This fascinating volume offers a range of perspectives on humour in interaction, in contexts as diverse as the home, the workplace and the school, and also in experimental settings. The resulting collection will be an invaluable resource for scholars, and makes a significant contribution to the development of the burgeoning field of language and humour studies.

- Jennifer Coates, Professor of English Language & Linguistics, Roehampton University London,

Most theoretical models of verbal humor are text-oriented. In contrast, the present interactional approach is speaker- and listener-oriented. Every paper in this volume demonstrates practical ways of collecting and interpretinginteractional data. An interactional approach allows an interdisciplinary description of how humor functions in discourse. This empirical groundedness shows that humor is an important linguistic tool in our everyday interaction. It serves multiple functions, such as construction of complex social identities or in-group affiliation. People draw on humor to construct their identities or to create intertextual connections. An interactional approach to humor emphasizes that any use of humor can be understood only in a particular context.

- Ksenia Shilikhina, Voronezh State University, on Linguist List 21.3430 (2011),

This study of reality humor deserves the attention of those studying social interaction.

- P.L. Derks, emeritus, College of William and Mary, in Choice, Vol. 41 No.11 (2010),