This article lists publications in humor research, with brief annotations. The list includes books and scholarly journals that regularly cover articles in
humor research
Humor research (also humor studies) is a multifaceted field which enters the domains of linguistics, history, and literature. Research in humor has been done to understand the psychological and physiological effects, both positive and negative, on ...
.
This list is not intended for humorous books and joke collections that do not have any scholarly analysis of humor.
Early publications
*
Henri Bergson
Henri-Louis Bergson (; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopherHenri Bergson. 2014. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 13 August 2014, from https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/61856/Henri-Bergson : his 1900 book of three essays,
''Laughter'', was written in French; its original title is ''Le Rire. Essai sur la signification du comique'' ("Laughter, an essay on the meaning of the comic").
*
Sigmund 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 psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
: his 1905 book on jokes and unconscious has been translated in many languages, including several translations in English
**''
Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious
''Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious'' (german: Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten) is a 1905 book on the psychoanalysis of jokes and humour by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. In the work, Freud describes the psych ...
'', Translated by
James Strachey
James Beaumont Strachey (; 26 September 1887, London25 April 1967, High Wycombe) was a British psychoanalyst, and, with his wife Alix, a translator of Sigmund Freud into English. He is perhaps best known as the general editor of ''The Standar ...
, 1963, W. W. Norton & Company,
**''The Joke and Its Relation to the Unconscious'', Translated by Joyce Crick
***2002, Penguin,
***2003, Penguin Classics,
*
Max Eastman
Max Forrester Eastman (January 4, 1883 – March 25, 1969) was an American writer on literature, philosophy and society, a poet and a prominent political activist. Moving to New York City for graduate school, Eastman became involved with radical ...
**''The Sense of Humor'', New York: Scribners, 1921
**''The Enjoyment of Laughter'', New York: Simon and Schuster, 1936
Monographs
*Dramlitsch, Thomas, ''The Origin of Humor'', 2018,
*Minchew, Sue S.; Hopper, Peggy F. Clearing House, May/June 2008, Vol. 81 Issue 5, p232-236, 5p; (AN 32193154)
* Igor Krichtafovitch, ''Humor Theory. The formulae of laughter''. Outskitspress, 2006,
*Bruce Friend Adams (2005) ''Tiny Revolutions in Russia: Twentieth Century Soviet and Russian History in anecdotes'', Routledge,
*Alexander, Richard J (1997) Aspects of Verbal Humour in English
*Apte, M. L. (1985). Humor and Laughter: An Anthropological Approach. Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
*
Salvatore Attardo
Salvatore Attardo is a full professor at Texas A&M University–Commerce and the editor-in-chief of ''Humor'', the journal for the International Society of Humor Research. He studied at Purdue University under Victor Raskin and extended Raskin's sc ...
**(1994) Linguistic Theories of Humor, Walter de Gruyter,
**(2001) Humorous Texts: A Semantic and Pragmatic Analysis, Walter de Gruyter,
***In this book Attardo finalizes the
general theory of verbal humour
A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...
(
GTVH) suggested by him and
Victor Raskin
Victor Raskin (born April 17, 1944) is a distinguished professor of linguistics at Purdue University. He is the author of ''Semantic Mechanisms of Humor'' and ''Ontological Semantics'' and founding editor (now editor-at-large) of ''Humor'', the jo ...
in 1991, known for some time under the name of
semantic script theory of humour
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
(SSTH)
*
Arthur Asa Berger
Arthur Asa Berger (born 1933) is Professor Emeritus in Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts at San Francisco State University.
Early life and education
He received a "Catholic" education in his public high school despite the fact that he i ...
**''An Anatomy of Humor'', 1993, Transaction Publishers,
**''Blind Men and Elephants: Perspectives on Humor'', 1995, Transaction Publishers
**The Art of Comedy Writing, 1997, Transaction Publishers,
*
Peter L. Berger
Peter Ludwig Berger (17 March 1929 – 27 June 2017) was an Austrian-born American sociologist and Protestant theologian. Berger became known for his work in the sociology of knowledge, the sociology of religion, study of modernization, and theor ...
