Theory Of Verbal Humor Research Articles

Verbal humor created by flouting maxims in how i met your mother series

This article is entitled Humorous Situation Created by Flouting of Maxim in Comedy Series How I Met Your Mother. It is aimed at identifying the types of maxims being used in order to create verbal humor. The data was taken from “How I Met Your Mother” comedy series. This undergraduate thesis applied two theories to solve the problems. The first is the theory is the Grice’s maxims to identify what are the maxims flouted in the series and also to find which maxim is dominantly flouted. Whereas, the second theory is the theory of verbal humor by Shade. This undergraduate thesis used the documentation method for collecting data, the data was collected from the comedy series by watching the series, reading the movie script as well as seen at the subtitle of the series. Then identify the maxims flouted by the characters in it. The result of this undergraduate thesis shows that all maxims were flouted in the series. And there were four types of verbal humor implied in the series How I Met Your Mother.

Eglon’s Fat and Ehud’s Oracle: A Reconsideration of Humour in Judges 3.12–30

Judg. 3.12–30 details the assassination of King Eglon of Moab by the Benjaminite Ehud ben Gera. Many scholars insist that the story was originally meant to be funny, contending that the text casts Eglon (i.e. ‘Little Calf’) humorously as a slaughtered bovine. Indeed, some regard the text as ‘satire’, though there remains no consensus as to what, exactly, constitutes the butt of the joke. In this article, I argue that Eglon’s fat and Ehud’s feigned oracle work together to form a comical critique of foreign rulers and their reliance on divination. The argument draws on Victor Raskin’s semantic theory of verbal humour along with a re-examination of fat on elite male bodies in the Hebrew Bible and the practice of ancient oracle giving, as reflected in cuneiform sources. I thus aim to elucidate ways the text would have registered as humorous and meaningful for an ancient West Asian audience.

Semantic and Pragmatic Features of Hadrami Jokes

Humour with its different forms is a universal phenomenon. The joke is among these forms. Although they are not famous for their sense of humour, Hadrami people have their own special cultural heritage of jokes. This study attempts to investigate the semantic and pragmatic features of the punchline of a selected number of Hadrami jokes depending on two parameters of the General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH) which are Script Opposition (SO) and Language (LA). The linguistic constructs of LA are adopted from Leech's (1981) associative meanings and Grice's (1975) conversational implicature theory. The sample has been collected from the Internet and Hadrami people. After excluding the irrelevant ones, 37 jokes has been studied within the theoretical framework of this study following the discourse analysis approach of linguistic qualitative researches. The findings show that the most frequent SO in Hadrami jokes are: expected/ unexpected, and stingy/ not stingy. Also, the semantic features exceed the pragmatic ones. Within the semantic features, the connotations exceed – in their turn- the social and the collocative meanings. The focus of the pragmatic features is violating the maxims mainly under the SO parameter stingy/ not stingy. These findings prove that the punchlines of Hadrami jokes are the focal point of the joke and they represent loaded language with a great diversity of semantic and pragmatic indications.

On Silent Laughter: The Political Humour Depicted in Indonesian Cartoons

The cartoon is a part of online media which Indonesian speakers pragmatically favor. Besides being entertaining, the cartoon is popular because it probably contains political humour relevant to the socio-pragmatic situation in society. This study specifically aimed at describing the political humour in Indonesian cartoons. The data used were 222 cartoons. The data was downloaded from online-open source media platforms from November 1st, 2021, to January 5th, 2022. All data was collected from the google search engine based on the digital observation techniques proposed by Cordelois (2010). Apart from being based on the theory of visual metaphors, Attardo’s general theory of verbal humor (GTVH) was utilized to analyze data. The results of this study indicated that, in general, political humour is one of the popular domains of the content of cartoons published in Indonesia’s online media. In particular, political humour consists of at least three types, namely political satire, parody, and irony. Of the three types, parody is the most dominant political humour used in Indonesian cartoons.

