Academic researchers have been seriously studying advertising humor for more than four decades. Almost all the most important contributions to the research literature are listed here. But you'll also find a few classic and practice-oriented works (like David Ogilvy's and Stan Freberg's) by people who had important things to say about funny advertising as well as some classic advertising histories (like Michael Schudson's).

You'll also find some other important works and collections about advertising humor and related topics. For example, it's surprising (or maybe not) to see how many of Ad Age's "Top 100 Campaigns of the 20th Century" were intended to be funny. Or check out the collection of 19th-century advertising trade cards at Ben Crane's Trade Card Place. And we think funny ads today are weird!

Enjoy! And if you read all these, you'd really know a lot about advertising humor.

AdAge.com, “The Advertising Century,” http://www.adage.com/century/campaigns.html

Alden, Dana L., and Wayne D. Hoyer, “An Examination of Cognitive Factors Related to Humorousness in Television Advertising,” Journal of Advertising 22, no. 2 (1993): 29-37.

Alden, Dana L., Wayne D. Hoyer, and Choi Lee, “Identifying Global and Culture-specific Dimensions of Humor in Advertising: A Multinational Analysis,” Journal of Marketing 57, no. 2(1993): 64-75.

Alden, Dana L., Wayne D. Hoyer, Choi Lee, and G. Wechasara, “The Use of Humor in Asian and Western Television Advertising: A Four Country Comparison,” Journal of Asia-Pacific Business 1, no. 2 (1995): 2-23.

Alden, Dana L., and Drew Martin, “Global and Cultural Characteristics of Humor in Advertising: The Case of Japan,” Journal of Global Marketing 9, no. 1/2 (1995): 121-143.

Alden, Dana L., A. Mukherjee, and Wayne D. Hoyer, “Extending a Contrast Resolution Model of Humor in Television Advertising: The Role of Surprise,” Humor 13, no. 2 (2000a): 193-217.

Alden, Dana L., A. Mukherjee, and Wayne D. Hoyer, “The Effects of Incongruity, Surprise and Positive Moderators on Perceived Humor in Television Advertising,” Journal of Advertising <>29, no. 2 (2000b): 1-16.

Beard, Fred, “One Hundred Years of Humor in American Advertising,” Journal of Macromarketing 25, no. 1 (2005): 54-65.

Beard, Fred, “Practitioner Views of Humor in Advertising: A Twenty-Year Update,” paper presented at the annual conference of the Society of Marketing Advances, November 2, 2006.

Beard, Fred, “Successful Humorous Advertising Campaigns: A Case Study,” Southwestern Mass Communication Journal 20, no. 1 (2005): 41-52.

Beard, Fred, “Humor in Advertising: A Review of the Research Literature, 1993-2003,” in Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Corporate and Marketing Communications (CMC), ed. T. C. Melewar (2004).

Beard, Fred, and David Tarpenning, “What’s So Funny? A Conceptual/Instructional Model of Humorous Advertising Message Factors,” Southwestern Mass Communication Journal 17, no. 2(2002): 14-29.

Belch, George E., and Michael A. Belch, “An Investigation of the Effects of Repetition on Cognitive and Affective Reactions to Humorous and Serious Television Commercials,” in Advances in Consumer Research, 11, ed. Thomas C. Kinnear, 4-10 (Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 1984).

Brooker, George, “A Comparison of the Persuasive Effects of Mild Humor and Mild Fear Appeals,” Journal of Advertising 10, no. 4 (1981): 29-40.

Buijzen, Moniek, and Patti M. Valkenburg, “Developing a Typology of Humor in Audiovisual Media,” Media Psychology 6 (2004): 146-167.
Calkins, Earnest E., And Hearing Not (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1946).

Cantor, Joanne, and Pat Venus, “The Effect of Humor on Recall of a Radio Advertisement,” Journal of Broadcasting 24, no. 1 (1980): 13-22.

Catanescu, Cordruta, and Gail Tom, “Types of Humor in Television and Magazine Advertising,” Review of Business 22, no. 1/2 (2001): 92-96.

