Elliott Oring
Biographic Data
| ID | 662863 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Elliott Oring |
| GIVEN NAMES | Elliott |
| FAMILY NAME | Oring |
| SIGNATURE | ORING E |
| AFFILIATIONS | California State University Los Angeles |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 76 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 212 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 75 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1970 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
What We Know and What We Do
This 15-part forum challenges the Journal of American Folklore's readership to contemplate explicitly and publicly what we should do about the professional legacies of colleagues in our field who are known to or alleged to have harmed others through sexual harassment and gender discrimination. An introduction by the forum's curator Lisa Gilman is followed by 14 essays representing a diversity of viewpoints from members of the American Folklore So…
Jennifer Caplan: Funny, you don’t look funny: Judaism and humor from the silent generation to millennials
The main title of this book is based on the punchline of an old Jewish joke: "Funny, you don't look Jewish."I am not exactly sure what the parodic title implies; possibly that being Jewish and humor are so intertwined that one can be easily substituted for the other.The book's thesis is fairly straightforward.Four generations of American writers and comics-the Silent Generation (born 1925-1945), the Baby Boom Generation (b.1946-1965), Generation …
To Explain Tradition
Tradition has been claimed to be a keyword in the folklore lexicon. Yet the word has not proved central to the thinking of many folklorists. More often, the term is simply used to mark territory. By characterizing certain songs, tales, dances, or customs as traditions , such expressions and behaviors are declared to be part of the discipline’s proper subject. But the term is usually theoretically empty. It is rarely defined, and it raises no crit…
Dirty Jokes and Bawdy Songs: The Uncensored Life of Gershon Legman
Formalizing humor: A response to Christian Hempelmann and Julia Taylor Rayz
Oppositions, overlaps, and ontologies: The general theory of verbal humor revisited
The General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) has dominated the discussion of humor theory for the last quarter of a century. It generated a great deal of interest in humor studies by scholars both within and outside the discipline of linguistics. Problems are resident in GTVH, however, which have been inherited from its predecessor the Semantic Script Theory of Humor (SSTH). Script Opposition and Script Overlap are not adequately defined, nor are th…
Questions about Questions: A Response to Robert Baron, Dorothy Noyes, and John D. Dorst
Research Article| April 01 2019 Questions about Questions: A Response to Robert Baron, Dorothy Noyes, and John D. Dorst Elliott Oring Elliott Oring Elliott Oring is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at California State University, Los Angeles, and a visiting scholar in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University, Bloomington Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of American Folklore (2019) 13…
Back to the Future: Questions for Theory in the Twenty-First Century
Between Jokes and Tales
Humor depends upon the discernment of an appropriate incongruity. The demands for novelty in joketelling are far greater than in taletelling. Tales and jokes are not usually performed by the same narrators. Jokes are often told in the past tense, and a tale could be narrated in the present tense and still remain essentially a tale. Some jokes endure in memory over decades and are continually retold. There are longer jokes and shorter tales, and c…
Redundancy in Repertoire
The sociocultural analysis of humor demands less focus on individual jokes and more attention to repertoire; that is, attention to bounded corpuses of humorous texts associated with particular social groupings. Successful communication does not necessarily depend upon the accurate reception and decoding of each and every component signal. Communications systems tend to be redundant. While no situation of performance could ever include even more t…
Dyadic Traditions
The motivations and functions of humor are being conceptualized in sexual and aggressive terms. Dyadic traditions are behavioral and linguistic routines that are generated, endowed with significance, and maintained within a dyadic relationship. Dyadic traditions are primarily private presentations within the dyad itself. Although these traditions occasionally may be performed in the presence of others, their major field of expression remains the …
Freud and Humor Analytic Reflections
In the interpretation of humor, an encounter with the individual joketeller has been considered superfluous. In Jokes and Their Relotion to the Unconscious, written in 1905, Sigmund Freud analyzed only the techniques and thoughts underlying particular joke texts. Sigmund Freud unraveled the techniques and characterized the underlying thoughts of numerous jokes. Psychoanalysis, born in the intimate contact between physician and patient, has been t…