(1997) Redeeming Laughter: The Comic Dimension of Human Experience, Walter de Gruyter,
*
Francis H. Buckley
Francis "Frank" Herbert Buckley is a foundation professor at George Mason University School of Law where he has taught since 1989. Before then he was a visiting Olin fellow at the University of Chicago Law School. He has also taught at Panthéo ...
(2003) The Morality of Laughter,
University of Michigan Press
The University of Michigan Press is part of Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan Library. It publishes 170 new titles each year in the humanities and social sciences. Titles from the press have earned numerous awards, including L ...
,
* (1992) The Language of Jokes: Analysing Verbal Play, Routledge,
*
Cohen, Sarah Blacher
Sarah Blacher Cohen (June 11, 1936 in Appleton, Wisconsin, – November 10, 2008 in Albany, New York) was an American writer, scholar, and playwright, and a professor at SUNY Albany for 30 years. Her area of specialty was Jewish American ficti ...
(ed) (1992) Comic Relief: Humor in Contemporary American Literature, Detroit: Wayne State University Press
*Lisa Colletta (2003) Dark Humor and Social Satire in the Modern British Novel, Palgrave Macmillan,
*Cohen, Ted (1999) Jokes: Philosophical Thoughts on Joking Matters, University of Chicago Press,
*
Critchley, Simon
Simon Critchley (born 27 February 1960) is an English philosopher and the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York, USA.
Challenging the ancient tradition that philosophy begins in wonder, Critchley ...
(2002) ''On Humour'', Routledge,
*
Christie Davies
John Christopher Hughes "Christie" Davies (25 December 1941 – 26 August 2017) was a British sociologist, professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Reading, England, the author of many articles and books on criminology, the sociolog ...
(1998) Jokes and Their Relation to Society, Walter de Gruyter,
*Jessica Milner Davis (2002) Farce, Transaction Publishers,
*Arthur Roy Eckardt (1995) How to Tell God from the Devil: On the Way to Comedy, Transaction Publishers,
*
Evan Esar
Evan Esar (1899–1995) was an American humorist who wrote ''Esar's Comic Dictionary'' in 1943, ''Humorous English'' in 1961, and ''20,000 Quips and Quotes'' in 1968.
He is known for quotes like " Statistics — the only science that enables diffe ...
(2006) The Humor of Humor: The Art And Techniques of Popular Comedy, Transaction Publishers,
*
Marc Galanter
Marc Galanter is a Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Previously he was the John and Rylla Bosshard Professor of Law and South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and LSE Centennial Professor at t ...
(2005) Lowering the Bar: Lawyer Jokes and Legal Culture,
University of Wisconsin Press
The University of Wisconsin Press (sometimes abbreviated as UW Press) is a non-profit university press publishing peer-reviewed books and journals. It publishes work by scholars from the global academic community; works of fiction, memoir and po ...
,
*Gantar, Jure (2005) The Pleasure of Fools: Essays in the Ethics of Laughter, McGill-Queen's Press,
* (1997) Laughing Gods, Weeping Virgins: Laughter in the History of Religion, Routledge,
*
Rupert D. V. Glasgow
Rupert D. V. Glasgow (born 1964 in Sheffield, England) is an institutionally independent translator, philosopher and writer. Glasgow studied French and German at St. John's College, Oxford, UK. His translations from German into English include ...
(1995) ''Madness, Masks, and Laughter: An Essay on Comedy'', Fairleigh Dickinson University Press,
*J. C. Gregory (1999) The Nature of Laughter, Routledge,
* Charles R. Gruner
**Understanding Laughter: The workings of Wit and Humor, Chicago: Nelson Hall
**(1999) The Game of Humor: A Comprehensive Theory of Why We Laugh, Transaction Publishers,
*Hempelmann, Christian F. (2010) Incongruity and Resolution of Medieval Humorous Narratives,
VDM Verlag Dr. Müller
Omniscriptum Publishing Group, formerly known as VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, is a German publishing group headquartered in Riga, Latvia. Founded in 2002 in Düsseldorf, its book production is based on print-to-order technology.
The company publis ...
