Witz first became a burning issue for German intellectuals after 1671 when le Pere Dominique Bonhours in his Entretiens d'Artiste et d'Eugene informed them that they didn't have any. According to Bonhours, it wasn't really the Germans' fault that they were a little dim, it is just that they live in a cold climate and tend to be fat. A feud between French bel esprit and German Intellekt erupted that has persisted ever since.Scholarly investigations into the nature of the joke have traditionally been plagued by a bad conscience and invariably begin with an apology to...