ABSTRACT
This chapter examines whether online sexist jokes can be regarded as deserving artistic forms encompassing concrete social-aesthetic import. Studies on the nature and function sex based jokes have tended toward either of two main approaches: the one being the contents/subject matter approach and the other, social and psychological implications of the material. In a study examining the contents of Egyptian internet jokes, for instance, it is observed that the language of the jokes, as an institution largely controlled by men, is manipulated and used to disparage and promote violence against Egyptian women. Semiology provides us with tools for analysing literary/linguistic substance contained in the jokes. The chapter shows that sexist jokes have definite contexts from which they obtain their meaning and significance. Sexist jokes are to be rightfully regarded as linguistic signs of the contemporary reality both in terms of content and aesthetic taste.
