Humour Socialisation: Why the Danes are Not as Funny as They Think They are

The article presents the main idea from my recently published book on Danes’ use of humour in professional relations with non-Danes. The key notion is humour socialisation. This notion contributes to describing the dynamic role played by language and society in moulding a person’s humour. It also brings the aspect of personal humour to the level of “national humour”, which again helps to explain why people from different countries who speak different languages do not always share the same kind of humour.