Culture of popular laughter

The "culture of popular laughter" is a cultural-historical term coined by the literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin in his book Rabelais and His World (1965).

This studied popular culture in Renaissance Europe through the themes of François Rabelais' book Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–64).

The culture of popular laughter was originally formulated based on the writings of Rabelais, but has also been applied in the interpretation of peasant scenes painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and his descendants.

The carnival then became a form of "safety-valve" institution, which served a structural-functionalist role to temporarily release stresses in the contemporary social system.

The historian Gábor Klaniczay argued that "popular laughter" stretched through all echelons of society and was not restricted to the peasantry.

Carnival and debauchery is also a running theme in the paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder , painted during the 16th century.