Email Jokes 1998-2004

The archived data consist of jokes, anecdotes and other humorous texts distributed through email messages. The researcher sent the request for email humour to the staff members of the Department of Sociology and Social Psychology at the University of Tampere, Finland, in February 2003. The staff members in their turn distributed the request further. Texts were received from university staff members and students as well as from outsiders. Data collection continued till the year 2004. The total number of email messages received was 217, some of which contained more than one joke or anecdote. The jokes/anecdotes were mostly in Finnish, but approximately 20% were in English. The themes of the email messages varied greatly. Many were connected to current events, for instance, the Iraq war, September 11 terrorist attacks in the USA, and the doping scandal of Finnish skiers in 2001. Other recurring themes included sexuality, gender and ethnicity stereotypes, and professional jokes. As is typical in email humor, the original creator of the jokes/anecdotes often remained unknown. The dataset is only available in the original languages.