Pragmeme of political humour in selected political cartoons in Nigerian newspapers

Abstract

Several studies have been conducted regarding the object of humour based research but few attention has been given Cartoon Motivated humour (CMH) in Nigerian discourse. Thus, this study explores a pragmatic study of political humour in selected political cartoons. It investigates humour that reflect the corruption, embezzlement, economic and health challenges in Nigeria shared through the selected political cartoons. The theoretical framework adopted is Jacob Mey's Pragmatic Act Theory. A total of Twelve (12) data were purposively selected from three different newspapers (The Punch, The Daily Trust and The Vanguard). The paper found out that the humour in political cartoon is to evoke laughter with the intention to correct the societal ills of the political leaders. This is achieved through the practs of informing, castigating, ridiculing, exposing, blaming, etc. The paper also revealed that pragmatic elements such as inference, (INF), Relevance (REL), Reference (REF) and Shared Situational Knowledge (SSK) were used to expose the hidden messages in the selected political cartoons. The study also examines the use of language in political humour and the study employs qualitative method of research. The study reveals the inference, reference, inferred alongside the Shared Situational Knowledge meaning of the data used which played a crucial role in understanding the interpretation of the pract performed in political cartoon. The paper concludes that the humour in political cartoon doesn't only evoke laughter but correct societal ills and the way language is used by political leaders in Nigeria.