John Christopher Hughes "Christie" Davies (25 December 1941 – 26 August 2017) was a British sociologist,

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of sociology at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

, England, the author of many articles and books on criminology, the

sociology of morality Sociology of morality is the branch of sociology that deals with the sociological investigation of the nature, causes, and consequences of people's ideas about morality. Sociologists of morality ask questions on why particular groups of people hav ...

, censorship, and humour. He was also a visiting professor in India, Poland, United States, and Australia.''The Mirth of Nations'' book cover

Early life

He was born John Christopher Hughes Davies in

Cheam, Surrey Cheam () is a suburb of London, England, south-west of Charing Cross. It is divided into North Cheam, Cheam Village and South Cheam. Cheam Village contains the listed buildings Lumley Chapel and the 16th-century Whitehall. It is adjacent to tw ...

. His parents were Welsh, his father an inspector of schools and mother a teacher. He attended secondary school at Dynevor School in Swansea, Wales. He then studied at

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...

(taking part alongside

Germaine Greer Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and public intellectual, regarded as one of the major voices of the radical feminist movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literatu ...

Clive James Clive James (born Vivian Leopold James; 7 October 1939 – 24 November 2019) was an Australian critic, journalist, broadcaster, writer and lyricist who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1962 until his death in 2019.Eric Idle Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943) is an English actor, comedian, musician and writer. Idle was a member of the British surreal comedy group Monty Python and the parody rock band The Rutles, and is the writer of the music and lyrics for the Broadwa ...

in the

Cambridge Footlights Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club, commonly referred to simply as the Footlights, is an amateur theatrical club in Cambridge, England, founded in 1883 and run by the students of Cambridge University. History Footlights' inaugural ...

) and graduated with a

double first The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

in Economics. In later life, Davies received a PhD from the same university (

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

) based on his published works.

Career

In 1964, Davies taught Economics at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. After coming back to the UK, he spent two years at the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

as a radio producer. He then returned to the academia, lecturing at the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

for three years, followed by a stint as a visiting lecturer in India. In 1972 he joined the

as a lecturer in Sociology, receiving promotion to a Professor in 1984. In 2002 he retired and was appointed Professor Emeritus at the same university. In addition to numerous works on humour, censorship and morality, Davies also published a collection of humorous fantasy stories titled ''Dewi the Dragon''.

Humour research

In his 2002 book ''The Mirth of Nations'', Davies criticised the theories which derive humor from conflict and superiority, and argued instead that humor is a form of

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Pla ...

– a play with aggression, superiority, and taboo-breaking. He also argued against the

Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts in ...

ian theory about Jewish jokes being mostly self-deprecating, claiming that instead they are based on the cultural tradition of analytical thinking and self-awareness. American folklorist

Alan Dundes Alan Dundes (September 8, 1934 – March 30, 2005) was an American folklorist. He spent much of his career as a professional academic at the University of California, Berkeley and published his ideas in a wide range of books and articles. H ...

called the book "the provocative critique of previous scholarship on the subject". In his book ''Jokes and Targets'', he defends what are now considered politically incorrect jokes or even hate speech, claiming that: “Those in a free society who seek to restrain individuals from sharing jokes of which they disapprove are as misguided and intrusive as their Soviet counterparts and about as likely to succeed.” Davies was past president of the

International Society for Humor Studies ''Humor: International Journal of Humor Research'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Walter de Gruyter on behalf of the International Society for Humor Studies. , its editor-in-chief is Christian F. Hempelmann (Texas A&M University-C ...

Resettling Hong Kong inhabitants in Northern Ireland

In 1983, Davies warned that when Britain handed Hong Kong

back The human back, also called the dorsum, is the large posterior area of the human body, rising from the top of the buttocks to the back of the neck. It is the surface of the body opposite from the chest and the abdomen. The vertebral column run ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in 1997 there would be no future for its 5.5 million inhabitants. He jokingly suggested a new "city state" could be created near

Magilligan Point Magilligan () is a peninsula that lies in the northwest of County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, at the entrance to Lough Foyle, within Causeway Coast and Glens district. It is an extensive coastal site, part British army firing range, par ...

in between

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from ga, Cúil Rathain , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, Northern I ...

and

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

for resettling Hong Kong inhabitants. Files from

The National Archives National archives are central archives maintained by countries. This article contains a list of national archives. Among its more important tasks are to ensure the accessibility and preservation of the information produced by governments, both ...

show that the idea triggered some debate among Whitehall mandarins. David Snoxell, a retired diplomat who took part in the debates revealed it was "a spoof between colleagues who had a sense of humour".

Books

*1973: ''Wrongful Imprisonment'' *1973: ''The Reactionary Joke Book'', *1975: ''Permissive Britain: Social change in the Sixties and Seventies'' *1978: ''Censorship and Obscenity'' *1990, 1996: ''Ethnic Humor Around the World: a Comparative Analysis'', *1998: ''Jokes and their Relation to Society'' *1998: ''The Corporation under Siege'' *2002: ''The Mirth of Nations'', ; a social and historical study of jokes told in the English-speaking countries, based on archives and other primary sources, including old and rare joke books. *2003: (with Goh Abe) ''Esuniku Joku'',

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

; the title is a ''

gairaigo is Japanese for "loan word", and indicates a transcription into Japanese. In particular, the word usually refers to a Japanese word of foreign origin that was not borrowed in ancient times from Old or Middle Chinese (especially Literary Chinese) ...

'' for "

Ethnic joke An ethnic joke is a remark aiming at humor relating to an ethnic, racial or cultural group, often referring to an ethnic stereotype of the group in question for its punchline. Perceptions of ethnic jokes are ambivalent. Christie Davies gives ex ...

" *2005: ''Jokes and groups''. Monograph Series, 44.

Institute for Cultural Research The Institute for Cultural Research (ICR) was a London-based, UK-registered educational charity,The Institute for Cultural Research's UK registered charity number is 313295.

, London, *2005, ''Dewi the Dragon'', a collection of humorous fantasy stories *2006: ''The Strange Death of Moral Britain'' *2011: ''Jokes and Targets'', Indiana University Press,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Christie Humor researchers British sociologists Academics of the University of Reading 1941 births 2017 deaths People associated with The Institute for Cultural Research Presidents of the Cambridge Union