The Game of Humor: A Comprehensive Theory of Why We Laugh

Jennings Bryant, director, Institute for Communication Research, The University of Alabama
"Joining the likes of Plato, Aristotle, and Thomas Hobbes, Charles Gruner proposes a new superiority theory of humor. Gruner makes a major contribution in extending the conceptualization of humor to that of a participatory game in which there are clear winners or losers. Teachers will find that this book strikes many responsive chords, because Gruner shares a lifetime of personal experience in teaching with and about humor. For years pundits have claimed that humor dies when placed under the scalpel of scholarly inquiry. They obviously have not read Charles R. Gruner's The Game of Humor. Enlivened by a lifetime of amusing anecdotes and an integrated collection of jokes from throughout the ages, this extension of superiority theories is both scholarly and scintillating."

Peter Derks, professor of psychology, College of William and Mary
"Gruner's description of humor as a game with winners, losers, and spectators certainly makes superiority theory more palatable. His discussion is both scholarly and personal. It is also highly entertaining. In the game of humor studies this book is a winner."

Don L. F. Nilsen, executive secretary, International Society for Humor Studies
"Humor is a game. Humor is an athletic competition. Humor is war. Humor always has winners and losers. This is what Charles Gruner claims in his The Game of Humor. And if you don't believe him, enter his competition and win $10,000. As both Charles Gruner and Julius Caesar would say, 'Ven, Vidi, Vici.'"

Book Description
Humor, wit, and laughter surround us. From everyday quips to the carefully contrived comedy of literature, newspapers, and television we experience humor in many forms, yet the impetus for our laughter is far from innocuous. The Game of Humor makes intriguing and enjoyable reading for people interested in humor and the aspects of human motivation. This book will also be valuable to professionals in communication and information studies, sociologists, literary critics and linguists, and psychologists concerned with the conflicts and tensions of everyday life, as well as students in these areas.

About the Author
Charles R. Gruner is professor of speech communication at the University of Georgia. This is his second volume on humor. His first is Understanding Laughter.


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