ABSTRACT
The analytical part of the book opens with the study of international media scandals in which verbal and non-verbal humour either ignites a scandal or, conversely, extinguishes it. A scandal is understood as the extremely evaluative verbal interaction of the participants of mass media discourse. The need to express utterly negative ethical evaluation of humorous speech or action explains why speakers choose specific verbal means. The study shows that in scandalous speech practice, humour is both a means and an object of expressing ethical evaluation. In general, the study suggests that humour in a scandal serves as a means for ethical refinement, as the scandal forces people to discuss the ethical foundations of human existence in society.
