The languages of humor : verbal, visual and physical humor / edited by Arie Sover.

"Why are things funny? How has humor changed over the centuries? Why don't political leaders like to be presented in caricatures? What do jokes tell us about ourselves? Why does slipping on a banana peel make so many people laugh? Featuring expert authors from across the globe, The Languages of Humor discusses various types of humor: verbal, visual and physical. The Languages of Humor explores many types of humor, and does so across a wide range of intellectual disciplines including sociology, psychology, communication, philosophy, history, social sciences, linguistics, computer science, literature, theatre, education and culture studies. Some of the contributors to this volume, as well as being academics, also have a professional background in humor which makes the book unique. This is research-led book offers a top-down analysis of humor studies"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references.

Jokes and insults: language and aggression / Christie Davies -- How jokes work?: Seven humor theories in search of a joke, multidisciplinary perspectives on a humorous text / Arthur Asa Berger -- God, jokes, Parnusseh & Tsores: Jewish humor / Joseph Dorinson -- Holocaust Jokes on American and Israeli situational comedies: Signalling positions of memory intimacy and distance / Jeffrey Scott Demsky, Liat Steir-Livny -- Intertextuality and cultural literary in contemporary political jokes / Villy Tsakona -- Humor and liminality: A case study of the Maltese "Gahan" / Mary Ann Cassar -- Multifacet pragmatics of Russian Post-Soviet jokes / Kravchenko Nataliia, Pasternak Tetiana Anatoliivna -- Caricature as a weapon in class struggle: Early Soviet graphic satire 1917-1930 / Annie Gérin -- The interplay between visual and verbal language in "Famous Last Words" cartoons / Carla Canestrari -- Inside jokes: Identifying humorous cartoon captions algorithmically / Dafna Shahaf, Bob Mankoff, Eric Horvitz -- Caricature as desacralization of the image: The Charlie Hebdo case / Ayelet Lilti -- The internet political meme as a remediation of the political cartoon / Khin-Wee Chen -- Slapstick Comedy: Under what conditions can body movements be humorous? / Paul Bouissac -- Slapstick in the American cinema: From circus clowns to the first cinema comedians / Arie Sover -- Slapstick humor in children's popular literature / Evangeline E. Nwokah -- Shenanigans on stage: Cultural re-appropriation of classical music through comedy / Terri Toles Patkin -- Consequential slapstick: Staging the aristophanic slapstick in Lysistrata / Vicky Manteli.