Reading of jokes: humor and comprehension/interpretation

Abstract

The present work focus on the apprehension of humor and the human inclination for the comic. Actually, that theme can be approached in wide or restricted terms. In the wide sense, it is applied to the literature, word or text of every genre and type which has as its greater goal to amuse or to cause laughter. Here, the pretensions are very modest. The proposition is to analyze jokes and, for such, the present study is organized in two parts: first, it makes a description of the linguistic ingredients responsible for the humor; such ingredients become explicit later in the reading of the jokes selected for the investigation. Through the description of those triggers, the present study guides the interpretation of such textual genre, being anchored in the existence of an original, basic sense - the literal sense. Secondly, it is made the analysis of some jokes, becoming explicit the linguistic "trap" to be uncovered by the interpretative activity.