ユーモアは人間生活にとって普遍的な特徴です。「優越理論」や「不調和理論」などユーモアを語るうえで欠かせない主要理論を取り上げ、感情および認知との関連、倫理的課題との関連、社会を構築するうえでの意義との関連などを探りつつ、ユーモアの本質と価値について検証します。人間社会にとって欠かすことのできないユーモアの、はかりしれない意義を再評価する一冊です。
    

• An introduction to the nature and value of humour and all of the leading theories
• Explores the connections between humour and cognition
• Looks at its moral dimensions - when does humour become immoral?
• Written by a leading figure in the fields of aesthetic theory, philosophy of film, and humour

    
Humour has been discovered in every known human culture and thinkers have discussed it for over two thousand years. Humour can serve many functions; it can be used to relieve stress, to promote goodwill among strangers, to dissipate tension within a fractious group, to display intelligence, and some have even claimed that it improves health and fights sickness. 
  
In this Very Short Introduction Noel Carroll examines the leading theories of humour including The Superiority Theory and The Incongruity Theory. He considers the relation of humour to emotion and cognition, and explores the value of humour, specifically in its social functions. He argues that humour, and the comic amusement that follows it, has a crucial role to play in the construction of communities, but he also demonstrates that the social aspect of humour raises questions such as 'When is humour immoral?' and 'Is laughing at immoral humour itself immoral?'.