This paper examines cases in which Korean college students might misinterpret superiority, incongruity, and sarcastic English jokes. In parallel the writer tries to bring to light possible background reasons for their misinterpretation from the perspective of the Benign-Violation Theory’ concepts of norm violation, commitment, and psychological distance. Arguably Korean college students are likely to misinterpret English humor codes influenced by their ingrained belief system of strict moral standard as well as insufficient exposure to particular genres of English jokes.

1. Introduction
 2. Theories Overview
  2.1. The Benign-Violation Theory
  2.2. Superiority Theory
  2.3. Incongruity Theory
  2.4. Sarcastic Jokes
 3. Methodology
  3.1. Survey of Experimental Apparatus
  3.2. Subjects and Procedures
 4. Cases and Results
 5. Discussion
  5.1. Malign Moral Violation and Full Commitment
  5.2. Psychological Distance and Norm Application
  5.3. Opacity and Linguistic Violation
 6. Limitation
 7. Conclusion
 References

• Hyun-jee Kang(Kyungpook National University)
• Myung-ki Oh(Kangwon National University) Corresponding author