Introduction xiChapter 1: The Birth of Comic Language 1The Birth of Ancient Comedy in Greece 2The First Comic Graffiti 6The Medieval Comic 8The Renaissance 10Chapter 2: Exaggeration 18Chapter 3: Simplification 30Chapter 4: Simplification/Exaggeration 40Ideograms 47Stereotypes 50Parody and Mediatization of Humour 54Cancel Culture and Humour 57Chapter 5: Contrast 59Irony or Saying the Opposite 64Chapter 6: Inversion 68Chapter 7: Repetition, Accumulation, Gradation 78Accumulation 81Gradation 84Chapter 8: Transfers-Anthropomorphism 88Mechanization of Movement 99Chapter 9: Word and Image Games 103The Pun 103Other Word Games 105Double Meaning 107The Visual Pun 110Visual Double Meaning 112Chapter 10: Nonsense and Snapshot 114Chapter 11: Metaphor and Metonymy 122Visual Metaphor 126Visual Metonymy 136The Globalization of Humour 145Conclusion 153Bibliography 159Index 165.