Ridiculous Critics offers an outline of eighteenth-century literary criticism that questions its image as a civilized practice of cultural refinement and esteem. No longer the equable narrative of texts having consistently serious content and purpose, this history highlights the contempt, jocularity, irony, and buffoonery that equally make up the critical spirit of the period. Laughter's scandalous intrusions and corrections are pertinent today when puritanical solemnities of every kind claim the soul of critical writing.