What Do Pupils Laugh at? Content Analysis of Jokes

The joke is a ticket to the culture of adolescents. Humorous situations play a central role in the socialization of adolescents. The research material is a collection of selected jokes (3 of the funniest ones) coming from 181 pupils at the age of early adolescence and is subjected to qualitative content analysis with an inclination to heuristic processing. It identifies the heroes of the jokes and describes the breach of their integrity in a sense of deviation from their normal life roles, which is a certain prerequisite to becoming a hero of the joke. Another characteristic feature of such heroes is commonly known as dehonestation and also relation to a prospective hero in a supporting role. The study describes at least two semantic plans of each joke in relation to reality. The key concept of the joke is a punchline and one of the objectives was to determine what it produces. If humor is a tool by which members of the peer culture cope with the content of adult culture, there is one of the possibilities to learn at least to some extent about the content of the early adolescent pupils' culture. The study, by its results, clearly delineates its propositions of the primary sources, as well as theories of contemporary authors and contributes to the understanding of a not easily accessible research field.