Obscene humour and sociability

Abstract

This chapter focuses on sexual and scatological humour, a type of humour typically perceived as gendered and located on the margins of acceptable speech. By tracing the circulation of such humour through conversations in St Gall, the chapter instead highlights the popularity of such material and the social esteem enjoyed by those who could draw on it to provide entertainment. By embedding obscene humour within its cultural and social contexts, the chapter moreover calls into question the notion that obscene humour represented a safety valve for men’s sexual aggressions against women. In the context of sociability, such humour instead worked as a kind of communicative currency and offered jokesters an opportunity to display their social skills, their proficiency in Latin, and their sexual experience.