,
*Carl Hill (1993) The Soul of Wit: Joke Theory from Grimm to Freud, U of Nebraska Press,
*Jan Hokenson (2006) The Idea of Comedy: History, Theory, Critique, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press,
*Holland, N. (1982) Laughing: A psychology of humor, Cornell University Press
*
M. Conrad Hyers (1996) The Spirituality of Comedy: Comic Heroism in a Tragic World, Transaction Publishers,
*Koller, M.R. (1988) Humor and society: Explorations in the sociology of humor, Houston: Cap and Gown
*Robert L. Latta (1999) The Basic Humor Process: A Cognitive-Shift Theory and the Case against Incongruity, Walter de Gruyter, (
Humor Research
Humor research (also humor studies) is a multifaceted field which enters the domains of linguistics, history, and literature. Research in humor has been done to understand the psychological and physiological effects, both positive and negative, on ...
no. 5)
*
Gershon Legman
Gershon Legman (November 2, 1917 – February 23, 1999) was an American cultural critic and folkloristics, folklorist, best known for his books ''The Rationale of the Dirty Joke'' (1968) and ''The Horn Book: Studies in Erotic Folklore and Bib ...
, ''
Rationale of the Dirty Joke
''Rationale of the Dirty Joke: An Analysis of Sexual Humor'' is a book by American social critic and folklorist Gershon Legman. The book analyzes more than 2000 jokes and folk tales in terms of social, psychological, and historical significance. I ...
''
*
Paul Lewis
**Cracking Up: American Humor in a Time of Conflict, The University of Chicago Press, 2006.
**Comic Effects: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Humor in Literature, State University of New York Press, 1989.
*John Marmysz (2003) Laughing at Nothing: Humor As a Response to Nihilism, SUNY Press,
*
Rod A. Martin
(2007) ''The Psychology of Humor: An Integrative Approach'',
Elsevier
Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', th ...
,
*James Mendrinos (2004) The Complete Idiot's Guide to Comedy Writing, Alpha Books,
*John Morreall
**(1983) Taking Laughter Seriously, SUNY Press,
**(1999) Comedy, Tragedy, and Religion, SUNY Press,
*Dianna C. Niebylski (2004) Humoring resistance: laughter and the excessive body in contemporary Latin American women's fiction, SUNY Press,
*
Neal R. Norrick (1993) Conversational Joking, Indiana University Press,
* Dallin D. Oaks (2010) Structural Ambiguity in English: An Applied Grammatical Inventory, 2 vols. London: Continuum.
*
Elliott Oring Elliott Oring (born 20 April 1945) is an American author of academic books primarily relating to the topics of folklore, humor, and cultural symbolism. Oring is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at California State University, Los Angeles, and ser ...
**(1992) Jokes and Their Relations, University Press of Kentucky,
**(2003) Engaging Humor, University of Illinois Press,
*Jerry Palmer (1994) Taking Humour Seriously, Routledge,
*Robert R. Provine (2000) Laughter. A Scientific Investigation. Viking.
*Leon Rappoport (2005) Punchlines: The Case for Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Humor, Praeger/Greenwood,
*
Raskin, V. (1985) Semantic Mechanisms of Humor. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Pub. Co.
*Mary Ann Rishel (2002) Writing Humor: Creativity and the Comic Mind, Wayne State University Press,
*Graeme D. Ritchie (2004) The Linguistic Analysis of Jokes, Routledge,
*Roukes, Nicholas (2003) Artful Jesters: Innovators of Visual Wit and Humor, Ten Speed Press,
* Allan J. Ryan (1999) The Trickster Shift: Humour and Irony in Contemporary Native Art, UBC Press,
*Alison Ross (1998) The Language of Humour, Routledge,
*Willibald Ruch (1998) The Sense of Humor: Explorations of a Personality Characteristic, Walter de Gruyter,
*Barry Sanders (1995) Sudden Glory: Laughter as Subversive History, Beacon Press,
*Scott Cutler Shershow (1986) Laughing Matters: The Paradox of Comedy, University of Massachusetts Press,
*Warren Shibles (1998) Humor Reference Guide: A Comprehensive Classification and Analysis,
*Paul Simpson (2003) On the Discourse of Satire: Towards a Stylistic Model of Satirical Humor, John Benjamins Publishing Company,
*Andrew Stott (2005) Comedy, Routledge,
