This thesis looks at the fascinating issue of cross-cultural differences in the perception and portrayal of humour in magazine advertisements, with specific reference to Ireland, Germany and Austria. The primary objective of this research is to investigate whether the way people perceive humour in advertising is conditioned by culture and/or gender. The secondary objective is to analyse the portrayal of humour in specific current magazine advertisements. It is hoped that the research will be of value for academics and practitioners in the cultures under investigation and will form the basis of further research in this field. By way of introduction, the thesis attempts to define the concept of humour and discusses three of the most popular theories of humour. This is followed by a review of the existing literature and studies on humour m advertising which, on the whole, have concentrated on the effectiveness of humour and have yielded far from consistent results. This overall review reveals a gap in cross-cultural studies. The main part of the thesis is concerned with the primary research carried out by the author. Four focus groups were conducted using a male/female student population from Ireland, Germany and Austria. The stimulus material consists of a sample of ten humorous magazme advertisements. The procedure as well as the difficulties encountered are outlined. The transcripts are analysed using a combination of content analysis and an ethnographic approach and the results are presented accordingly. Following this, an in-depth semiotic analysis of the sample of advertisements is carried out. In this way, it is possible to compare the portrayal of humour in magazme advertisements across the cultures concerned. Finally, the results are discussed and areas of further research are outlined.