Jokes and the Discourse on Disaster
A joke has what may be termed propositional meanings. Prepositional meanings may be formulated as propositions that proceed from the base but incorporate aspects of “plot” and specific elements of content. “People who were sensitive to the disaster can find some need later to distance themselves from it and to joke about it.” Jokes are forms, par excellence, that deal with situations of unspeakability because they may conjoin an unspeakable, and …
Self-Degrading Jokes and Tales
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, however, commentators directed their attentions to the numerous instances in jokes and comic tales in which the self seemed to be that infirmed other. Thus Jewish jokes were often characterized as “turned by the speaker against himself, “or marked by a distinctive tendency toward “self-criticism. “ This chapter examines the assumptions that underlie conceptualizations of humor as self-negating…
Rechnitzer Rejects An Unorthodox Humor of Modern Orthodoxy
The records are the creation of Perfect Impressions, a “public relations and entertainment management” firm based in New York that specializes in Jewish entertainment. In addition to all of the specifically Jewish knowledge, the humor of the Rechnitzer Rejects further requires considerable familiarity with American culture, particularly American popular music and singers, but also other media forms and figures such as radio talk shows, commercial…
To Skin an Elephant On the Presumption of Aggression in Humor
In 1905, humor was decidedly removed from the domain of the trivial when Sigmund Freud set forth his theory of jokes. In conditioning the listener to certain expectations that are abruptly and deliberately disappointed, the elephant joke emphasizes that rules are irrelevant; the situation is evolving, and the past is of no consequence in anticipating the future. Aggression theory has been adopted with little regard for the unique properties of hu…
On the Structure of a Humorous Repertoire
Incongruity theory, in all its terminological redactions, has proved important in the conceptualization of humorous communication. While incongruity theory has been basic to the definition of humor, it has contributed little to the interpretation of particular jokes and nothing to the understanding of humorous repertoires. Approaching a joke repertoire in terms of appropriate incongruities leads to an analysis in some ways similar to the structur…
The People of the Joke
The great collections of Jewish jokes that are instinctively cited to evidence the existence of a Jewish humor are invariably compilations of the twentieth century. Sigmund Freud’s psychodynamic theory of joking regarded jokes as playful facades that often betrayed serious purposes—particularly hostile or critical purposes. There exists a conceptualization of a special relationship between a particular people and a particular form of verbal expre…
Appropriate Incongruity
The only perspective to rival psychoanalytic theory in its global applicability to the analysis of humor of all types and provenience is incongruity theory. The basic incongruity is formulated in the riddle question; there is something that is both a door and not-a-door at the same time. The appropriate incongruity is often transparent in riddles because it is generally the function of a riddle question to propose an incongruity that the riddle a…
The consolations of humor
This examination of the corpus of anecdotes about the Mormon missionary J. Gordon Kimball (1953-1938), is used to point out, first, that there seem to be no substantive grounds for imputing aggressive motives to their tellers or their audiences. In fact, the central character of this corpus of anecdotes was a much beloved figure in his lifetime, and the character is still regarded with affection by many who only know him through the anecdotes The…
Jokes and Their Relations
Almost everyone tells and appreciates jokes. Yet the nature of jokes has proved elusive. When asked what they really mean, people tend to laugh off the question, dismissing jokes as meaningless or too obvious to require explanation. Of those who have seriously sought to understand humor, most have explained jokes as expressions of aggression- a socially acceptable way of showing contempt and displaying superiority. Elliott Oring offers a fresh pe…
Thinking through Tradition
Still further thoughts on Logical Mechanisms: A response to Christian F. Hempelmann and Salvatore Attardo
Parsing the joke: The General Theory of Verbal Humor and appropriate incongruity
For more than a quarter of a century, the Semantic Script Theory of Humor (SSTH) and its successor, the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH), have been employed to characterize the factors that define a joke, to describe the components of jokes and their interrelationships, and to provide a model for the analysis of joke texts. But these theories have never been adequately scrutinized. When approached from the perspective of
