Abstract
After 1980, there was a marked increase in the presence, prominence, and hostility of lawyer jokes in the United States. The long-established themes of joking about lawyers were joined by a whole set of new themes, including those depicting lawyers as objects of scorn and as deserving of extermination or removal from society. Several possible explanations for the shift are examined and found insufficient, including worsening behavior by lawyers, the general spread of cruelty, and the dictates of political correctness. The article argues that the shift in lawyer joking is best understood as a recoil against the pervasive legalization of life in combination with the distinctive American style of diffuse court-and-lawyer centered governance.
© 2008 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin
