Jokes in English - Research Paper Example

Jokes in English The Funny Side of the United Kingdom This is a book about jokes in English and their historical perspective in the United Kingdom. The book is an exploration of a number of studies focusing on John Cleese who is well known for his contribution in the British comedy and humor industry. John Cleese is a common household name when it comes to jokes, humor, and comedy across all European Nation and even in the United States. The book focuses on the life of John Cleese in comedy and his contribution to humor to the United Kingdom comedy industry.

It also introduces the people who contributed towards his work and success of his career. The rest of the book gives an overview of the definition of humor and the art of making jokes. It explores at what it takes for someone to make people start grinning and laughing. The author further explores the different types of humor and considers humor on syntactical and phonological levels (Tebbe, 2008). Humorous Texts: A Semantic and Pragmatic Analysis This book is a collection of theoretical long list of humorous texts based on revisions made and an upgrade of the original General Theory of Verbal Humor.

The theory has been backed up by current research in cognitive science and psycholinguistics. It is because humor in comedy is categorized with mechanisms that have many texts that do not have counterpart in jokes. The book also includes an exploration on a number of case studies, among them the story of Han Rybeck by Allais’ and the story of Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime by Oscar Wilde’s. A comprehensive discussion of the various texts is presented with an analytical view. One of a more comprehensive text regarding jokes in English in the book is in chapter four, with the title “Beyond the Joke”.

This text explores the real meaning and concept behind “a Joke”. It explores why jokes are often presented in short texts and their limitation in longer texts but also supports with various reasons why longer texts need to incorporate humor, which can be generated by use of jokes (Attardo, 2001). Jokes in Teaching English as a Foreign Language This article explores the importance of using jokes in class for an English teacher. The article specifically focuses on teaching English as a foreign language.

The author explains how using jokes creates a connection between the new material that the instructor is about to introduce and the audience. The book also explains the need to connect the right jokes with the right situation for example it gives a joke that would be used in the introduction class. This joke finds a way to familiarize the students with what they are going to learn and it gives them something to ponder on as they revise for the second and consecutive classes. Further emphasis is put on the need to include jokes in teaching grammar and vocabulary as it terms a joke to be a necessary device in education.

The article also explores on ways of modifying jokes to suit the learning content such as converting jokes into essays, poems, games, compositions, questions, and translations. All this information and insight is supposed to aid in a better learning outcome in terms of taking English as a foreign language (Pecnik, 2001). The JAP and the JAM in American Joke-lore This is an article first explores the Jewish folklore which is a rich source of jokes owing to the fact that the Jews are always big on humor.

This is because of the popular belief that their humor comes from their prejudice and discrimination, which helped them survive this tough periods. Dundes (1985) in this article examines the stereotyping of the Jewish American Princes ‘JAP’ as a popular joke subject in American English jokes. He focuses on various English jokes that relate to the Jewish culture and their contribution in general. The author also reveals the humor around the common joke on Jewish American Mother ‘JAM’ that is widely used in the US when stereotyping the Jews.

Further, the article speaks about the origin of jokes and their importance to the society’s well-being. It also explores the various challenges and stigmatization that wrongly directed jokes can affect the society. Humorous Communication: Finding a Place for Humor in Communication Research The article is based on two concepts that are why there is wide use of humor and the role humor plays in a social setting. Therefore, the book classifies the art of telling jokes into two categories Sociological and Psychological.

The article comprehends about how humor is used in a social environment giving reasons such as motivation, relief, and incongruity. The article further looks at the need to include humor in a work environment drawing its views from rhetorical scholars who define jokes with their motivational outcome. Similar to other articles and books on jokes in English the article also explores the various types and categories of jokes in English. The other idea that the article emphasizes on is that humor or jokes need to be studied starting with their broader view of paradox.

Finally, a great portion of the article also focuses on English jokes and their impact on an organization’s setting and its internal interaction in an organization with multi-lingual composition (Lynch, 2002). Bibliography Attardo, S. (2001). Humorous Texts: A semantic and Pragmatic Analysis. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Dundes, A. (1985). The JAP and the JAM in American Jokelore. The Journal of American Folklore, 456-475. Lynch, O. H. (2002). Humorous Communicatio: Finding a Place for Humor on Communication Research.

International Communication Association, 423-445. Pecnik, G. (2001, February 25). Jokes in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. The Weekly Column, pp. 7-9. Snell, J. (n.d.). Improving Teacher-Student Interaction in the EFL Classroom: An Action Research Report. The Intrnet TESL Journal. Tebbe, T. (2008). The Funny Side of the United Kingdom. Munich: GRIN Verlag.