Abstract
Abstract
Once seen as peripheral, the study of humor and irony has become well established in applied linguistics. The pervasiveness of humor across most types of interaction is now well acknowledged, which has led to a body of rich descriptions of its mechanisms and uses. The aim of this entry is to review these findings and to examine how these foundational descriptions are currently being expanded into new contexts, languages, and types of interaction. Furthermore, the functions of humor in the second language (L2) classroom, as well as their use and understanding by emergent bilinguals, are reviewed.