Humor Studies

The Ironic Temper and the Comic Imagination

Morton Gurewitch

Examines and illuminates the role which the ironic temper plays in the creation of complex literary comedy.

Campaign Comedy: Political Humor from Clinton to Kennedy

Gerald Gardner

A look at the humor generated by presidential campaigns from 1960–1992.

Comic Relief: Humor in Contemporary American Literature

Edited by Sarah Blacher Cohen

A collection of essays that offers an introductory survey of the various comic forms employed in contemporary American literature.

Work Hard and You Shall Be Rewarded: Urban Folklore from the Paperwork Empire

Alan Dundes and Carl R. Pagter

A collection of humorous chain letters, memoranda, notices, and cartoons that pinpoint the ills and frustrations of modern society.

Never Try to Teach a Pig to Sing: Still More Urban Folklore from the Paperwork Empire

Alan Dundes and Carl R. Pagter

Documents the thriving folklore tradition that circulates in the workplace in the form of office memoranda, parodies, cartoons, and poems.

Circus of the Mind in Motion: Postmodernism and the Comic Vision

Lance Olsen

Olsen focuses on seven British and American fiction writers, using their works to examine various aspects of the rise and fall of postmodern humor in our culture.