Sex and Income as Factors Associated with Exposure to Jokes about the Clinton-Lewinsky Controversy

Abstract

This study examined the association of sex and income with reported frequency of hearing jokes about the Clinton-Lewinsky controversy. Subjects were 800 registered voters in Missouri, interviewed with a telephone survey in March, 1998. The results indicated that men reported hearing more jokes on the topic than women, and voters of higher income heard more jokes than those of middle or lower income.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Albrecht

(1986) Do you know the one about …? Four weeks of Bild jokes during the 1980 election: an investigation of the communication typology of jokes in the West German media. Communications, 12, 67–90.

Ciupak

(1980) The funny side of sport. International Review of Sport Sociology, 15, 135–142.

Grozzi

Jr. (1998) Is language a game? Etc: A Review of General Semantics, 55, 189–194.

Gruner

C. R.

(1997a) The game of humor: a comprehensive theory of why we laugh. Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall.

Gruner

C. R.

(1997b) A rejoinder to Levasseur and Dean on ‘The Dole humor myth.’ Southern Communication Journal, 62, 153–157.

Harik

H. F.

(1971) Opinion leaders and the mass media in rural Egypt: a reconsideration of the two-step flow of communication hypothesis. American Political Science Review, 65, 731–740.

Kashmir

S. I. U.

(1973) Political function of Egyptian humour. Indian Journal of Politics, 7, 27–40.

Schmidt

(1996) Politics and humor: jokes about Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Nueva Antropologia, 15, 49–70.

Singer

(1973) Mass society, mass media, and the transformation of minority identity. Public Opinion Quarterly, 24, 140–150.

10.

Stanton

A. S.

Schwartz

M. S.

(1954) The mental patient. New York: Basic Books.

11.

Thorson

J. A.

Powell

F. C.

(1993) Sense of humor and dimensions of personality. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 49, 799–809.

12.

Troldahl

V. C.

(1966) A field test of a modified “two-step flow of communication” model. Public Opinion Quarterly, 30, 609–623.

13.

Ulian

J. A.

(1976) Joking at work. Journal of Communication, 26, 129–133.

14.

Wasserman

N. M.

Klein

(1974) Psycho-opera: a new concept combining opera and psychodrama. Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama, 27, 204–211.

15.

Webb

R. G.

(1981) Political uses of humor. Etc: A Review of General Semantics, 38, 35–50.