Critique

According to the text, the author clearly divided people into two groups – people with “highbrow humor style” and people with “popular humor style”. He must have simplified the variations, and then set two typical models for readers to understand the two extreme definitions of “coarseness” and “good sense of humor”.

I don’t quite understand the standards of good sense of humor given by people with “highbrow humor style”, because humor can not exist without its social context, even if it has “sharpness and originality”. I prefer to connect good sense of humor with sociability.

What’s more, I strongly agree that good sense of humor also means that people can take a joke. In fact, I think it is the most important part of sense of humor. People who tell good jokes can make others laugh, and people who can take a joke are more likely to be welcomed by others.

Reading Task #4 – Essay

In Chapter 5 of “Good Humor, Bad Taste”(2006), Mouton de Gruyter tries to find out various definitions of good humor, and then looks into the logic behind them.

Firstly, he states that “sense of humor” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 100) and “coarse” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 100) are two words that have been frequently used to judge humor. However, he finds that people have different opinions as to what is coarse humor. For “highbrow” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 103) people, coarse has three meanings: “simple” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 103), “corny” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 103), “easy” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 103). For people “with the popular style” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 108), coarse equals to “vulgar and rude” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 108). He then talks about good sense of humor. One type of description connects it to a personal connection, which means that people with whom they share humor have good sense of humor. Surprisingly, the author finds that this description is mostly given by women, which reflects the connection between humor and gender. Besides that, he finds the other two types of description related to humor styles. People with “highbrow humor styles” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 114) prefer “sharpness and originality” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 115), while people with “popular humor style” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 117) connect good sense of humor with “sociability” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 117) rather than “originality” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 117). What’s more, he notices that good sense of humor also means that people can take a joke.

Reading Task #3—Essay

In Chapter 3 of “Good Humor, Bad Taste”, Mouton de Gruyter found in the results of his survey that joke-telling is closely connected with gender and education levels.

The author first found that less women could tell jokes than men. Surprisingly, the author knew that people often saw joke telling as “something primarily done by men”(Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 43), and women should be careful when they are trying to tell a joke. According to the author, besides the risk of women to damage their “reputations” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 44), many women simply can not tell jokes. The author concluded that in the world of joke-telling, men play the role of telling while women are there to listen.

After that, the author continued to talk about the connection between joke-telling and education levels. The author found that the more people are educated, the less they like telling jokes. Joke-telling is mainly practiced in middle class and below, and high-educated people usually describe jokes as “crude” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 46), “vulgar” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 46), “a forced way of getting laugh”(Rob de Laat, Page 42). What’s more, the author thought that it was because that high-educated people were trying to distinguish themselves with lower classes.

Finally the author concluded that “telling jokes is an activity principally reserved for men with a low level of education” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 47). Importantly, the author also found that women and college educated persons didn’t like it because they didn’t like the communication style of joke telling, instead of jokes themselves. They viewed joke telling as “a form of talk that is tiring, impersonal, predictable, forced or loud” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 56).

Critique

In Chapter 3 of “Good Humor, Bad Taste”, Mouton de Gruyter presented one of his findings that joke-telling is closely connected with gender. His conclusion is authentic.

He developed a survey among “340 people from all layers of the population” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 41), of which the quality and quantity ensure the authenticity of the results. The author found that half of those interviewed agreed that “it was not appropriate for women to tell jokes at any time” (Mouton de Gruyter, 2006, Page 45), and most women in this survey admitted that they often couldn’t tell a joke, which is much more than men did. Therefore, the differences between men and women as to joke-telling are obvious.

As a result, I’m convinced that in general women are worse at joke-telling than men.

