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A Study In The Humor Of The Old Northeast: Joseph C. Neal's Charcoal Sketches And The Comic Urban Frontier Studies In American Humor, David E.E. Sloane
A Study In The Humor Of The Old Northeast: Joseph C. Neal's Charcoal Sketches And The Comic Urban Frontier Studies In American Humor, David E.E. Sloane
English Faculty Publications
Joseph C. Neal pioneered the urban frontier of the Old Northeast in depicting what he called "hard cases" from the Philadelphia slums in the long-overlooked Charcoal Sketches, first published in book form in 1838. His characters' inability to change with the times, their false and vulnerable toughness, and their urban vernacular language look forward to the humor of Mark Twain, political commentators, and radio and TV sitcoms. In Neal's work, the cash economy, the lightly ironic euphuistic character study, and metaphors of the city are used to describe the new social and ethical paradoxes of the urban-industrial world already emerging …
Liberated Jokes: Sexual Humor In All-Female Groups, Janet Bing
Liberated Jokes: Sexual Humor In All-Female Groups, Janet Bing
English Faculty Publications
Females have formerly been under-represented in jokes. Many scholars have claimed that joke making is primarily a male activity, particularly in the domain of sexual jokes. In this paper, I discuss sexual jokes that women share with each other both in all-female groups and by e-mail. After reviewing some widely held assumptions about women and jokes, I explore liberated women's jokes, including their structure, use of stereotypes, and subversive ideas. Finally, I discuss why humor theory is incomplete without the inclusion of a female perspective and suggest that women should tell more jokes.