Abstract
This chapter explores instances of humour that arise in serious medieval contexts, analysing and highlighting its capacity to tell the truth. In recent years the study of humour by modern sociologists and psychologists has expanded from the study of the joke to instances of informal interpersonal humour. Similarly, studies of medieval humour have often focused on self-contained humorous texts such as the fabliaux, and this study expands the analysis of medieval humour by exploring moments of wit or levity in informal contexts and in reported conversation. Moving beyond the standard question of whether such humour is subversive or whether it reinforces power structure, the chapter uses modern studies of humour, power, and gender in interpersonal interaction to examine the dynamics of power in these medieval scenarios. Beginning with examples from Walter Map, Liudprand of Cremona, and John of Salisbury, in which men jockey for advantage through barbed witticisms, it concludes by looking at Middle Welsh tales in which women employ humour to assert power and speak the truth.
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Notes
- 1.
Map, De Nugis Curialium, 80 (dist. I cap. 24). The edition includes an English translation, but for copyright reasons this and all translations below are my own unless otherwise specified.
- 2.
The foundational text of the theory of the carnivalesque is Bakhtin’sRabelaisand His World. The literature on the carnivalesque is voluminous. A few works indicating the scope of the field are Stallybrass and White, The Politics and Poetics of Transgression; Hoy, ‘Bakhtin and Popular Culture’; Burke, ‘Bakhtin for Historians’; and Humphrey, ‘Bakhtin and the Study of Popular Culture’.
- 3.
On incongruity theory see for instance Suls, ‘Cognitive Processes’; for reversal theory see for instance Apter, The Experience of Motivation; Wyer and Collins, ‘A Theory of Humor Elicitation’; and Apter and Desselles, ‘Disclosure Humor and Distortion Humor’. On options for humour analysis see Attardo, Humorous Texts.
- 4.
Greenberg et al., ‘Causes and Consequences’; Solomon et al., The Worm at the Core; Becker, The Denial of Death.
- 5.
Bayless, ‘Laughter in a Deadly Context’.
- 6.
On studies of particular carnivals, see also Humphrey, The Politics of Carnival and Le Roy Ladurie, Carnival in Romans.
- 7.
A very few of the landmark studies include Muscatine, The Old French Fabliaux; Schenk, The Fabliaux; and Levy, The Comic Text.
- 8.
Suls, ‘A Two-Stage Mode’, 90.
- 9.
John of Salisbury, Policraticus, ed. Webb, 2.301 (Book VIII cap. XI). For more on the humour of John of Salisbury see Jaeger, ‘Irony and Role-Playing in John of Salisbury’ and Jaeger, The Origins of Courtliness.
- 10.
Anselm, Rhetorimachia, ed. Manitius, 107 (Book I cap. 1).
- 11.
Wenzel, ‘The Joyous Art’, 318.
- 12.
Peter of Celle, Letters, ed. Heseldine, 656 (Letter 170).
- 13.
William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum 90–91 (I.42.6, version β). This passage was originally discovered by Winterbottom, ‘A New Passage’.
- 14.
Roy, Devinettes, no. 279.
- 15.
Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, in Complete Works, 376.
- 16.
The origins of this quotation are disputed, but the online Quote Inspector has traced it to an interview with Steve Allen in a 1957 Cosmopolitan. The larger context reads: ‘When I explained to a friend recently that the subject matter of most comedy is tragic (drunkenness, overweight, financial problems, accidents, etc.) he said, “Do you mean to tell me that the dreadful events of the day are a fit subject for humorous comment?” The answer is “No, but they will be pretty soon”. Man jokes about the things that depress him, but he usually waits till a certain amount of time has passed. It must have been a tragedy when Judge Crater disappeared, but everybody jokes about it now. I guess you can make a mathematical formula out of it. Tragedy plus time equals comedy.’ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/06/25/comedy-plus/. Accessed 19 August 2019.
- 17.
Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, ed. Windeatt, V.1814–1825.
- 18.
Stephen Sondheim, ‘Comedy Tonight’, 1962.
- 19.
Hazlitt, ‘On Wit and Humour’, 1.
- 20.
Liutprand, Relatio, 7 (cap. 17–18).
- 21.
John of Salisbury, Policraticus, ed. Webb, 2.222 (Book VII cap. XXV).
- 22.
Gerald of Wales, Vita S. Remigii, ed. Dimock, 63 (cap. XXVIII).
- 23.
Gerald of Wales, Vita S. Remigii, ed. Dimock, 63 (cap. XXVIII).
- 24.
John of Salisbury, Policraticus, ed. Webb, 2.217 (Book VII, Cap. XXV).
- 25.
John of Salisbury, Policraticus, ed. Webb, 2.224 (Book VII, cap XXV).
- 26.
For a survey of scholarship on these functions see Martin, The Psychology of Humor, 113–52.
- 27.
For example Hay, ‘Functions of Humor’.
- 28.
Graham et al. ‘Functions of Humor’; Martin et al., ‘Humor Works’, 213.
- 29.
Norrick et al., ‘Humor as a Resource’, 1663, citing Sherzer, ‘Puns and Jokes’ and Sherzer, ‘Oh! That’s a Pun’.
- 30.
Norrick et al., ‘Humor as a Resource’, 1679.
- 31.
Radcliffe Brown, Structure and Function in Primitive Society; Apte, Humor and Laughter.
- 32.
Martin, The Psychology of Humor, 149.
- 33.
Powell, ‘A Phenomenological Analysis’, 100.
- 34.
Hay, ‘Functions of Humor’; see also Crawford, ‘Gender and Humor’.
- 35.
Robinson and Smith-Lovin, ‘Getting a Laugh’.
- 36.
Coser, ‘Laughter Among Colleagues’.
- 37.
Provine, Laughter, 30.
- 38.
Martin et al. ‘Humor Works’, 210.
- 39.
Goodman, ‘Gender and Humour’, 286.
- 40.
Perfetti, Women and Laughter; Burns, ‘This Prick Which is Not One’; and Burns, Bodytalk.
- 41.
Pwyll, ed. Thomson, 10.271–73. It is translated by Davies, Mabinogion, although this translation is my own.
- 42.
Breudwyt Maxen, ed. Roberts, 7.194–96. It is translated by Davies, Mabinogion, although this translation is my own.
- 43.
McKenna, ‘The Theme of Sovereignty’.
- 44.
Owein, ed. Thomson, 14.362–69. It is translated by Davies, Mabinogion, although this translation is my own.
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Bayless, M. (2020). Medieval Jokes in Serious Contexts: Speaking Humour to Power. In: Derrin, D., Burrows, H. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Humour, History, and Methodology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56646-3_13
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