Tearing up the sanity clause: A class action
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Delia Chiaro
Delia Chiaro is Professor of English Language and Translation at the Department of Interpreting and Translation at the University of Bologna, Italy. Her research interests include humour and translation and the interface between language, culture and humour. She is the author of
The Language of Jokes in the Digital Age (London: Routledge, 2018).
Abstract
The law and lawyers are so pervasive in US life and culture that it should come as no surprise that they invite the kind of parody that the cinematic tradition has displayed from the birth of the movies to the present day. By examining a small number of well-known courtroom comedies, this short essay will examine how these movies often use an unlikely character, an outsider and an underdog in terms of class or education who is unable to adhere to the rules of judiciary procedures. While it is true that this outsider is there to be laughed at, humor also emerges from the ridiculousness of many aspects of the legal system and especially of legalese.
About the author
Delia Chiaro is Professor of English Language and Translation at the Department of Interpreting and Translation at the University of Bologna, Italy. Her research interests include humour and translation and the interface between language, culture and humour. She is the author of The Language of Jokes in the Digital Age (London: Routledge, 2018).
Acknowledgements
Thanks go to Debra Aarons for the clever title and general support and advice for this paper.
References
Artaud, Antonin. 1958. The theatre and its double. Tr. Mary Carolyn Richards. New York: Grove.Search in Google Scholar
Berger, Arthur Asa. 2001. Jewish Jesters: A study in American popular comedy. Creskill, NJ: Hampton Press.Search in Google Scholar
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Milner Davies, Jessica & Sharyn Roach Anleu (eds.). 2018. Judges, judging and humor. London: Palgrave.10.1007/978-3-319-76738-3Search in Google Scholar
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© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Introduction: Special Issue dedicated to Christie Davies
- Oppositions, overlaps, and ontologies: The general theory of verbal humor revisited
- Tearing up the sanity clause: A class action
- Was it you who died, or your brother?
- Between cant and Kant: Christie Davies and the (im?)possibility of seriousness in humor studies
- Early Titanic Jokes: A disaster for the theory of disaster jokes?
- Christie Davies at the Humor Summer School
- The Chinese as targets in Polish humorous discourse
- Racism in recent Greek migrant jokes
- Lessons learned about humor from J.C.H. Davies and examples in his home collection
- America’s faith in the laugh resistance – popular beliefs about political humor in the 2016 presidential elections
- Select bibliography of Christie Davies’ works
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Introduction: Special Issue dedicated to Christie Davies
- Oppositions, overlaps, and ontologies: The general theory of verbal humor revisited
- Tearing up the sanity clause: A class action
- Was it you who died, or your brother?
- Between cant and Kant: Christie Davies and the (im?)possibility of seriousness in humor studies
- Early Titanic Jokes: A disaster for the theory of disaster jokes?
- Christie Davies at the Humor Summer School
- The Chinese as targets in Polish humorous discourse
- Racism in recent Greek migrant jokes
- Lessons learned about humor from J.C.H. Davies and examples in his home collection
- America’s faith in the laugh resistance – popular beliefs about political humor in the 2016 presidential elections
- Select bibliography of Christie Davies’ works
