''Rationale of the Dirty Joke: An Analysis of Sexual Humor'' is a book by American

social critic Social criticism is a form of academic or journalistic criticism focusing on social issues in contemporary society, in particular with respect to perceived injustices and power relations in general. Social criticism of the Enlightenment The orig ...

and

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

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 ...

. The book analyzes more than 2000 jokes and folk tales in terms of social, psychological, and historical significance. It was first published by

Grove Press Grove Press is an United States of America, American Imprint (trade name), publishing imprint that was founded in 1947. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, and Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it in ...

in 1968, was later reprinted in hard-cover by Indiana University, and was years out of print until reissued by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

in 2006. The second volume, ''No Laughing Matter: Rationale of the Dirty Joke: An Analysis of Sexual Humor, 2nd Series'', had to be paid for by subscription to support publishing, as it was the "dirty dirties". According to literary critic

Mikita Brottman Mikita Brottman, née Mikita Hoy, (born 1966) is a British American non-fiction author, scholar, and psychologist known for her interest in true crime. Her writing blends a number of genres, often incorporating elements of autobiography, psych ...

, "Contemporary humor theorists now ... give a warm, good-natured cast to the telling of jokes, without the nastiness and aggression that Legman -- and, indeed, Freud -- regard as an integral part of the joke-telling enterprise." There were several reviews of the book published in 1969. Brottman suggests, however, "all its reviewers seem to have misunderstood ... that the point of the book ... is trying to understand what the dirty joke ''itself'' is trying to explain".Brottman 2004, p. 58

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References

* Brottman, Mikita : ''Funny Peculiar : Gershon Legman and the Psychopathology of Humor''. Analytic Press, Hillsdale (NJ), 2004. * Legman, Gershon. ''Rationale of the Dirty Joke: An Analysis of Sexual Humor. First Series''. Reprint. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1968 non-fiction books Books about humor Off-color humor {{humor-book-stub

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