A Pragmatic Study of Selected Humorous Discourse by Nigerian Stand-up Comedians

Abstract

One primary communicative goal in humour is entertainment. Nevertheless, other pragmatic implications result when humourists subconsciously deploy various linguistic strategies, as they entertain their audience through the use of witty sayings crafted in contextualised, real or imaginary scenarios. Following Grice’s Cooperative Principle, this study investigates deeper communicative effects achieved by Nigerian stand-up comedians. It pays attention to cases of the flouting of Gricean maxims, and examines the speakers’ discursive motives. Five texts sourced from three distinguished Nigerian stand-up humourists are presented for analysis, given their thematic focus on trending national socio-political discourses. Findings show that maxim flouting is fundamental to creating humour, as all four maxims are flouted, with some utterances flouting more than one. The maxim of quality is flouted the most, thus emphasising its pivotal role in creating humour. Evidence for this is provided in the comedians’ heavy dependence on hypothetical illustrations, exaggerations and understated realities. In addition, instances of incongruous expressions, narrations and manipulation of news reports serve to contextualise humour. Humourists deploy their art to satirise and challenge the national socio-political status quo, thereby subtly revealing their personal ideologies. The work proves further that irrespective of time, audience or context, comedians use the same linguistic tools to amuse their audience while also advancing claims that humour is an expressive use of language, as a vehicle to canvass for social change. Keywords: Pragmatics, Humour, Socio-Political Discourse, Maxim, Communication