Written in a student-friendly style, Punchlines examines the state and development of racial, ethnic, and gender humor in the contemporary United States. The social psychologist Leon Rappoport's main objective is to save the reputation of this kind of humor from its “politically correct” critics. Specifically, Rappoport sets out to debunk two pieces of criticism: that this type of humor is inherently prejudiced against minorities, and that it contributes to anti-minority prejudice in society. The author argues that humor cannot be the automatic vehicle of prejudice because its reception is inevitably context-dependent. Different audiences react differently to the same words at different points in history. Also, racial, ethnic, and gender humor is widely performed and enjoyed by members of minorities. As to the second piece of criticism, Rappoport hypothesizes that this kind of humor, the often outrageous comedy of performers like Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor, renders intergroup hatred ludicrous and thus contributes to the destruction of prejudice and the decline of the significance of ethnicity in America. Ethnic humor immerses increasingly sophisticated mass audiences in the risky but entertaining and cathartic mud bath of human folly (racism, homophobia, misogyny) and then has them emerge cured from their own prejudices and hypocrisy.

In chap. 1, the author proffers support for the widely recognized folk theory of racial-ethnic humor, the sword and the shield. This type of humor, the argument goes, can injure but it can also function within minority groups as a source of pride and a useful means of effective adjustment to the majority society. Chap. 2 provides an overview of humor theory, with special attention to Freud. Chap. 3 surveys theories of the positive social functions of racial, ethnic, and gender humor. Chap. 4 summarizes the social psychology of ethnic slurs and stereotypes. Chaps. 5 and 6 provide a historical overview of what the author regards as the engines of contemporary racial and ethnic comedy: Jewish and African American humor. Chap. 7 presents a brief examination of gender-related humor. Chaps. 8 and 9 discuss what it takes to be a successful comedian in 21st-century America, and chap. 10 makes the case for the potential benefits of racial-ethnic humor in society.

I found Rappoport's overview of contemporary insult comedy and the questions he asks about its role in society thought-provoking. However, I was left wondering what empirical evidence he might have for his claims regarding the beneficial social effects of racial and ethnic comedy, besides his many years of experience interacting with college students. I also remained skeptical about the classical liberal argument that confronting insulting material is the recipe for liberation from one's own smallmindedness, and those who can't “take it” are either not in step with the times or are wed to their hypocritical, middle-class norms. As intriguing as it sounds, Rappoport's hypothesis regarding the power of offensive racial, ethnic, and gender humor to act as a social lubricant calls for the analysis of actual communicative events in which such humor succeeds or is “taken too far.”