of communication in a pioneering attempt to extend the cooperative principle and maxims of communication beyond Grice's bona-fide communication. It also introduces, classifies, and explores the relation of script oppositeness on which the verbal jokes are based.

Chapters 5 - 7 constitute the second part of the book, in which the script-based semantic theory of humor is applied to three specific categories

PREFACE xv

of verbal humor, namely sexual, ethnic, and political humor, respectively. Each of the chapters is, therefore, an application of an application of semantic theory to humor, and it should be borne in mind that behind each and every example used in the chapters there is a highly technical and purely formal semantic analysis, along the lines of Chapter 4, which is introduced in each of the three chapters very informally and non-technically for the sake of easier legibility and comprehensibility.

There are different ways to read the book."In its entirety, it is written self-sufficiently for the general public. A humor researcher will probablv glance through Chapter 1 and some parts of Chapter 2 and will start reading properly from Chapter 3. A semanticist will probably skip through a few sections of Chapter 3 and will read its Sections 4 - 6 more closely though Section 1 is also rather important. A rare person who is both a humor researcher and a semanticist (I know two or three such people) will probably start directly from Chapter 4 following some of the back references to the fIrst three chapters to clarify the use of terminology. The reader who is not interested in the theory at all will perhaps, much to my displeasure, read Chapter 4, Section 1, and then the second part of the book. All of these categories of readers will, I hope, fInd some food for thOUght in the book.

It is only fair, however, to caution those who will take the book for ajoke book, with some redundant unfunny text in between jokes, that they are very likely to be disappointed for reasons disclosed in the next section.

EXAMPLES

Rather few examples of jokes are used in the frrst part of the book because of its theoretical nature. It is, however, somewhat reinforced by additional examples in the Appendices. The second part introduces hundreds of examples. Throughout the book, however, the joke examples have been chosen, primarily, not for their quality but rather for their easy analyzability and ability to illustrate a certain semantic point. Other things being equal, a better and/Qr a later joke was preferred to a weaker and/or older one but, in most cases, this was a very auxiliary consideration. I searched for examples in various joke books which were available to me, in my own memory and in the memories of my numerous friends, colleagues, associates, and students. In some cases, I placed an order for a joke of a certain kind and received it shortly thereafter. In other cases, I was disappointed because no joke of a certain kind seemed to be available, and often for no clear reason. Once, out of sheer desperation, I made up a joke of a certain kind

xvi PREFACE

myself. On another occasion, my wife authored a joke. The attentive reader will not fail to discover those almost artificial products. It may turn out, however, that they are not even the worst of the lot for reasons explained above.

While the publishers and/or authors of most of the joke books, from which I needed to use examples of certain semantic types, were quite cooperative and understanding, two or three did not let me use their material- the result is that some of the types and phenomena ended up being illustrated not by the most trivial, obvious, and hackneyed examples, as my original intention had been, but rather by somewhat more sophisticated jokes, usually of a better quality. In many such cases I had to opt for Russian/Soviet examples, which were obviously clear of any copyright restrictions, having never been printed before. The predominance of Soviet humor in some of the chapters, especially in Chapter 5, was not really intended, therefore, but it is not at all unrepresentative of the world treasury of jokes as a whole because of the enormous Russian productivity in this domain.

I would also like to emphasize, in very strong and unambiguous terms, that the use of a joke in the text of the book does not constitute an endorsement of its contents, values, and/or prejudices. Each joke illustrates a certain semantic type and this constitutes its sole function of the book. I fully realize that many of the used examples are 'dirty,' offensive, tasteless, vulgar, etc., and sometimes I even comment on this in passing, but these are not the qualities they were selected for, and I would like to urge the reader to disinvolve himself (see the next section about the non-sexist use of the masculine pronoun) from this irrelevant aspect of the jokes and concentrate on the relevant ones, namely the involved scripts and their oppositeness. I also realize that some of the jokes are, in fact, quite nice and good, besides being useful for the semantic analysis, but this is equally irrelevant.

TECHNICALITIES AND MISCELLANEA

1. References. There is a great number of references in the book. Each reference to an external source consists of the author's last name (or the title), the year of original publication, and the page number of the edition actually used. In the reference section of the book, each entry describes the

original edition. Ifthere is no mention of another edition, translation, reprint, etc., then this is the edition which is cited, and the page numbers, if any, refer to it. If there is additional information of the described kind in the entry, the page numbers usually refer to the edition, translation, reprint, etc., mentioned

PREFACE xvii

last in the entry. In one case, however, the page numbers do correspond to the original edition in spite of the fact that a later reprint is mentioned as well, and this is quite obvious because no page numbers are listed for the reprint.

