Abstract
Humour, an established means of releasing stress and tension has attracted scholarly attention over the years. In the Nigerian discourse context, studies on Crisis-Motivated Humour (CMH) via CMC platforms are scanty. This paper investigates humour shared through the social media which reflects the socioeconomic/political challenges in Nigeria in order to identify CMH as a form of humour through which real-life experiences of other people can be understood. Ethnography of Communication and Pragmatic act theory serve as the theoretical framework. Ten anonymous humorous compositions were randomly selected from WhatsApp and Facebook. CMH is a creative composition of jokes which reflects the Nigerians’ experiences, perceptions, imaginations and assumptions. They are purposefully composed by Nigerians, in order to downplay the effects of the crisis and bring temporary reliefs to the audience. These jokes elicit amusement, high-level wits and satirise the crisis situation(s). CMH are composed mainly in English with a blend of pidgin and a reflection of some Nigerianism. They are replete with verifiable, but exaggerated facts deployed through varying practs. Use of the first person singular pronoun ‘I’ and second person singular/plural ‘you’ with the use of simple present tense of verb among other grammatical elements, are a norm. All these make some of the jokes believable and also establish CMH as a unique genre of humour with an unlimited audience. CMH are often preserve-able and re-usable and thus serve as a relevant medium through which political leaders can assess the plights of the populace and access first-hand information on the ‘real’ impacts of the crisis.
Highlights
Humour, an established means of releasing stress and tension has attracted scholarly attention over the years and has been identified as an effective means of interaction
Analyses of data for the study are structured according to the study’s objectives, namely: nature of Crisis-Motivated humour (CMH) and ideas conveyed through it, CMH as a reference of a society’s realities, and pragmatic acts in CMH construction
The other part of the analysis is presented in an abridged version of the Ethnography of Communication (EoC) and pragmatic act application
Summary
An established means of releasing stress and tension has attracted scholarly attention over the years and has been identified as an effective means of interaction. This study investigates crisismotivated humour in computer-mediated platforms in Nigeria within the scholarly lens of pragmatics. Humour can be employed through satirisation as seen in texts (especially academic) On the television, it can be regarded as a comedy, constructed in play or before a live audience (e.g. stand-up comedy). This study, investigates Crisis-Motivated humour (CMH) in Nigeria and explores its relevance as a potential coping strategy. Clarke (2009) attempted a description of humour using pattern recognition theory He argued that humour is effectively an information-processing system which is applicable to any data, whether externally perceived or internally stored. He identified some patterns, which in his estimation give a description of humour. His study serves as a contribution to the debate about ‘political correctness’ and censorship of humour
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