In this witty, scholarly book edited by his two sons, Professor Rudolph Altrocchi introduces some of the worlds most skillful and humorous authors whose purpose was to enrich our lives through smiles and laughter, guided by a playful spirit, the key ingredient of high quality humor. Altrocchi, an American citizen born and brought up in Italy, graduated from Harvard, earned his Ph.D. at Harvard and taught at Harvard, Columbia, Chicago and Brown before becoming Chairman of the Dept. of Italian at Berkeley from 1928 to 1949, creating the largest and best Italian Department in the country. Professor Altrocchis captivatingly humorous analysis focuses not only on humor in Italian culture and literature but also on basic elements of humor in the human species.

America's often-unspoken morality codes make many topics taboo in "the land of the free." This book analyzes hundreds of popular culture examples to expose how the media both avoids and alludes to how we derive pleasure from our bodies. Flatulence ... male nudity ... abortion ... masturbation: these are just a few of the taboo topics in the United States. What do culturally enforced silences about certain subjects say about our society—and our latent fears? This work provides a broad yet detailed overview of popular culture's most avoided topics to explain why they remain off-limits and examines how they are presented in contemporary media—or, in many cases, delicately explored using euphemism and innuendo. The author offers fascinating, in-depth analysis of the meaning behind these portrayals of a variety of both mundane and provocative taboos, and identifies how new television programs, films, and advertising campaigns intentionally violate longstanding cultural taboos to gain an edge in the marketplace.