Frontmatter -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- List of tables -- Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Fooltowns: Traditional and modern Local, regional and ethnic jokes about stupidity -- Chapter 3. From the Milesians to the Milesians: The Irish-Pontian joke, its history and its absence in China and Japan -- Chapter 4. The Protestant ethic and the comic spirit of capitalism -- Chapter 5. Stupidity and rationality: Jokes from the iron cage -- Chapter 6. Humour for the future and a future for humour -- Chapter 7. Ethnic jokes about alcohol: A study of the humour of ambivalence -- Chapter 8. "Nasty" legends, "sick" humour and ethnic jokes about stupidity -- Chapter 9. Making fun of work: Humour as sociology in the humorous writings of H. G. Wells -- Chapter 10. Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Index