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
Biography
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.
"On the whole, The Language of Jokes in the Digital Age is a very comprehensive and readable source invaluable for scholars and students interested in language and humour as well as for those working in the areas of language, (social) media and sociolinguistics."
- Mariza Georgalou, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens & Hellenic Open University, European Journal of Humour Research
