Of Corpse: Death and Humor in Folklore and Popular Culture. By Peter Narváez, ed. (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2003. Pp. viii+358, ISBN 0-87421-559-5)

Following a brief introduction by Narváez, which I will return to presently, the anthology begins with a contribution from Christie Davies on jokes following mediated disasters. It is his contention that, as media saturates us with news of an event, especially in juxtaposition to the other contents of media saturation — advertisements, simplistic programming, vernacular entertainments —, whatever sincere and sombre reaction we may have had to the event is quickly transformed into cynicism, which opens the way for humour. Cynicism in the face of tragedy may indeed be the basic defensive mechanism, as is demonstrated through examples from former Eastern Bloc countries. Davies denies the fruitfulness in trying to understand jokes in terms of their function, save as a source of amusement. Older media forms, unidirectional and run by large interests, were never so much a source for disaster jokes as they were a conduit for context: it is new media, specifically internet, which allows for exchange of joking materials and their archiving in a manner parallel to oral communication. This is the approach Bill Ellis takes in his contribution on 9/11 jokes, “Making a Big Apple Crumble,” reprinted here from the online journal New Directions in Folklore. Building on his own proposed model for how WTC jokes would disseminate, Ellis meticulously traces some of the lineage of these jokes, identifying initial virulent reactions to them and subsequent acceptance on a global (English language) scale. In addition to its important content, this piece will be indispensable as a methodological model for anyone who wishes to conduct similar internet-based research in the future. Following the “Disaster Jokes” section are three entries under the heading “Rites of Passage.” The first two, Ilana Harlow’s “Creating Situations” and Narváez’s own “Tricks and Fun,” deal with the merry wake phenomenon, in Ireland and Newfoundland respectively. Both are good pieces with relative strengths, but in an anthology such as this one they come across as slightly repetitive, especially when one is reading straight through (as I did for purposes of this review). Narváez’s decision to place his after Harlow’s is also problematic, as neither of these is new for this volume, and Harlow’s came after Narváez’s and indeed cites him frequently. Perhaps it would be too much to ask for a new, co-authored piece which synthesises the two, particularly as each can find a place in a work such as this. The third rite of passage entry is Richard E. Meyer’s “‘Pardon Me for Not Standing’: Modern American Graveyard Humor.” Dispensing with what might be a semantic or pedantic argument as to whether epitaphs belong in a discussion of rites of passage or whether they are a minor genre of folk literature, this is ultimately a disappointing article. The scholarship is fine, but Meyer shares with Donald Consentino a certain glibness when it comes to the subject. He writes as if the discussion of humour is by definition a “cute” or at least tangential offshoot from more serious scholarship. His appendix, a bogus set of conference paper abstracts circulated among the Cemeteries and Gravemarkers section of the American Culture Association, may have found a home in a work on the occupational folklore of scholars, but its inclusion here I found somehow insulting. The next four chapters are on “Festivals.” Jack Kugelmass’s “Wishes Come True: Designing the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade” is good to see in reprint, both for its interesting ethnographical approach and as a study of the slow de-counter-hegemonic processes which seem inevitable for any festival occasion. Its inclusion here is predicated on the assumption that Halloween is associated with death, and — …