ABSTRACT
The Jews are the one group that can be said to excel the Scots in the production of jokes and humor and particularly of self-mocking jokes. However, even though the number of self-mocking Jewish jokes exceeds that generated by the Scots, the proportion of Jewish jokes that are self-mocking is probably lower than is the case with jokes of Caledonian origin. The existence of a self-mocking humor among the Scots whose recent history has been quite devoid of persecution or serious hostility from outsiders tends to undermine the thesis that the quality of self-mockery in Jewish humor is the result of anti-Semitic oppression. The Scottish jokes can be read as a form of self-congratulation and self-promotion through self-mockery, a way of boasting without being immodest. The existence and nature of the Scottish jokes negates altogether the idea that Jewish humor is in some sense pathological.