Chattopadhyay, Amitava, and Kunal Basu, “Prior Brand Evaluation as a Moderator of the Effects of Humor in Advertising,” Journal of Marketing Research 24, no. 4 (1989): 466-476.

Cho, Hyongoh, “Humor Mechanisms, Perceived Humor and Their Relationships to Various Executional Types in Advertising,” Advances in Consumer Research 22 (1995): 191-197.

Cline, Thomas W., and James J. Kellaris, “The Joint Impact of Humor and Argument Strength in a Print Advertising Context: A Case for Weaker Arguments,” Psychology & Marketing 16, no. 1 (1999): 69-87.

Cline, Thomas W., Moses B. Altsech, and James J. Kellaris, “When Does Humor Enhance or Inhibit Ad Responses? The Moderating Role of the Need for Humor,” Journal of Advertising 32, no. 3 (2003): 31-45.

Crane, Ben, “The Trade Card Place,” http://www.tradecards.com.

De Pelsmacker, Patrick, and Maggie Geuens, “The Communication Effects of Warmth, Eroticism and Humour in Alcohol Advertisements,” Journal of Marketing Communications 2, no. 4 (1996): 247-262, 256.

De Pelsmacker, Patrick, and Maggie Geuens, “The Advertising Effectiveness of Different Levels of Intensity of Humour and Warmth and the Moderating Role of Top of Mind Awareness and Degree of Product Use,” Journal of Marketing Communications 5, no. 3 (1999): 113-129.

Duncan, Calvin P.,  “Humor in Advertising: A Behavioral Perspective,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 7, no. 4 (1979): 285-306.

Duncan, Calvin P., and James E. Nelson, “Effects of Humor in a Radio Advertising Experiment,” Journal of Advertising 14, no. 2 (1985): 33-40, 64.

Duncan, Calvin P., James E. Nelson, and Nancy T. Frontezak, “The Effects of Humor on Advertising Comprehension,” in Advances in Consumer Research, 11, ed. Thomas C. Kinnear, 432-437 (Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 1984).

Flaherty, Karen, Marc G. Weinberger, and Charles S. Gulas, “The Impact of Perceived Humor, Product Type, and Humor Style in Radio Advertising,” Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising 26, no. 1 (2004): 25-36.

Fox, Stephen, The Mirror Makers: A History of American Advertising and its Creators (New York: Vintage Books, 1984).

Freberg, Stan, It Only Hurts When I Laugh (New York: TimesBooks, 1988), 272.

Fugate, Douglas L., “The Advertising of Services: What is an Appropriate Role for Humor?” The Journal of Services Marketing 12, no. 6 (1998): 453-472.

Fugate, Douglas L., Jerry B. Gotlieb, and Dawn Bolton, “Humorous Services Advertising: What Are the Roles of Sex, Appreciation of Humor, and Appropriateness of Humor?” Journal of Professional Services Marketing 21, no. 1 (2000): 9-23.

Garfield, Bob, And Now a Few Words from Me: Advertising’s Leading Critic Lays Down the Law, Once and For All (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003).

Gelb, Betsy D., and Charles M. Pickett, “Attitude-Toward-The-Ad: Links to Humor and To Advertising Effectiveness,” Journal of Advertising 12, no. 2 (1983): 34-42.

Gelb, Betsy D., and George M. Zinkhan, “The Effect of Repetition on Humor in a Radio Advertising Study,” Journal of Advertising 14, no. 4 (1985): 13-20, 68.

Gelb, Betsy D., and George M. Zinkhan, “Humor and Advertising Effectiveness after Repeated Exposures to a Radio Commercial,” Journal of Advertising 15, no. 2 (1986): 15-20, 34.

Geuens, Maggie, and Patrick De Pelsmacker, “Need for Cognition and the Moderating Role of the Intensity of Warm and Humorous Advertising Appeals,” Asia Pacific Advances in Consumer Research 3 (1998a): 74-80.

Goldstein, Jeffrey H., and Paul E. McGhee, The Psychology of Humor: Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Issues (New York: Academic, 1972).

Goodrum, Charles A., and Helen Dalrymple, Advertising in America: The First 200 Years (New York: Abrams, 1990).

