This study investigates the creation of humor in the dialog of the television sit-com Seinfeld to gain a deeper understanding of humor techniques in a long format. By analyzing six episodes of the series, it is seen that the Incongruity Theory of Humor, violations of Grice’s maxims of the Cooperative Principle, and perspective clashes (such as miscommunications) are essential to the humor throughout each episode.

In order to investigate the temporal characteristics of cognitive processing, we apply multivariate phase synchronization analysis to event-related potentials. The experimental design combines a semantic incongruity in a sentence context with a physical mismatch (color change). In the ERP average, these result in an N400 component and a P300-like positivity, respectively. The synchronization analysis shows an effect of global desynchronization in the theta band around 288ms after stimulus presentation for the semantic incongruity, while the physical mismatch elicits an increase of global synchronization in the alpha band around 204ms. Both of these effects clearly precede those in the ERP average. Moreover, the delay between synchronization effect and ERP component correlates with the complexity of the cognitive processes.

This thesis examines Chappelle's Show’s use of racial satire to challenge dominant stereotypes and the effectiveness of that satire as a tool to achieve perspective by incongruity. I use a variation of D’Acci’s circuit of media study model to examine the institutional challenges and limitations on the show due to the context in which it was created, produced, and distributed; to interrogate the strategies employed by the show’s writers/creators to overcome these challenges through the performance of race; and to analyze the audience’s understanding of the use of racial satire through a reception study of the show’s audience. I argue that using satire often has the unintended consequence of crossing the line between “sending up” a behavior and supporting it, essentially becoming that which it is trying to discount, though this is not to say that its intrinsic value is therefore completely negated.

This is a thesis on how established brands can enhance their strength, interestingness, and vitality. A threat to contemporary established brands is that they may in fact be too well established to be interesting and stimulate curiosity among consumers. A managerial fixation in maintaining consistency in brand communications may have put a straitjacket onto advertising executions for established brands. Therefore, managers for established brands facing communication objectives of enhanced salience in memory, better top-of-mind awareness, and greater consumer interest in the brand, may need to devise communication strategies in ways which are different – and even considerably different – from what they used to execute in the past. This thesis examines one such way – communications which are incongruent with consumers' established brand associations. In this thesis, I seek to challenge the popular adage in maintaining consistency in brand communications, by examining effects of brand incongruent communications for established brands from a schema congruity theory perspective. I do this in a series of six articles, each highlighting different types of brand-incongruent communication elements and effects on consumer memory and evaluations. Whereas conventional advertising wisdom, as well as traditional literature on brand management, would discourage a conduct which goes against established brand associations, this thesis argues that – for established brands – the employment of communication executions which challenge existing brand associations may actually improve marketing communication effectiveness. The aim of this thesis is to spur insight among academics and practitioners into the advancement of established brands. I argue that methods, which are successful to build brand equity for new brands, may be less effective when the objective is to enhance brand equity and consumer interest in already well established brands. The results of the studies presented in this thesis imply that the popular tendency of embracing consistency in brand communications may have to be revisited since brand-incongruent communications can generate more attention, better memory of ads and brands, improve evaluations and purchase intentions, as well as enhance brand associations and brand interest. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2009 Sammanfattning jämte 6 uppsatser</p>

ABSTRACT: Puns are short humorous texts that play on structural ambiguity in order to create incongruous scripts. The perception of their humour requires considerable pragmatic manipulation, which may present problems for L2 learners, which is why many scholars agree that they are best reserved for more advanced students. Using a combination of Quantitative and Qualitative analysis of data yielded from a survey containing puns and referential jokes, this study confirms that humour through puns is largely inaccessible to Swedish High School learners of English, with ambiguity being the main obstacle across the test groups. However, since language play has been proven to be facilitative to language learning, and since students themselves express a wish to be able to participate in humorous interaction, learners may well benefit from working with puns and language play in the classroom in order to gain greater linguistic abilities and well-rounded communicative competence.

There exists heightened research attention afforded to the pivotal demands - both internal and external - that exist within the salesperson role set. Unprecedented pressures on salespersons to acquire, retain, and build enduring customer relationships to enhance the firm's bottom-line performance coincides with increasing complexities within the work environment. This relevant and timely research introduces an original construct derived from the long-standing attention afforded to relationship selling, relational incongruity that exists within the buyer-seller exchange. Relational incongruity, defined, is the relational tension spawned between the salesperson, the customer, and the firm when situational psychological incongruity exists within the buyer-seller exchange itself. Framed in resource-advantage theory, this research investigates divergent demands and the increasing complexity of sales relationships through the lens of relational incongruity. A research program based on minimizing relational incongruity will augment the sales management and B2B literature by looking at how he salesperson and the customer build strong relationships as well as the antecedents that can undermine these relationships by generating realtional incongruity.

