Preface
1. The Comical, or Imitation of Inferior People
Incongruity, Degradation, and Self-Parody: The Implicit Narrator
Subject and Object: Relation and Metarelation
Funniness and Ridicule: An Essay on Nonentities
Who is the Inferior Other?
2. The Origins
Humor, Laughter, and the Brain
From Tickling to Humor
From Laughter to Humor
Play-Challenge, or James Sully Redux
3. Play, Language, and Laughter
Orderly Play as a Metaphor of Culture
Disorderly Play as a Metaphor of Nature
The Anti-Referential Function of Language
Irony and Humor: The Two Ways of Playing with Signs
Humor and Laughter as a Species Reaction
4. Culture versus Nature
Emotions, Reflexes, and Symbols
Laughter and Evil: The History of a Misunderstanding
Conclusions
Index of Names
Index of Subjects
