This Page Intentionally Left Blank J@KES This Page Intentionally Left Blank JC@ P H I LO SOP H I CAL THO UCHTS ON JOKING MATTERS TED COHEN THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS @ CHICAGO AND LONDON The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London 0 1999 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 1999 Paperback edition 2001 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 4 5 6 7 8 ISBN 0-226-11230-6 (cloth) ISBN 0-226-1 1231-4 (paperback) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-PublicationD ata Cohen, Ted. Jokes : philosophcal thoughts on joking matters / Ted Cohen. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. lSBN 0-226-1 1230-6 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Wit and humor-History and criticism. I. Title. PN6147.C56 1999 809.7-DC2 1 99-12810 CIP 8 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI 239.48-1992. For my mothel; Shirley Cohen, a woman of courage and laughtel; who knows and shows that it sometimes takes courage to laugh This Page Intentionally Left Blank CONTENTS Acknowledgments / ix I Introduction / 1 2 Jokes Are Conditional / 12 When Jokes Are Asymmetrical / 32 3 4 Problems and Occasions for Joke-Making / 35 5 Jewish Jokes and the Acceptance of Absurdity / 45 6 Taste, Morality, and the Propriety of Joking / 69 Appendix / 87 Indexof]ohes / 95 This Page Intentionally Left Blank