Opening with a comparative analysis of the aesthetics of humour in Friends and Seinfeld, the introductory chapter argues that new modes of humour begin to emerge in the Anglophone media of the 1990s, which cannot be adequately explained by the historical tripartite theory—incongruity, superiority and relief—of humour. The chapter expounds the rationale behind a "political aesthetic" theory of humour, the structure of the book, and the basic terminology of the analysis.