Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to my mother and uncle, Monireh and Mohammad Dayhimnia, for their support. I also thank Venus Khalilian, Zahra Nazemi, and Dr. Babak Shamshiri. My special thanks go to Professor Conal Condren and Professor Felicity Nussbaum. Also, I must extend my heartfelt gratitude and indebtedness to Professor Farideh Pourgiv and Professor Jessica Milner Davis from whose ongoing support and critical insights I have much benefited and to whom I owe a lot.

I am also thankful to the European Journal of Humor Research (EJHR) where parts of the monograph have been previously published.