Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
Joseph Boskin changes the way we think about the ordinary joke and its connection to historical forces. Claiming that humor in America is a primary cultural weapon, Boskin surveys and analyzes the multitude of joke cycles that have swept the country during the last fifty years. Dumb Blonde jokes. Elephant jokes. Jewish-American Princess jokes. Lightbulb jokes.Rebellious Laughter brings together everyday language, social interaction, and cultural warfare to form a brilliant social history. In this important survey, readers will find humor from sources as diverse as the U.S. itself: jokes from whites, blacks, women, and Hispanics; conservatives and liberals; public workers and university students; the powerless and power brokers.
With wit and insight Boskin notes how humor is a cultural tool that can be both a divisive and a coalescing force behind social change and conflict. He argues that jokes provide a cultural barometer of concerns and anxieties, frequently appearing in our day-to-day language long before these issues become grist for stand-up comics. Laughter, he states, is transformative, the means by which Americans grapple with incongruities that all too often can undercut lofty expectations and ideals.