Jokes and targets

328 Pages·2011·1.534 MB·English

by  Davies, Christie

Sociology • Humor Davies Jokes

and
“The most distinguished scholar of ethnic
humor in the postwar period . . . has collected
and organized a large body of jokes and
TargeTs
identified and described the contradictory
values or ideas they manipulate.” Jokes and Targets takes up an intriguing and J
—Paul lewis, author of entertaining topic—the social and historical o
Cracking Up: American Humor origins of jokes about familiar targets such
in a Time of Conflict as bankers, used car salesmen, rustics, k
the military, blondes, aristocrats, and the
“a definitive account of what is probably the practitioners of a great variety of kinds of
most numerous and dominant kind of sex. christie Davies explains why political e
joke, those with a definite target. Davies’s jokes flourished in the soviet union, why
s
scholarship is the state of the art.” Jewish men tell jokes about Jews and sports,
why europeans tell jokes about american

—Victor raskin, author of
lawyers but not about their own lawyers, a
The Primer of Humor Research
and why sex jokes often refer to france
n
rather than to other countries. one of the
“why are stupidity, cunning, and a variety of
world’s leading experts on the study of d
sexual proclivities attributed in jokes to
humor, Davies provides a wide-ranging and
particular groups and social classes?
detailed study of the jokes that make up an T
christie Davies reviews a broad range of
important part of everyday conversation.
jokes to formulate an answer.” a
—elliott oring, author of christie DaVies is Professor
r
Engaging Humor emeritus of sociology at the university
of reading, uk. his previous books
g
include Ethnic Humor around the World:
A Comparative Analysis (iuP, 1990); e
Jokes and their Relation to Society; and
T
The Mirth of Nations.
s
INDIANA
University Press
Christie Davies
Bloomington & Indianapolis
indiana
iupress.indiana.edu
1-800-842-6796
Jokes

and
TargeTs

Jokes

and
TargeTs
•
Christie Davies
Indiana University Press
Bloomington & Indianapolis
This book is a publication of National Standard for Information
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Davies, Christie.
© 2011 by Christie Davies Jokes and targets / Christie Davies.
All rights reserved p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and
No part of this book may be reproduced index.
or utilized in any form or by any means, ISBN 978-0-253-35619-2 (cloth : alk. pa-
electronic or mechanical, including photo- per) — ISBN 978-0-253-22302-9 (pbk. : alk.
copying and recording, or by any informa- paper) 1. Wit and humor—Social aspects.
tion storage and retrieval system, without 2. Wit and humor—Psychological aspects.
permission in writing from the publisher. 3. Wit and humor—Political aspects. I.
The Association of American University Title.
Presses’ Resolution on Permissions consti- PN6149.S62D36 2012
tutes the only exception to this prohibition. 152.4’3—dc22

The paper used in this publication meets 2010039258
the minimum requirements of the American 1 2 3 4 5 16 15 14 13 12 11
For Janetta,
and in memory of my father,
Christy Davies

Contents
Acknowledgments · ix
Introduction: Why Study Jokes and Targets? · 1
1 Mind over Matter: A General Theory of Jokes
about the Stupid and the Canny · 20
2 Blondes, Sex, and the French · 69
3 Jewish Women and Jewish Men · 113
4 Sex between Men: Places, Occupations, and Classes · 154
5 The Great American Lawyer Joke Cycle · 184
6 The Rise of the Soviet Joke and the Fall
of the Soviet Union · 213
Conclusion · 253
References · 279
index · 301

Acknowledgments
The writing of this book was made possible by a research fellowship
from the Leverhulme Trust in 2008–2009 that enabled me to make two
extended visits to the Folklore Archive at the University of California,
Berkeley and the Schmulowitz collection at the San Francisco public
library and also to work in the Cummings Library of Humour at Uni-
versity College Cork in Ireland. I must thank the Leverhulme Trust and
also all the exceptionally helpful and friendly archivists and librarians in
these institutions, notably Jean Bascom, Joy Tang, and Ted Biggs in the
Berkeley archive, Andrea Grimes and her colleagues in the Schmulowitz
collection, and John Fitzgerald and his colleagues at the Boole library
in Cork. I should also remember here the late Alan Dundes, who cre-
ated the Berkeley archive and who first encouraged me to make use of
it. My final debt is to the staff of the library of the University of Reading
in England and particularly the interlibrary loan department, who as
always proved adept at finding the unfindable.
I also acknowledge the financial assistance of the British Academy
and the Estonian Academy of Sciences, who funded my visit to the Uni-
versity of Tartu and the Estonian Literary Museum, and I thank Piret
Press for helping to arrange my visit there. It enabled me to consult the
leading Estonian humor researchers Arvo Krikmann, whose work was
being celebrated, and Liisi Laineste.
There are two institutions to which all humor scholars are grateful,
namely, the well-established International Society for Humor Studies and
its executive secretary, Martin Lampert, and Willibald Ruch’s celebrated
ix