* Westwood, R.I. and Rhodes, C. (eds.) (2007) Humour, Work and Organisation. Routledge,
* Wickberg, Daniel (1998) The Senses of Humor: Self and Laughter in Modern America, Cornell University Press,
*Dean L. Yarwood (2004) When Congress Makes a Joke: Congressional Humor Then and Now, Rowman & Littlefield,
Applications of humor
*Ronald A. Berk
**(2002) Humor as an Instructional Defibrillator: Evidence-Based Techniques in teaching and assessment, Stylus Publishing, LLC,
**(2003) Professors Are from Mars, Students Are from Snickers: How to Write and, Stylus Publishing, LLC,
*Elcha Shain Buckman (1994) The Handbook of Humor: Clinical Applications in Psychotherapy, Krieger Publishing Company,
* Louis R. Franzina (2002) Kids Who Laugh: How to Develop Your Child's Sense of Humor, Square One Publishers,
* Amelia J. Klein (2003) Humor in Children's Lives: A Guidebook for Practitioners, Praeger/Greenwood,
*Karen J. Kolberg, Diana Loomans (2002) The Laughing Classroom: Everyone's Guide to Teaching with Humor and Play, H J Kramer,
*Herbert M. Lefcourt (2001) Humor: The Psychology of Living Buoyantly, Springer,
*Lefcourt, H. M., &
Martin, R. A. (1986). Humor and life stress: Antidote to adversity. New York: Springer/Verlag.
* Paul E. McGhee (1989) Humor and Children's Development: A Guide to Practical Applications, Haworth Press,
*C. W. Metcalf, Roma Felible (1999) Lighten Up: Survival Skills for People Under Pressure, Basic Books,
*David M. Jacobson (2018) 7 1/2 Habits To Help You Become More Humorous, Happier & Healthier Humor, Horizons Publishing,
History of comedy and humor
*R. Howard Bloch (1986) The Scandal of the Fabliaux, University of Chicago Press,
* Pamela Allen Brown (2003) Better a Shrew Than a Sheep: Women, Drama, and the Culture of Jest in Early Modern England, Cornell University Press,
a review*Chris Holcomb (2001) Mirth Making: The Rhetorical Discourse on Jesting in Early Modern England, U of South Carolina Press,
*Brian Joseph Levy (2000) The Comic Text: Patterns and Images in the Old French Fabliaux, Rodopi,
a review* Laurie O'Higgins (2003) Women and Humor in Classical Greece, Cambridge University Press,
*Lisa Renée Perfetti (2003) Women and Laughter in Medieval Comic Literature, University of Michigan Press,
*Manfred Pfister (2002) A History of English Laughter: Laughter from Beowulf to Beckett and Beyond, Rodopi,
*Robson, James (2006) Humour, Obscenity and Aristophanes, Gunter Narr Verlag,
*Mary Jane Stearns Schenck (1987) Fabliaux - Tales of Wit and Deception, John Benjamins Publishing Company,
* Michael West (2000) America's Romantic Punsters and the Search for the Language of Nature, Ohio University Press,
*Alison Williams (2000) Tricksters and Pranksters: Roguery in French and German Literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Rodopi,
a review*
Ethnic humor
*
Christie Davies
John Christopher Hughes "Christie" Davies (25 December 1941 – 26 August 2017) was a British sociologist, professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Reading, England, the author of many articles and books on criminology, the sociolog ...
**(1990) Ethnic Humor Around the World: A Comparative Analysis, Indiana University Press,
** (2002) The Mirth of Nations, Transaction Publishers,
***A social and historical study of jokes from the main English-speaking countries, which debates the existing theories of humor
* Emil A. Draitser (1998) Taking Penguins to the Movies: Ethnic Humor in Russia, Wayne State University Press,
* Karin Keding, Anika Struppert (2006) Ethno-comedy im deutschen Fernsehen: Inhaltsanalyse und Rezipientenbefragung zu "Was guckst du?!", Frank & Timme GmbH,
* Adilson José Moreira (2018) O Que É Racismo Recreativo?, Editora Letramento,
Jewish comedy and humor
*Altman, Sig (1971) Comic Image of the Jew: explorations of a pop culture phenomenon, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press,
*
Arthur Asa Berger
Arthur Asa Berger (born 1933) is Professor Emeritus in Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts at San Francisco State University.
Early life and education
He received a "Catholic" education in his public high school despite the fact that he i ...
