The humor of stork jokes

Abstract

This paper discusses the nature and mode of implementation of humor in stork jokes represented in Hungarian under the conditions of Hungarian culture. The vital role of scenic, frame-based and scriptal knowledge, perceptual and cognitive salience, as well as of folklore-based encyclopedic information in the production and comprehension of this type of animal jokes are analyzed. In the second part of the paper the strategic representation as well as factors influencing the textual, cohesive and coherent mode of expression as well as comprehension of three sample jokes taken from a corpus of 30 stork jokes are analyzed in brief, pointing to the factors and mode of their emotive load which contributes to the effectivity of the stylistic representation of their humor.