Catchphrases: a semiotic, genealogical and cultural materialist study of the form

Abstract

This paper focuses upon the catchphrase form as a means of approaching comedy's social function beyond its initial humorous effects. The fairly recent historical appearance of the catchphrase as a recognisable entity and target of derision is unpacked, and various aspects of its signification considered in light of pre-existing theories of comedy. As a counterargument to some of these theories, the paper then goes on to consider catchphrases as serving a similar role to proverbs and sayings by providing a mutually recognisable cultural shorthand for larger ideas, concepts, characters and stereotypes. By tracing a line of development historically, a popular signifying function is witnessed emerging from folk traditions and being mediated through writers of the Middle Ages such as Chaucer, before finding full expression in the Industrial Revolution both in print and treading the boards of the music-hall stage. The forward march of ‘mass’ media, along with its incumbent homogenising and centralising tendencies, positions the catchphrase in a similar position to that of the proverb in primarily oral cultures. From this investigation, the paper concludes that the catchphrase represents a modern popular embodiment of a form of knowing that revels in the already known. This aligns catchphrases with a pre-Enlightenment sensibility that may contribute to their perception among intellectual audiences as populist and ‘lowbrow’.