Reading Task #2--Vocabulary List

Acme--The highest point, as of perfection—The party reached its acme.
Genre--A type or class—The genre of this book is unique.
Amateur--A person who engages in an art, a science, a study, or an athletic activity as a pastime rather than as a profession—This musician is a gifted amateur.
Imbue--To inspire, permeate, or invade—It is a work imbued with the revolutionary spirit.
Discourse--Verbal expression in speech or writing—He is making a stirring discourse.
Ridicule--Words or actions intended to evoke contemptuous laughter at or feelings toward a person or thing—Ridicule is a shield, rather than a weapon.
Revue--A musical show consisting of skits, songs, and dances, often satirizing current events, trends, and personalities—I love watching revues.
Cabaret--A restaurant or nightclub providing short programs of live entertainment—I went to a cabaret yesterday.
Punch line--The climax of a joke or humorous story— The humor has a punch line at the end.
Scope--The range of one's perceptions, thoughts, or actions—This book is beyond my scope.
Delineate--To draw or trace the outline of; sketch out—He is good at delineating a scene.
Virtuoso--A musician with masterly ability, technique, or personal style—He is a virtuoso.
Sporadically—occasionally—Things happen sporadically.
Bypass--A highway that passes around or to one side of an obstructed or congested area—We are forced to go on the bypass.
Demarcate--To set the boundaries of; delimit—The categories are clearly demarcated.

Reading Task #2—Essay

In Chapter 1 of “Good Humor, Bad Taste”, Mouton de Gruyter explains why he chooses jokes as his research topic and how tastes of humor are related to social backgrounds.

The author’s research of humor and taste is focused on jokes and people’s reactions to them. As he mentioned, it is based on the following reasons. The primarily reason is, as he said, that “jokes are meant to make people laugh and no more” (Good Humor, Bad Taste, 2006, Page 3), and they “evoke emphatic reactions” (Good Humor, Bad Taste, 2006, Page 4). Second, the author contends that jokes have standard patterns because they are “orally transmitted” (Good Humor, Bad Taste, 2006, Page 5). The author then compares jokes with other forms of humor, and finds that only jokes are told every day by ordinary people and joke-telling is “a preeminently social phenomenon” (Good Humor, Bad Taste, 2006, Page 6). Finally, the author makes his decision of jokes because they are “controversial genres that evoke explicit reactions and thus make visible social distinctions” (Good Humor, Bad Taste, 2006, Page 6).

From the author’s point of view, humor is a social phenomenon, in other words, “a form of communication that is embedded in social relationships” (Good Humor, Bad Taste, 2006, Page 7). According to the author, there are three aspects that are of special importance. First, it is “by definition an ambivalent form of communication” (Good Humor, Bad Taste, 2006, Page 10). Second, different tastes of humor are largely related to societies and cultures. Third, it is often “touches upon social and moral boundaries” (Good Humor, Bad Taste, 2006, Page 10).

Then the author goes on to talk about cultures and tastes of humor. As he quoted, “the social formation and determination of taste is one of the classical themes in sociology” (e.g. Bourdieu [1979]1984; Gans[1974]1999; Veblen[1899]2001), and “they can be used to demarcate social boundaries” (Lamont and Fournier 1992). What’s more, he said that “taste is an integral part of what Bourdieu calls the habitus: embodied culture” (Good Humor, Bad Taste, 2006, Page 14). In this book, he tried to classify the humor styles, that is the differences in “humorous habitus” (Good Humor, Bad Taste, 2006, Page 15).

From humor to sense of humor@@

I've been obsessed by my research topic these days. I decided to write about humor because Lindsey told us to write something that really interests ourselves. Then I chose humor which sounded very interesting. However, it doesn't follow that to write a research paper is also interesting.

The first problem I came across was my question on the topic. I searched on Google and found lots of topics on humor. Then I came up with a question myself whether people could understand humor from different cultures well, and my hypothetic answer was “No” definitely. However, Lindsey said that it was too obvious to be a question. Yes she’s right. So I kept thinking about how to modify my question.

I turned to the library for help, and that’s where I got my second problem. I searched for all books that were related to humor and society, but none of them talks about feelings of people from different cultures towards humor. What’s more, I found that humor was in fact a so broad topic that I could write a book on it. However, I have to start reading a book, so I chose “Humor and Society”.

I scanned the book, and I found little useful information for my research topic. The first twenty pages kept talking about the nature of humor and why it was important, and the other parts of the book are mainly about the content of humor and the relationship with society. I don’t want such knowledge! I tried to modify my research topic into a more practical one so that I could use the book, but I failed.

After that, I decided to go to the library again to search for more books. Fortunately, I found one with the name “Good Humor and Bad Taste”. It focuses on the sense of humor of people of different genders, ages and cultures. Yes! Sense of Humor! That’s what I mean! What I care about is people’s feelings towards humor, not humor itself. More specifically, I mean humor within jokes.

Finally I get my research topic clear enough.