Artikelen

'Moppen tappen'. Over moppen, sociale achtergrond en humoristische communicatiestijlen

Auteurs

  • Kuipers,Giselinde

Trefwoorden:

Humor, Jokes, Class differences, Sex differences, Interpersonal communication, Netherlands, Females, Males, Working class, Middle class, Upper class

Samenvatting

'Telling Jokes.' On Canned Jokes, Social Background and Humorous Communication Styles. The appreciation of "canned" jokes -- or moppen, ie, short stories, ending in a punch line, which are usually not invented by the teller -- varies greatly between groups. Questionnaire data obtained from a representative sample of the Dutch population and interviews with 66 people show that canned jokes are told and appreciated more often by men than by women, and are more popular among the working and lower-middle classes than among the higher middle class. People are usually aware of these differences between men and women: many people claim that women are not supposed to tell jokes. Lower-class people are usually not aware of the relation between class and telling jokes: it is part of their class culture. Higher-educated people, however, are usually aware of this class difference and many of them consider telling canned jokes in "bad taste." Findings also show that people who work in trade enjoy jokes more than people in other professions, indicating that telling jokes is a relatively fast and safe way of establishing rapport with others, which can be helpful in sales situations. To explain these differences, the concept of communication style is introduced. Telling jokes is a relatively disruptive, competitive, impersonal, exuberant, and emphatically humorous form of communication. Hence, telling jokes is probably more in accordance with, or appropriate to, the communication styles of men and lower-class people, who have been shown to have a more aggressive and competitive way of communicating. Many of the objections of those who do not like jokes, ie, women and higher-class people, are related to these characteristics of jokes: interviewees often claimed, eg, that they preferred more personal and less contrived forms of humor than canned jokes. The fact that canned jokes are a predominately male and lower-class genre is probably reflected in their content, which, in turn, probably increases gender and class differences in the appreciation of jokes. 4 Figures, 45 References. Adapted from the source document.

Biografie auteur

Kuipers,Giselinde

Gepubliceerd

1998-12-01

Nummer

Sectie

Artikelen