The Language of Jokes in the Digital Age

In this accessible book, Delia Chiaro provides a fresh overview of the language of jokes in a globalized and digitalized world. The book shows how, while on the one hand the lingua-cultural nuts and bolts of jokes have remained unchanged over time, on the other, the time-space compression brought about by modern technology has generated new settings and new ways of joking and playing with language. The Language of Jokes in the Digital Age covers a wide range of settings from social networks, e-mails and memes, to more traditional fields of film and TV (especially sitcoms and game shows) and advertising. Chiaro's consideration of the increasingly virtual context of jokes delights with both up-to-date examples and frequent reference to the most central theories of comedy. This lively book will be essential reading for any student or researcher working in the area of language and humour and will be of interest to those in language and media and sociolinguistics.

Delia Chiaro is currently Professor of English Language and Translation at the University of Bologna's Department of Interpreting and Translation and President of the International Society of Humor Studies. She has published widely on a number of intercultural issues regarding humour and has given numerous keynote lectures at international conferences around the world. A member of the Editorial Boards of the Mouton journal Humor: International Journal of Humor Research and the John Benjamins journal The Israeli Journal of Humor Research: An International Journal, Chiaro is also Associate Editor of the "Topics in Humor" book series for John Benjamins.

Introduction Chapter 1 The Language of jokes several years on Jokes and humorous discourse Humour The Joke Form The General Theory of Verbal Humor Form and content Verbal ambiguity Joke Structure Joke Targets The stupid underdog Canny jokes Sex Religion Disasters Suspending disbelief Chapter 2 The Language of Jokes Goes Global Humour in unscripted TV entertainment Presenting with humour The teasing scold Behaving badly for a laugh Translating humour for the movies and television Non-verbal humour Visual humour Acoustic humour Verbal humour Purely linguistic orally conveyed verbal humour Visually conveyed verbal humour Culture specific verbal humour Verbal/visual Humour Verbal humour Translation as a Humorous Device Chapter 3 The Language of Jokes and Gender Male, Female Humour and Laughter Targeting Gender Sexist humour Specific sexist jokes Wives Mothers-in-law The Dirty Joke Rape Jokes Feminist Jokes Women and Self-deprecatory Humour Gender Bending Chapter 4 The Language of Jokes On-Line Conversational Humour on-line Signalling laughter on-line Ping-pong-punning Ping-pong-punning Below the Line Below the Line Communities Hashtaggery When the verbal meets the visual - In and around Internet memes Real life moments Manipulated content Memes as Ethnic jokes Exclusive to the Internet Criss-cross humour Meme Transference