Bibliogr. s. 120-123

Incongruity is a central concept in humor studies. It has been at the center of the theoretical discussion on humor since Aristotle, but it has become the dominant paradigm in psychology in the 1970s and then in the rest of humor studies. Today, that incongruity is a necessary condition for humor is as close to a settled point as none other within humor studies (Forabosco, 1992, 2008). This chapter reviews briefly the concept and its adoption, not always uncontroversial, in other disciplines. It then explores some of the objections to the paradigm (Ferro-Luzzi, 1990; Latta, 1999; Veale, 2004; Piskorska & Jodłowiec, 2018). Later we discuss semantic vs. stylistic incongruity, foregrounded and backgrounded incongruity, and the role of the position of the incongruity (and its resolution) in some humorous genres. Finally, we address how a performance perspective modulates the concept, first in a cognitive sense, by exploring how framing, context, and metacognitive cues lead us to experience incongruity, second according to personality factors (traits and also states) seen as intervening variables which influence the outcome (both in positive and in negative directions), and finally also by examining the negotiation of humor (acceptance or rejection of the frame) and the role of enhancers (Triezenberg, 2004) and reducers (Sover, 2015).