ABSTRACT
Most of the humor we are exposed to is based on language— spoken by joke tellers and standup comedians, actors and actresses in plays and films, or characters in cartoons and comic strips. The chapter discusses the problem raised by the "reader-response" theorists, described author's orientation as a multidisciplinary one, and sketched out how individuals, from a number of different disciplines, might analyze a joke. It deals with humor from a very broad perspective— that of communication studies, itself a multidisciplinary field. The chapter moves on to more disciplinary-specific studies— remembering, all the time, that it offers interpretations that is, in essence, case studies that represent the views of particular individuals who use a discipline or methodology. It shows how everyone in a given discipline or everyone who uses a particular methodology would analyze humor. The chapter considers a problem philosophers have dealt with over the years, the nature of humor and "why" we laugh.