Folk Groups And Folklore Genres Reader: A Reader
The Muhammad cartoons and humor research: A collection of essays
At the 2006 conference of the International Society for Humor Studies (Danish University of Education, Copenhagen), several panels addressed issues raised by the Muhammad cartoon story. Among these, a colloquium organized by Paul Lewis and decorously titled “Transnational Ridicule and Response” focused on the implications for humor research of the events surrounding the publication of the cartoons. Along with other materials, panelists were encou…
Understanding Laughter: The Workings of Wit and Humor
Legendry and the Rhetoric of Truth
The genre of legend has long been defined in relation to truth and belief, and legend scholars have noted some of the devices that serve to establish legend credibility. In fact, legend employs an extensive rhetoric in establishing its truth, and this essay aims to provide a comprehensive description of the tropes of this rhetoric in terms of Aristotle's categories of persuasion: ethos, logos, and pathos. Illustrations of these tropes are present…
Folk Groups and Folklore Genres: An Introduction
Oring's introductory folklore text consists of a series of essays by leading scholars that give the student a solid sense of major folklore topics and interpretive techniques. Since 1986, when it was first published, this book has met the need for good instructional material at a time of tremendous growth in folklore programs and introductory courses in colleges and universities around the world
Jokes and the Discourse on Disaster
Jokes and Their Relations
Almost everyone tells and appreciates jokes. Yet the nature of jokes has proved elusive. When asked what they really mean, people tend to laugh off the question, dismissing jokes as meaningless or too obvious to require explanation. Of those who have seriously sought to understand humor, most have explained jokes as expressions of aggression- a socially acceptable way of showing contempt and displaying superiority. Elliott Oring offers a fresh pe…
The Jokes of Sigmund Freud: A Study in Humor and Jewish Identity
The Jokes of Sigmund Freud unravels the intimate connections between Sigmund Freud and his Jewish identity. Author Elliott Oring observes that Freud frequently identified with the characters in the jokes he told, and that there was a strong relationship between these jokes and his own psychological and social state. This analysis offers novel insights into the enigmatic character of Freud and a fresh perspective on the nature of the science that …
"Anti Anti-"Folklore
The sesquicentennial anniversary of the coining of folklore occasioned calls for its elimination as a term designating a scholarly inquiry or discipline. However, the practical and theoretical arguments that have been advanced for such a move are open to serious question on practical and theoretical grounds
Jokes and Their Relations
Between jokes and tales: On the nature of punch lines
Israeli Humor, the Content and Structure of the Chizbat of the Palmah
The People of the Joke: On the Conceptualization of a Jewish Humor
Parsing the joke: The General Theory of Verbal Humor and appropriate incongruity
For more than a quarter of a century, the Semantic Script Theory of Humor (SSTH) and its successor, the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH), have been employed to characterize the factors that define a joke, to describe the components of jokes and their interrelationships, and to provide a model for the analysis of joke texts. But these theories have never been adequately scrutinized. When approached from the perspective of
Humor and the suppression of sentiment
Folk or Lore? The Stake in Dichotomies
The divide between folklorists is not between the academy and the public sector. Academic and public sector folklorists are educators, and the differences between them are largely matters of contact hours, venue, and the preparation of the audience. The great divide between folklorists is between those who regard folklore as an intellectual inquiry and those who regard it as an ethical enterprise. The first approach puts the premium on the "lore"…
From Game to War and Other Psychoanalytic Essays on Folklore
Although folklore has been collected for centuries, its possible unconscious content and significance have been explored only since the advent of psychoanalytic theory. Freud and some of his early disciples recognized the potential of such folklorist genres as myth, folktale, and legend to illuminate the intricate workings of the human psyche. Alan Dundes is a renowned folklorist who has successfully devoted the better part of his career to apply…
Rationale of the Dirty Joke: An Analysis of Sexual Humor, First Series
Oppositions, overlaps, and ontologies: The general theory of verbal humor revisited