Gulas, Charles S., and Marc G. Weinberger, Humor in Advertising: A Comprehensive Analysis (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe).

Herold, Don, Humor in Advertising and How to Make It Pay (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963).

Keith-Spiegel, Patricia, “Early Conception of Humor: Varieties and Issues,” in The Psychology of Humor, eds. Jeffrey H. Goldstein, Hans J. Eyesenck, and Paul E. McGhee, 3-39 (New York: Academic, 1972).

Kelly, J. Patrick, and Paul J. Solomon, “Humor in Television Advertising,” Journal of Advertising 4, no. 3 (1975): 31-35.

Laird, Pamela, Advertising Progress: American Business and the Rise of Consumer Marketing (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998).

Lammers, H. Bruce, Laura Liebowitz, George Edward Seymour, and Judith E. Hennessey, “Humor and Cognitive Responses to Advertising Stimuli: A Trace Consolidation Approach,” Journal of Business Research 11, no. 2 (1983): 173-185.

Madden, Tom, and Marc G. Weinberger, “The Effects of Humor on Attention in Magazine Advertising,” Journal of Advertising 11, no. 3 (1982): 8-14.

Madden, Tom, and Marc G. Weinberger, “Humor in Advertising: A Practitioner View,” Journal of Advertising 24, no. 4 (1984): 23-29.

Marchand, Roland, Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920-1940 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985).

Markiewicz, Dorothy, The Effects of Humor on Persuasion (Ph.D. diss., Ohio State University, 1972).

McCullough, Lynette S., and Ronald K. Taylor, “Humor in American, British, and German Ads,” Industrial Marketing Management 22, no. 1 (1993): 17-29.

McGhee, Paul E., Humour: Its Origin and Development (San Francisco: Freeman, 1979).

Meyers, William, The Image-Makers: Power and Persuasion on Madison Avenue (New York: Times Books, 1984).

Monro, D. H., Argument of Laughter (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1951).

Morreall, John E., Taking Laughter Seriously (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1983).

Murphy, John H., Isabella C.M. Cunningham, and Gary Wilcox, “The Impact of Program Environment on Recall of Humorous Television Commercials,” Journal of Advertising Research 8, no. 2 (1979): 17-21.

Nelson, James E., “Comment on ‘Humor and Advertising Effectiveness after Repeated Exposures to a Radio Commercial,’” Journal of Advertising 16, no. 1 (1987): 63-68.

Oakner, Larry, And Now a Few Laughs from Our Sponsor (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2002).

Ogilvy, David, Ogilvy On Advertising (New York: Vintage Books, 1985).

Ogilvy, David, Confessions of An Advertising Man (New York: Atheneum, 1964).

Petty, Richard E., and John T. Cacioppo, The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion (New York: Springer Verlag, 1986).

Pollay, Richard W., “The Subsiding Sizzle: A Descriptive History of Print Advertising, 1900-1980,” Journal of Marketing 49, Summer (1985): 24-37.

Pope, Daniel, The Making of Modern Advertising (New York: Basic Books, 1983).

Pornpitakpan, Chanthika, and Tze Ke Jason Tan, “The Influence of Incongruity on the Effectiveness of Humorous Advertisements: The Case of Singaporeans,” Journal of International Consumer Marketing 12, no. 1 (2000): 27-46.

Presbrey, Frank, The History and Development of Advertising (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1929).

Raskin, Viktor, Semantic Mechanisms of Humor (Boston: D. Reidel, 1985).

Ries, Al, and Jack Trout, Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind (rev. ed.) (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981).

Rowsome, Frank, Jr., They Laughed When I Sat Down: An Informal History of Advertising in Words and Pictures (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970).

Schudson, Michael, Advertising: The Uneasy Persuasion (Basic Books, New York, 1984).

Schwartz, Tony, The Responsive Chord (Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1973).

Scott, Cliff, David M. Klein, and Jennings Bryant, “Consumer Response to Humor in Advertising: A Series of Field Studies Using Behavioral Observation,” Journal of Consumer Research 16, March (1990): 498-501.