In a number of cases, therefore, the page numbers in the text reference do not correspond to the year, but the reference entry always contains all the necessary and self-explanatory information to refer the reader to the exact text used for quotation.

Each internal reference consists of a chapter number and a section number for the chapters other than the one in which the internal reference occurs, and just of a section number for the same chapter.

2. Non-sexist language. The entire language of the book is hereby declared non-sexist in intention. After much internal debate, I decided to use the masculine pronoun in its traditional non-gender, impersonal meaning rather than to use he/she, he and/or she, or even worse, s/he, and neutral pluralizing was not always feasible. I never used man for 'person,' though, but some of the cited authors did, and the fact of quotation does not constitute an act of endorsement of the use even if it is known about the author that s/he was, or is, a chauvinist pig. Those readers who like to generate accusative labels for the authors will probably ignore this cautionary remark, along with those of the previous section, and will come up with even worse labels for me on the basis of the joke examples I used.

3. Transliterations. I used the European system of transliteration of the Cyrillic whenever the choice was mine. For those words and names which already exist in English I used their accepted British/American transliteration which, unlike the European single-letter system with diacritical signs, uses many two-letter combinations for one Cyrillic letter. I used the usual Israeli system of transliteration for Hebrew. No confusion follows from this customary practice, and there is extremely little transliteration in the book, anyway.

4. Translations. If there is no mention of an English translation in the reference entry, all the foreign quotations were translated by me. It may sound like a great deal of work, but in fact, there are very few translations of this kind in the book. With very few specific and self-explanatory excep­tions, all the originally foreign language jokes have been translated into English as well, and if such a joke is given in English it is assumed that it is comprehensible to the monolingual native speaker of English. The jokes which lose their comprehensibility in translation were not used as regular examples.

xviii PREFACE

5. Miscellanea. There are no miscellanea at this time but I reserve the right to think of some later.

6. Footnotes. There are no footnotes or end-of-chapter notes in the book, and I am proud of it.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

There is a great number of people to whom lowe a debt of gratitude in connection with this book.

I have greatly profited from discussions on humor with, and comments on my contributions to its study by, Professors Wallace Chafe, Christie Davies, Bruce Fraser, William Fry, Lawrence Mintz, Don Nilsen, and John R. Ross. I also profited from various presentations and discussions at the Second and Third International Conferences on Humor as well as at the First WHIM Conference in Tempe, Arizona, in Apri11982.

Professor Leonard Neufeldt and Mr. Scott Deerwester helped edit the joke examples. Mr. Christie Davies's detailed comments on Chapter 6 are partly incorporated in the text. Professors Bruce Fraser and Sergei Nirenburg kindly offered to comment on the entire text of the book, and one of them actually did. Mrs. Marina Raskin read the frrst two pages of the manuscript with the same intention.

A few members of my 1983 NEH Summer Seminar on Contextual Semantics caught many typos in the prefmal draft among them, especially Professor Norman E. Jarrard.

The student participants in my courses and seminars on the semantics of humor at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at Purdue University, as well as those who attended my presentations on humor at The University of Michigan, Indiana University, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and The University of California at Berkeley, contributed seriously, even if often indirectly, to my thinking on the subject. A few graduate students at Purdue also helped· me with the fme tuning in the wording of a few jokes, thus bringing me up to date with regard to certain slangs and jargons.

Most importantly; perhaps, many people donated their jokes or lent their ears and patiently listened to my jokes. The most active donors-cum-listeners included Professors Virgil Lokke, Leonard Neufeldt, Sergei Nirenburg, William Palmer, and Richard Thompson, Dr. Frank Oreovicz, Mr. and Mrs. Val Mandel, Mr. Donald Seybold, Mr. Vladimir Paperny, and Rabbi Victor Rashkovsky.

PREFACE xix

My former graduate students at Purdue University, Mrs. Maria Ingberg and Mr. Guillermo Latorre contributed an example each in their native languages at my request.

None of the above should be held responsible for the result of all of these activities.

The work on the book was supported in very small part at an early stage by a Summer 1979 XL grant from the Purdue Research Foundation, which made it possible for me to speed up the research necessary for the writing of the survey chapter.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge with gratitude the generous attitude to this enterprise with regard to my use of their works or publications (formally acknowledged on the credit page above) on the part of Mr. David Daskal of Russica Publishers, Mr. Christie Davies, Mr. Gershon Legman, Mr. Rich Little, Professor Harvey Mindess, Mrs. Albert (Helen) Rapp on behalf of her deceased husband, Mr. Alexander Polovets of Almanac Press, and Mr. Larry Wilde. I would alsoHke to thank Mr. Legman, Mrs. Rapp, Mr. Polovets, and Mr. Wilde for their kind letters of encouragement.