The anecdotes and figure of Nasreddin Hodja in Uzbek humor

Laughing and humor are two essential topics people have been arguing since the early ages. People have been preoccupied with what people laugh at and why and which of these laughs are humorous. They have been able to find answers to these questions through three humor theories (Superiority, Unconformity, Relief). However, none of these answers shed lights on the questions comprehensively. Jokes are one of the prominent humorous creations. Jokes are short and intensive narrations and their final sentence is at the end. The message given in the jokes is told by a type that is closest to meet the expectations of the society. In this context, Nasreddin Hodja is a joke type who gained the feature of being a common sense and conscience of the Turkic world and whose fame and intellect went beyond the ages. He, in his jokes, criticized the cruel governors, the judges who did not judge fairly, and people who broke the social rules and led to a chaos through humor. Turks have taken with them this wise man wherever they have moved. In this dissertation, I have investigated the sense of humor and Efendi jokes in Uzbekistan, one of the most important cultural centers of the Turkic world, through their contents, structures, time-place context, and humor theories. As far as I am concerned, doctoral dissertation have been carried out on Nasreddin Hodja jokes in Kirghizstan and Turkmenistan. That no doctoral dissertations about the Jokes of Nasreddin Hodja of Uzbekistan have been studied led us to decide on this study. 888 jokes told as Nasreddin Hodja's jokes exist in our dissertation. Besides, I have presented the similar narrations told in Anatolia.