True German and phony English laughter:
True German and phony English laughter:

Schmidt-Hidding was still Schmidt

Summary/Abstract: Schmidt-Hidding’s (b. 1903, d. 1967) lexical field study on the area of Humor und Witz [humour and wit/jokes] (1963b) receives attention in humour research to this day, especially in German-speaking countries. His diamond-shaped illustration of the two dimensions of the field of humour, not least in its aim to distinguish “earthy” German from “courteous” English humour, has become well-known. In view of this continued interest in the final write-up of Schmidt-Hidding’s work on humour (1963a, 1963b), in which he consistently ignores his earlier related publications under the name of Schmidt, this paper aims to discourage researchers from basing their work on it for two reasons. The more important one is the flawed, or at least muddled and definitely outdated, methodology of his study. The more delicate one that is focused on here is that the motivation for and the ideological direction of the study are strongly influenced by its author’s National Socialist ideology, which Schmidt-Hidding had possibly assumed for opportunistic reasons and abandoned after World War II. I will first document this ideological alignment with National Socialism from Schmidt’s earlier work, basically a prelude to his Schlüsselwörter (1963a). Then I briefly present the methodological flaws, to the degree that Schmidt-Hidding was sufficiently explicit about his method to make that possible. This approach of interpreting a complex issue in its historical and social contexts, along with showing what the issue is in contrast to analogous issues, is the important research agenda that Davies brought to humour research.

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