David Poplar

Philosophy of Humor resources (not funny, just academic)

(an ongoing list, as of 2019.07.30)

​​​​​​​​BACKGROUND

​​1. Humor theories
a. Overview

• Morreall, John, Comic Relief: A Comprehensive Philosophy of Humor (2009): Chapter 1 (Traditional Rejection of Humor and Traditional Theories of Humor) and Chapter 2 (Psychology of Humor), pp. 1-39.
  
• Attardo, Salvatore, Linguistic Theories of Humor (1994): Chapter 1 (Survey of the Literature). pp. 14-59.
  
• Olin, Lauren. 2016. “Questions for a Theory of Humor.” Philosophy Compass 11 (6): 338–50.
  
• Shaw, Joshua. 2010. “Philosophy of Humor.” Philosophy Compass 5 (2): 112–26.
  
• Shanks, Niall, and Hugh LaFollette. 1993. “Belief and the Basis of Humor.” American Philosophical Quarterly 30 (4): 329–39.
  

b. Superiority theories (Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes)

• Possible excerpts from: Plato, Philebus; Aristotle, Poetics and Nicomachean Ethics; Hobbes, Leviathan.
  
• McDonald, Paul, The Philosophy of Humour. (2012): Chapter 4 (Superiority Theories), pp. 21-32.
  

c. Incongruity theories (Kant, Schopenhauer, Aristotle) 

• Possible excerpts from: Aristotle, Rhetoric; Kant, Critique of Judgment; Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation.
  
• Shanks and LaFollette, “Belief and the Basis of Humor” (re: “Flickering” – a species of incongruity theory).
  
• McDonald, Paul, The Philosophy of Humour. (2012): Chapter 5 (Incongruity Theory), pp. 49-63.
  

d. Relief theories (Freud) 

• Possible excerpts from: Freud, Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious.
  
• McDonald, Paul, The Philosophy of Humour. (2012): Chapter 6 (Relief Theories), pp. 64-76.

e. Play theories (Aristotle, Aquinas) 

• Possible excerpts from Aquinas, Summa Theologiae.
  
• Proyer, René T. 2018. “Playfulness and Humor in Psychology: An Overview and Update.” HUMOR 31 (2): 259–271.
  
• Huizinga, Johan. 2014. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. Martino Fine Books.
  

f. Mechanization theory (Bergson)

• ​Bergstrom, Henri. 1905. “Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic.”
  
• Attardo, Linguistic Theories of Humor:Chapter 9 (Cooperative Nature of Humor), pp. 271-292.

g. Humor as evolutionary “cognitive debugging” (Hurley, Dennett, Adams)

• Hurley, Matthew M. 2011. Inside Jokes Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

h. N + V theory (Veatch)

• Veatch, Thomas C. 1998. “A Theory of Humor.” HUMOR 11 (2): 161–215.

i. Benign violation theory (McGraw and Warren)

• McGraw, A. Peter, and Caleb Warren. 2010. “Benign Violations: Making Immoral Behavior Funny.” Psychological Science 21 (8): 1141–49.
  

​

2. Ethics of Humor 

• Morreall, John, Comic Relief: Chapter 5 (Negative Ethics of Humor) and Chapter 6 (Positive Ethics of Humor) pp. 90-124.
• Morreall, John, 2010. “Comic Vices and Comic Virtues.” HUMOR 23 (1): 1–26.
  
• McDonald, Paul, The Philosophy of Humour. (2012): Chapter 7 (Humor and Ethics), pp. 77-91.
  

3. Aesthetics of Humor 

• Morreall, John, Comic Relief: Chapter 4 (Aesthetics of Humor) pp. 69-89.

4. General resources 

• Nilsen, Don L. F., and Alleen Pace Nilsen. 2018. The Language of Humor: An Introduction. Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
  
• Morreall, John. 1989. “The Rejection of Humor in Western Thought.” Philosophy East and West 39 (3): 243–65.
  
• Morreall, John. 2009. Comic Relief: A Comprehensive Philosophy of Humor. 1st edition. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell.
  
• Morreall, John, ed. 1986. The Philosophy of Laughter and Humor. Albany: SUNY Press.
  
• Morreall, John, 2016. “Philosophy of Humor.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward N. Zalta, Winter 2016. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
  
• Roberts, Alan. 2019. A Philosophy of Humour. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
  
• Carroll, Noel. 2014. Humour: A Very Short Introduction. 1st ed. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
  

APPLIED PHILOSOPHY OF HUMOR 

5. Generally

• Carroll, Noël. 2016. “The Applied Philosophy of Humor.” In A Companion to Applied Philosophy, 527–38. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
  
• Davenport, Manuel M. 1976. “Presidential Address: An Existential Philosophy of Humor.” The Southwestern Journal of Philosophy 7 (1): 169–176.
  
