The General Theory of Verbal Humor

Abstract

The General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) is introduced. It is also a model of humor competence based on jokes, like the SSTH, which it incorporates, but it is broader as it includes six Knowledge Resources: the Script Opposition (from the SSTH), the Logical Mechanism, which describes the resolution of the incongruity in the script opposition, the Situation, or setting of the joke, the Target, i.e., the entity being made fun of, the Narrative Strategy, i.e., how the text is organized, and the Language, i.e., how the text is worded (phonemically, morphemically, syntactically, etc.). The chapter also discusses expansion of the GTVH to cover texts other than jokes, such as short stories, poems, etc.