Humour, which comes in many shapes and guises, is intricate in nature, and though universal in many respects, also reflects the culture from which it springs. With its twenty-two chapters written by twenty-four authors especially for this volume, Hungarian Humour treats the phenomenon of humour as it is embedded in a Hungarian context. It brings together a wide range of contributions on the genres, forms and devices of humour, form caricatures, jokes, anti-proverbs, posters, satirical drawings, puns, parody, and irony.

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................9

Part I Humour in literature and the arts ...................................................11

Attila L. Nemesi
Two masters of playing with conversational maxims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Judit Bogár
Humour in early Hungarian literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............ 31
Ibolya Maczák
Humour, text formation, and Baroque sermons in Hungary . . . . . . . . . . .47
Judith Sollosy
Esterházy and the games he plays. Language, humour, and translation . . 59

Part II Humour in the media  ..........................................................................71

Anita Schirm
Humour in ARC billboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,.....................73
Miklós Gábor Kövesdi
The first hundred years of Hungarian stand-up comedy . . . . . . . . . . . . .  91

Part III Ethnic humour ...................................................................................105

Richárd Papp
"Three Hungarians: there is no such thing..." Humour in a Budapest Jewish
community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ................................. 107
Katalin Fenyves
Talmudic wit and assimilation: Sources of Jewish humour in fin-de-siècle Hungary 125
Natália Kiss
Why can't we laugh together? Perceived cultural differences in interpreting Roma
humour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ................................... 137
Ágnes Tamás
Changing stereotypes of national minority groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Part IV Gender and sexuality ......................................................................165

Györgyi Géró
The "dumb blonde" in a Hungarian context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......... 167
Peter Barta
Love on the other side of the fence: Hungarian jokes on marital infidelity . .185

Part V Political humour ..........................................................................................205

Boldizsár Vörös
The Hungarian revolutions and counterrevolution of 1919 in jokes and caricatures . 207

Part VI Education and psychology............................................................................ 219

Judit Háhn
Hungarian teachers' use of humour in the business classroom . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Zsuzsanna Schnell
The development of humour competence in Hungarian children - a cognitive
approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............................................... 235
Zsuzsanna Schnell, Eszter Varga
Humour, irony, and social cognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................... 253
Judit Boda-Ujlaky, René Proyer, Willibald Ruch
The fear of being laughed at in Hungary: Assessing gelotophobia . . . . . . . . . 271

Part VII Anti-proverbs ................................................................................................285

Anna T. Litovkina, Katalin Vargha
Common types of alteration in Hungarian anti-proverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......... 287
Anna T. Litovkina, Katalin Vargha, Dóra Boronkai
On two recent sociolinguistic surveys on anti-proverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............ 317

Part VIII Funny names ................................................................................................341

Tamás Farkas
Names and Hungarian humour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............................. 343
Mariann Slíz
The aim of naming in parody . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ................................. 355

Part IX Conferences and proceedings ....................................................................367

Péter Barta, Anna T. Litovkina
Three recent humour conferences in Hungary and their proceedings . . . . . . . . 369

Notes on Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................ 379