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As students of Multicultural Psychology, we 

recognize that humor is an important part of any 

culture, and although we are familiar with the 

humor that exists in America, we wanted to 

explore how this differs from humor in other 

cultures. This book focuses on the humor of 

Eastern cultures, how it has changed over time, 

and how it compares to humor in America. Of 

course, humor can vary greatly among 

individuals, and this book does not attempt to 

stereotype, only to explore cultural patterns of 

comedy.

We have solid evidence that humor was 

common in ancient Babylonian literature, and 

many examples of jokes and humorous sayings 

or episodes have been found in many texts. 

Numerous surviving examples of ancient 

Babylonian humor deal with the breaking of 

taboos, such as bodily functions. One 

Babylonian poem scolds a woman: “Why did 

you break wind and feel mortified? Why did you 

stink up your boyfriend’s wagon like a wild ox?"

As a collectivist society, China usually uses 

language that is more high-context than we 

are used to in the United States. Consequently, 

humor in China tends to be more associated 

with subtle differences in language. For 

example, the Mandarin words for "horse" and 

"mother" differ only in a slight change of tone, 

so a common use of wordplay is calling one's 

mother a horse.

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