(2006) The Genius of the Jewish Joke, Transaction Publishers,
*Cohen, Sarah Blacher (1991) Jewish Wry: Essays on Jewish Humor, Detroit: Wayne State University Press
*Elliott Oring (1981) Israeli Humor: The Content and Structure of the Chizbat of the Palmah, SUNY Press,
*Richard Raskin (1992) Life Is Like a Glass of Tea. Studies of Classic Jewish Jokes. Aarhus University Press. .
*Asscher Omri (2010) "A model for Hebrew translation of British humor: Amplification and overstatement", Target 22:2. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
*Avner Ziv (1998) Jewish Humor, Transaction Publishers,
**The book is derived from the First International Conference on Jewish Humor,
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...
.
Stand-up comedy
*Joanne R. Gilbert (2004) Performing Marginality: Humor, Gender, and Cultural Critique, Wayne State University Press,
*Hengen, Shannon Eileen (1998) ''Performing Gender and Comedy: Theories, Texts and Contexts'', Routledge,
*Suzanne Lavin (2004) ''Women and Comedy in Solo Performance: Phyllis Diller, Lily Tomlin, and Roseanne'', Routledge,
*John Limon (2000) ''Stand-Up Comedy in Theory, Or, Abjection in America'', Duke University Press,
*Robert A. Stebbins (1990) ''The Laugh-Makers: Stand-up Comedy as Art, Business, and Life-Style'', McGill-Queen's University Press,
*
Collections of scientific works on humor
*J.H. Goldstein and P.E. McGhee (Eds), The Psychology of Humor: Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Issues, New York: Academic Press, 1972
*A.J. Chapman and H.C. Foot, (Eds.),
**Humor and Laughter: Theory, Research and Applications,
***London: John Wiley and Sons, 1976
***Transaction Publishers. 1996.
**It's a Funny Thing, Humour Oxford, England: Pergamon Press, 1977
*J. Bremmer and H. Roodenburg, (Eds.), A Cultural History of Humor, Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1997
*McGhee, P.E., and Goldstein, J.H. (Eds), Handbook of Humor Research, New York: Springer-Verlag, 1983
*"Humor and Society: Explorations in the Sociology of Humor." Houston. 1988.
*John Parkin (Ed.)(1999) French Humour: Papers Based on a Colloquium Held in the French Department of the University of Bristol, November 30, 1996, Rodopi,
* Paton, G.E.C., Powell, C., Wagg, S. (Eds) The Social Faces of Humour: Practices and Issues, Aldershot, England: Arena
* Raskin, Victor. (Ed.) 2008. The Primer of Humor Research. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Loizou, E. & Recchia, S.(Eds.) (2019). Research on Young Children’s Humor: Theoretical and Practical Implications for Early Childhood Education. Switzerland: Springer
Journals and book series
*
European Journal of Humour Research'
*''
Humor
Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Gre ...
'' (alias
Humor: International Journal of Humor Research,
International Journal of Humor Research
''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 ...
)
International Journal of Humor Research
webpage
*'' Humor & Health Journal'' (formerly ''Humor & Health Letters''), a bimonthly by Humor & Health Institute
*''Humor Research
Humor research (also humor studies) is a multifaceted field which enters the domains of linguistics, history, and literature. Research in humor has been done to understand the psychological and physiological effects, both positive and negative, on ...
''
*
Israeli Journal of Humor Research : An international journal
'
*
Studies in American Humor
'
*''Symposium On Humor and the Law'' BYU Law Review
The ''Brigham Young University Law Review'' is a law journal edited by students at Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was ...
, vol 1992, #2
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Publications In Humor Research
Humor research
Humor research
Humor research (also humor studies) is a multifaceted field which enters the domains of linguistics, history, and literature. Research in humor has been done to understand the psychological and physiological effects, both positive and negative, on ...
Books about humor
Humor research
Humor research (also humor studies) is a multifaceted field which enters the domains of linguistics, history, and literature. Research in humor has been done to understand the psychological and physiological effects, both positive and negative, on ...
Humor research
Humor research (also humor studies) is a multifaceted field which enters the domains of linguistics, history, and literature. Research in humor has been done to understand the psychological and physiological effects, both positive and negative, on ...