LAWRENCE E. MINTZ
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND"HUMOR AS A SOCIAL AND CULTURAL PHENOMENON"
Every culture, every society uses humor as a way to explore and to express values, attitudes, beliefs, expectations, hopes, and fears. We laugh with what we approve and at that which we want to ridicule, to repudiate. Humor is an essential, indispensable tool for the examination and discussion of subjects and issues that might otherwise be difficult or even impossible to hold up to public scrutiny. While the phenomenon of humor and some of its manifestations are universal, it is also culture specific and highly personal. What is funny in one milieu, or to one person is not necessarily funny to another. The lecture will explore some significant ways in which American humor has addressed important national concerns including the very viability of democracy, differences of race, ethnicity, gender and social class, and topical issues from the mundane to the vital.