Humor as a Verbal Trigger Event

Sample

This chapter focuses on two primary questions and one secondary question. First, when does use of humor trigger verbal aggression by another person? Second, why does humor act as a verbal trigger event? To answer these two primary questions, the following topics are examined: (a) the nature of verbal trigger events (VTEs), (b) the broad structure of the primary types of humor, (c) the role of maladaptive humor as VTE (including an analysis of maladaptive humor as provocation), and (4) the limited role of affective and expressive humor as VTE (as indicated by consequentiality as opposed to intention). The fourth subpoint leads to a salient secondary question, viz., does the perceived level of offensiveness of humorous comments depend on permanency (or changeability) of receiver characteristics?