• Blansfield, Karen C. 1988. “Woody Allen and the Comic Tradition in America.” Studies in American Humor 6: 142–53.
  
• Pollio, Howard R., and Charles Swanson. 2009. “A Behavioral and Phenomenological Analysis of Audience Reactions to Comic Performance.” HUMOR 8 (1): 5–28.
  

6. Politics & social change

• Chattoo, Caty Borum. 2019. “A Funny Matter: Toward a Framework for Understanding the Function of Comedy in Social Change.” HUMOR 32 (3): 499–523.
  
• Meier, Matthew R., and Casey R. Schmitt, eds. 2016. Standing Up, Speaking Out: Stand-Up Comedy and the Rhetoric of Social Change. 1st ed. New York ; London: Routledge.
  
• Davis, Jessica Milner, ed. 2017. Satire and Politics The Interplay of Heritage and Practice. Palgrave Studies in Comedy. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
  
• Nixon, James. 2019. “‘You Think I’m Joking’: Examining the Weaponized Comedy of President Obama’s Stand-Up Addresses at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.” Studies in American Humor 5 (1): 103–23.
  
• Holm, Nicholas. 2017. Humour as Politics: The Political Aesthetics of Contemporary Comedy. 1st ed. Palgrave Studies in Comedy. Springer International Publishing.
  

7. Social/group dynamics 

• Knegtmans, Hans, Dijk Wilco W. van, Marlon Mooijman, Lier Nina van, Sacha Rintjema, and Annemieke Wassink. 2018. “The Impact of Social Power on the Evaluation of Offensive Jokes.” HUMOR 31 (1): 85–104.
  
• Jemielniak, Dariusz, Aleksandra Przegalińska, and Agata Stasik. 2018. “Anecdotal Evidence: Understanding Organizational Reality through Organizational Humorous Tales.” HUMOR 31 (3): 539–561.
  
• Gutiérrez, Catalina Argüello, Hugo Carretero-Dios, Guillermo B. Willis, and Miguel Moya Morales. 2018. “‘It’s Funny If the Group Says so’: Group Norms Moderate Disparaging Humor Appreciation.” HUMOR 31 (3): 473–490.
  
• Kennison, Shelia M., and Rachel H. Messer. 2019. “Humor as Social Risk-Taking: The Relationships among Humor Styles, Sensation-Seeking, and Use of Curse Words.” HUMOR 32 (1): 1–21.
  
• Ruch, Willibald, and Sonja Heintz. 2019. “On the Dimensionality of Humorous Conduct and Associations with Humor Traits and Behaviors.” HUMOR 0 (0).
  
• Nezlek, John B., and Peter Derks. 2006. “Use of Humor as a Coping Mechanism, Psychological Adjustment, and Social Interaction.” HUMOR 14 (4): 395–413.
  
• Nikopoulos, James. 2016. “The Stability of Laughter.” HUMOR 30 (1): 1–21.
  
• Lockyer, Sharon, and Michael Pickering. 2005. Beyond a Joke The Limits of Humour. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.
  
• Mintz, Lawrence E. 2009. “American Humor as Unifying and Divisive.” HUMOR 12 (3): 237–252.
  

8. Satire

• Camfield, Gregg. 2018. “Is Satire Compatible with Free Speech?” Studies in American Humor 4 (2): 183–91.
  
• Nagel, James. 1974. “‘Catch-22’ and Angry Humor: A Study of the Normative Values of Satire.” Studies in American Humor 1 (2): 99–106.
  
• Greenberg, Jonathan. 2019. The Cambridge Introduction to Satire. Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
  

9. Religion

• McDonald, Paul, The Philosophy of Humour. (2012): Chapter 8 (Humor and Religion), pp. 92-104
  
• Lindvall, Terry. 2018. “Review: David Feltmate: Drawn to the Gods: Religion and Humor in the Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy.” HUMOR 31 (1): 159–162.
  

10. Other applications / miscellaneous 

• Robert, Christopher, and James A. Wall. 2019. “Humor in Civil Case Mediations: A Functional Approach.” HUMOR 32 (3): 361–391.
  
• Davies, Christie. 2008. “American Jokes about Lawyers.” HUMOR 21 (4): 369–386.
  
• Juckel, Jennifer, Steven Bellman, and Duane Varan. 2016. “A Humor Typology to Identify Humor Styles Used in Sitcoms.” HUMOR 29 (4): 583–603.
  
• Gini, A. 2011. “The Importance of Humor in Teaching Philosophy.” Teaching Philosophy 34 (2): 143–149.