  Contextual knowledge is the most important element in understanding language.
By contextual knowledge we mean both general knowledge and discourse knowledge
i.e. knowledge of the situational context, background knowledge and the
co-textual context [10]. In this paper, we will discuss the importance of
contextual knowledge in understanding the humor present in the cartoon based
Amul advertisements in India.In the process, we will analyze these
advertisements and also see if humor is an effective tool for advertising and
thereby, for marketing.These bilingual advertisements also expect the audience
to have the appropriate linguistic knowledge which includes knowledge of
English and Hindi vocabulary, morphology and syntax. Different techniques like
punning, portmanteaus and parodies of popular proverbs, expressions, acronyms,
famous dialogues, songs etc are employed to convey the message in a humorous
way. The present study will concentrate on these linguistic cues and the
required context for understanding wit and humor.
