Before you is the cult book of the world famous philologist M.M. Bakhtin (1895–1975). It was completed in 1940, and published only a quarter of a century later - in 1965, and for many years determined the development of the world science of literature. The element of folk laughter, according to Bakhtin, is opposed, on the one hand, by official-serious culture, on the other - by critical - the denying beginning of satire of the last four centuries of European culture. Carnival-type festivals, funny acts and rituals that accompany them, various forms and genres of familiar public speech - this is the subject of study of the outstanding scientist. You will learn about the prophetic power of buffoonery, and about the structure of the formation and action of abusive swearing speech, and you will forever stop wanting to use swear words in everyday speech without a good reason. Bakhtin’s work, dedicated to the works of Francois Rabelais and Nikolai Gogol, remains revolutionary to this day, opening and explaining to the reader the history and structure of the thousand-year development of the whole world of folk laughter culture, the techniques of which in one form or another are used by everyone in everyday life, sometimes without noticing it.