The General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) has dominated the discussion of humor theory for the last quarter of a century. It generated a great deal of interest in humor studies by scholars both within and outside the discipline of linguistics. Problems are resident in GTVH, however, which have been inherited from its predecessor the Semantic Script Theory of Humor (SSTH). Script Opposition and Script Overlap are not adequately defined, nor are th…
Back to the Future: Questions for Theory in the Twenty-First Century
Appropriate incongruities: Genuine and spurious
Victor Turner, Sigmund Freud, and the Return of the Repressed
Three Functions of Folklore: Traditional Functionalism as Explanation in Folkloristics
The Arts, Artifacts, and Artifices of Identity
Les etudes des folkloristes sont toujours lies a l'identite qui se cree a partir des arts, d'objets fabriques et d'artifices. L'A. rappelle les differents folkloristes et leurs methodes. Quand l'identite residait dans le passe, le folklore etait considere comme relique, objets du passe qui revelaient une identite. Par contre, quand l'identite se manifestait dans les procedes de selection et de re-creation, le folklore se definissait comme ces mat…
On the Future of American Folklore Studies: A Response
Elliott Oring, On the Future of American Folklore Studies: A Response, Western Folklore, Vol. 50, No. 1, Taking Stock: Current Problems and Future: Prospects in American Folklore Studies (Jan., 1991), pp. 75-81
What We Know and What We Do
This 15-part forum challenges the Journal of American Folklore's readership to contemplate explicitly and publicly what we should do about the professional legacies of colleagues in our field who are known to or alleged to have harmed others through sexual harassment and gender discrimination. An introduction by the forum's curator Lisa Gilman is followed by 14 essays representing a diversity of viewpoints from members of the American Folklore So…
Folklore Archives of the World
Studies in Jewish Law, Custom and Folklore
The Study of American Folklore: An Introduction
Hey, You've Got No Character: Chizbat Humor and the Boundaries of Israeli Identity
ALL SOCIETIES CATEGORIZE the elements of their physical, social, and cultural reality. The materials of folklore, as one province of that reality, present no exception to this rule and are classified in accordance with various schemes, simple or complicated, depending upon the extent to which any given society attributes importance to its oral literature. Jewish culture has never lacked a large number of classificatory categories applicable to or…
The Devolutionary Premise: A Definitional Delusion
Three Functions of Folklore: Traditional Functionalism as Explanation in Folkloristics
Rationale of the Dirty Joke: An Analysis of Sexual Humor, First Series
Traditional Functionalism: Once More with Feeling
Doing the Wash: An Expressive Culture and Personality Study of a Joke and Its Teller
Linguistics: Folklore in the Modern World . Richard M. Dorson
Israeli Humor: The Content and Structure of the Chizbat of the Palmah
L. A. in Installments: Forest Lawn
Understanding Laughter: The Workings of Wit and Humor
Israeli Humor, the Content and Structure of the Chizbat of the Palmah
The People of the Joke: On the Conceptualization of a Jewish Humor
Israeli Humor: The Content and Structure of the Chizbat of the Palmah
Interpreting Folklore
Jokes and Their Relation to Sigmund Freud
Humor and Laughter: An Anthropological Approach
The Jokes of Sigmund Freud: A Study in Humor and Jewish Identity
The Jokes of Sigmund Freud unravels the intimate connections between Sigmund Freud and his Jewish identity. Author Elliott Oring observes that Freud frequently identified with the characters in the jokes he told, and that there was a strong relationship between these jokes and his own psychological and social state. This analysis offers novel insights into the enigmatic character of Freud and a fresh perspective on the nature of the science that …
Folk Groups and Folklore Genres: An Introduction
Oring's introductory folklore text consists of a series of essays by leading scholars that give the student a solid sense of major folklore topics and interpretive techniques. Since 1986, when it was first published, this book has met the need for good instructional material at a time of tremendous growth in folklore programs and introductory courses in colleges and universities around the world
On the Meanings of Mother Goose
First Prize: Fifteen Years! An Annotated Collection of Romanian Political Jokes
Jokes and the Discourse on Disaster
Humor and the Individual
Recueil de 5 articles: Les plaisanteries favorites de Max Trzebiatowski, Laisse-moi le dire a ma facon: blagues entre pere et fils, les plaisanteries et leur relation a Sigmund Freud, faisons la vaisselle: second cycle, la quete comique du bien
Art (35 works) · History (34 works) · Psychology (31 works) · Philosophy (26 works) · Literature (25 works) · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies (24 works) · Sociology (22 works) · Humor Studies and Applications (20 works) · Folklore (17 works) · History (17 works)