This dissertation research explores the factors that influence direct selling agents' sales performance and job satisfaction. In the direct selling channels, the agents not only sell the products to customers. They may concurrently perform a "distributor" role as a stand-alone entity composed of their own sales network. This dissertation research features two essays. The first essay investigates how direct selling agents' perceptions of control and sense of belonging relate to PO. This essay further explores how PO influences job performance and job satisfaction. Results suggest that perception of control and sense of belonging fuel PO. Furthermore, leader-member exchange mediates the relationship between PO and sales performance, as well as PO and job satisfaction in direct selling networks. The second essay introduces a new construct (relational incongruity) and discusses how complex sales environments and direct selling agents' organizational structures influence the relational incongruity in their organization and its ensuring effect on sales performance and job satisfaction. The results indicate that organizational complexity is positively related to relational incongruity. However, customer complexity has a negative impact on relational incongruity. Relational incongruity in direct selling agents' organizations has negative effects on job satisfaction but has no effects on sales performance. Epistemic curiosity undermines the negative effect of relational incongruity on job satisfaction but negatively influences independent distributors' sales performance.

Faire de l’humour peut sembler être un divertissement qui vise à faire rire un spectateur. Pourtant, la question à savoir ce qu’est faire de l’humour est loin de faire l’unanimité et c’est précisément la question de ce mémoire. Dans le premier chapitre, je discuterai de la nature de l’objet humoristique qui est généralement considéré comme un objet unidimensionnel alors qu’il devrait être analysé sous trois dimensions : son contenu (le sujet), son contenant (la forme) et son contexte (l’environnement). Une seule de ces dimensions peut être amusante pour que l’objet soit amusant. Dans le chapitre 2, j’expliquerai ce qui est considéré comme amusant en présentant les diverses théories philosophiques en humour : la théorie de la supériorité, celle du relâchement et celle de l’incongruité. Il ressort de la discussion que parmi ces théories, seule celle de l’incongruité est universelle à tous les objets humoristiques. Au chapitre 3, je défendrai l’idée que l’amusement est une émotion au même titre que la peur et la colère, car il répond à la plupart des critères qui permettent de définir une réaction affective comme étant une émotion. Finalement, au chapitre 4, je soutiens le fait que l’amusement n’est pas la seule émotion qui joue un rôle en humour : la surprise est « introductive » à l’amusement. La surprise peut modifier la perception qu’un individu a de son propre amusement. Je suggère que faire de l’humour requiert une connaissance du spectateur afin de générer une « surprise-amusement » chez ce dernier. / Humour may seem like entertainment that aims to make someone laugh. Yet, the question of what it is to be humorous is far from unanimous and that is precisely the question of this thesis. In the first chapter, I will discuss the nature of the humorous object, which is usually considered as a one-dimensional object, whereas it should be analyzed in three dimensions: its content (the subject), its container (the form) and its context (the environment). Only one of these dimensions need to be comic for the object to be amusing. In chapter 2, I will explain what is considered amusing by presenting the various philosophical theories of humour: the superiority theory, the relief theory, and the incongruity theory. The discussion will show that of these theories, only the incongruity theory is universal to all humorous objects. In chapter 3, I will argue that amusement is an emotion in the same way as fear and anger as it meets most of the criteria for defining an affective reaction as an emotion. Finally, in chapter 4, I argue that amusement is not the only emotion that plays a role in humour: surprise is "introductory" to amusement. Surprise can alter an individual’s perception of their own amusement. I suggest that making humour requires knowledge of the spectator to be able to generate "surprise-amusement".

Background: In 2017, brands have started to use their advertisements to take stance in political issues. However, since this trend has emerged in 2017, research in the field is limited. The research that is available is focused on how attitudes toward advertisements in general affect consumer attitudes toward the brand, which calls for deeper knowledge on how the political activism trend affect consumers’ attitudes. Purpose: To explore how political activism in advertisements affect consumers’ attitudes toward the brand behind the advertisement. Research Question: How does political activism in advertisements affect consumers’ attitudes toward the brand? Methodology: This study is of qualitative nature and took an explorative approach. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews based on a convenience sample of 11 respondents. Conclusion: The main findings from this study was that political activism in advertisement had an enhancing affect on respondents’ attitudes toward the brand behind the advertisement. Respondents that had positive attitudes toward the brand before were more positive toward the brand after the political advertisement, while the ones who were negative became more negative after the political advertisement.  Keywords Political activism, attitudes toward advertisements (Aad), attitudes toward brands (Ab), incongruity and involvement.

The humor of Mark Twain has long fascinated his readers. Critics such as Messent (2007), Budd (2005), Gerber (1988) and Camfield (2005) have all analyzed Mark Twain’s humor to reveal nuances and to help further the understanding of what makes Twain’s writing humorous. However, there is a distinct gap in the research so far conducted investigating Twain’s humor in relation to young readers, which this paper will begin to address. Twain’s novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (2007) poses a relevant subject for this research as Twain explicitly (in the preface to the novel) professes to write both for children and adults simultaneously. Writing in such a way can be categorized as either “double address” or “dual address”, understanding these terms according to the definitions of Barbara Wall (1991). In this paper I will argue that Mark Twain manages to create “dual address” in Tom Sawyer by using what Greg Camfield (2005) calls “amiable humor” and constructing scenes out of childhood in order to produce delight and nostalgia. By reading closely excerpts of the book and analyzing Twain’s specific use of humor through three prominent theories—superiority theory, relief theory and incongruity— it becomes possible to identify what the implied reader is meant to find humorous, and therefore if Twain manages to establish a “dual address”. An understanding of Twain’s humor from the perspective of both young and adult reader furthers our understanding of the novel by revealing Twain’s implementation of complex “dual address” narration and its implications.