ABSTRACT
We examine and criticize an influential set of proposals regarding verbally expressed humour.
The Semantic Script-based Theory of Humour, SSTH, (Raskin 1985) has been an extremely influential and widely cited contribution to the search for a theory of verbally expressed humour. The SSTH led to the General Theory of Verbal Humour, GTVH (Attardo and Raskin 1991), which is still being refined (Attardo 1997, 2001, Attardo et al. 2002, Attardo 2002). The aim of this chapter is to examine both the SSTH and the GTVH, and to point out some ways in which they are flawed. Much of this criticism will be methodological, questioning whether these are in fact substantive theories of humour. Empirical justification will be less central to the discussion, but, as we will argue, this is because these theories seem to make very few testable claims.