Smith, Stephen M., ”Does Humor in Advertising Enhance Systematic Processing?” Advances in Consumer Research 20, no. 1 (1993): 155-159.

Speck, Paul S., On Humor and Humor in Advertising (Ph.D. diss. Texas Tech University, 1987).

Speck, Paul S., “The Humorous Message Taxonomy: A Framework for the Study of Humorous Ads,” in Current Issues & Research in Advertising, eds. James H. Leigh and Claude R. Martin, Jr., 1-44 (Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan, 1991).

Spotts, Harlan E., Marc G. Weinberger, and A. L. Parsons, “Assessing the Use and Impact of Humor on Advertising Effectiveness: A Contingency Approach,” Journal of Advertising 26, no. 3 (1997): 17-32.

Stern, Barbara B., “Advertising Comedy in Electronic Drama,” European Journal of Marketing 30, no. 9 (1996): 37-60.

Sternthal, Brian, and Samuel C. Craig, “Humor in Advertising,” Journal of Marketing 37, no. 4 (1973): 12-18.

Suls, Jerry M., “A Two-Stage Model for the Appreciation of Jokes and Cartoons: An Information-Processing Analysis,” in The Psychology of Humor: Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Issues,” eds. Jeffrey H. Goldstein and Paul E. McGhee, 81-100 (New York: Academic Press, 1972).

Sutherland, John C., and Lisa A. Middleton, “The Effect of Humor on Advertising Credibility and Recall of the Advertising Message,” in Proceedings of the 1983 Convention of the American Academy of Advertising, ed. Donald W. Jugenheimer, 17-21 (Lawrence, KS: William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Kansas, 1983).

Toncar, Mark F., “The Use of Humour in Television Advertising: Revisiting the US-UK Comparison,” International Journal of Advertising 20, no.4 (2001): 521-540.

Unger, Lynette S., “Observations: A Cross-cultural Study on the Affect-based Model of Humor in Advertising,” Journal of Advertising Research 35, no. 1 (1995): 66-72.

Unger, Lynette S., “The Potential for Using Humor in Global Advertising,” Humor 9, no. 2 (1996): 133-168.

Weinberger, Marc G., and Leland Campbell, “The Use and Impact of Humor in Radio Advertising,” Journal of Advertising Research 31, December/January (1991): 44-52.

Weinberger, Marc G., and Charles Gulas, “The Impact of Humor in Advertising: A Review,” Journal of Advertising 21, no. 4 (1992): 35-59.

Weinberger, Marc G., and Harlan Spotts, “Humor in U.S. versus U.K. TV Advertising,” Journal of Advertising 18, no. 2 (1989): 39-44.

Weinberger, Marc G., Harlan Spotts, Leland Campbell, and Amy L. Parsons, “The Use and Effect of Humor in Different Advertising Media,” Journal of Advertising Research 35, no. 3 (1995): 44-56.

Whipple, Thomas W., and Alice E. Courtney, “How Men and Women Judge Humor, Advertising Guidelines for Action and Research,” in Current Issues and Research in Advertising, eds. James H. Leigh and Claude R. Martin, Jr., 43-56 (Ann Arbor, MI: Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, The University of Michigan, 1981).

Zhang, Yong, “Responses to Humorous Advertising: The Moderating Effect of Need for Cognition,” Journal of Advertising 25, no. 1 (1996): 15-33.

Zillman, Dolf, and Joanne R. Cantor, “A Disposition Theory of Humour and Mirth,” in Humour and Laughter: Theory Research and Application, eds. Antony J. Chapman and Hugh C. Foot, 93-116 (London: John Wiley & Sons, 1976).

Zinkhan, George M., and Betsy D. Gelb, “Humor and Advertising Effectiveness Reexamined,” Journal of Advertising 18, no. 1 (1987): 66-68.

Zinkhan, George M., and Betsy D. Gelb, “Repetition, Social Settings, Perceived Humor and Wearout,” in Advances in Consumer Research, 11, eds. Marvin E. Goldberg, Gerald Gorn and Richard W. Pollay, 438-441 (Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 1990).