Translating humorous literature from Vietnamese into Italian language: an empirical study of humour reception

The empirical study presented in this article aims to determine some of the linguistic and cultural elements that can influence the production process and the reception of humour and to verify the applicability of the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) to humorous literary translation. 60 Vietnamese and 60 Italian participants had to read and rate the level of humorousness of excerpts taken from the Vietnamese novel Số Đỏ (Vũ Trọng Phụng, 1936) and its correspondent Italian translation (Il gioco indiscreto di Xuan, 2012). By comparing their feedback, it was possible to observe that one is more likely to appreciate humour when one is not part of the categories subject to ridicule/irony/satire; and that a direct contact with the original language and culture constitutes an important role in humour understanding and appreciating. Also, a comparison between the rating that the Italian participants assigned to the official Italian translation and an alternative version allowed us to analyze the role of Language Knowledge Resource (GTVH). According to the Italian participants, although the two versions of the translation, which share the first five levels of Knowledge Resources, were remarkably similar (as predicted by the GTVH), they were dissimilar in terms of humour and in readers' preferences. I therefore argue that, although the GTVH is a useful tool for analyzing and verifying the similarity between the source and target text, it has proved to be impractical and not always reliable if we want to use it as a parameter of the translation of literary humorous texts.

Political humor: memes in Egyptian painting after the revolution

ABSTRACT Various humoristic approaches have manifested in contemporary Egyptian painting in the aftermath of the revolution. This article examines the use of memes in contemporary political painting, and why Egyptian artists started to initiate humor and laughter, even if it was cynical or bitter. It adopts a critical model for analysing humoristic paintings initially developed from the general theory of verbal humor for analysing jokes and texts.

Identifying humor in stand-up comedy: A preliminary study

This paper describes a preliminary study examining how the audience of stand-up comedy approach humor analysis. By expanding the scope of the General Theory of Verbal Humor (Attardo 2001), it was possible to use the framework to aid and systematize the interpretation process, resulting in shifting the theory’s focus from humor production to humor perception.
 The first part of the paper introduces the main premise of stand-up comedy. The second part is devoted to the theoretical aspects, namely the theory of humor. The third part discusses the methodology of the preliminary study: a two-step interpretation task done by four audience members. The fourth and the fifth sections present the results of the study and discuss the implications. The outcome of the analysis gives an understanding as to what the audience may focus on during the interpretation process, which allows for identification of differences in humor perception.

A Linguistic Analysis of Verbal Humor Found in the Transcription of Animated TV Series Gravity Falls

Humour is one of the channels used in communication to express a concept or an idea. It can also be used to entertain people, such as in a TV show. This research focuses on the investigation of verbal perceptions of humour found in the transcription of the animated TV series Gravity Falls. Its purpose is to figure out what kinds of verbal humour can be found in the transcription of the animated television series Gravity Falls, as well as how the verbal humour in its transcription linguistically examined using the General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH). This study examined an episode of “Gravity Falls season 2: Not What He Seems” using a descriptive qualitative technique. The investigation discovered 29 linguistic humours in the research object, which were classified into 9 of the 12 types. The six Knowledge Resources in the General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH) are used to analyze the verbal humours previously discovered linguistically: Script Opposition (SO), Logical Mechanism (LM), Situation (SI), Target (TA), Narrative Strategy (NS), and Language (LA). To analyze the verbal humour, the analysis is done in a hierarchical order of the KRs.

Script System and Black Humor in Plays by M. McDonagh

The present paper focuses on intertextuality as a means of black humor in plays by Martin McDonagh, a famous British-Irish playwright. Nine of his plays have been translated into different languages and staged in theatres around the world. However, most theories of comic effect cannot explain the phenomenon of his popularity. This prompted the authors to search for the most accurate and least conditioned way to classify intertext as a means of comic effect in general and black humor in particular. As a result, they chose the semantic theory of humor by V. Raskin and the multidisciplinary general theory of verbal humor developed by V. Raskin and S. Attardo. These theories employ the notions of "script" and "opposition" to examine the linguistic nature of the joke. Using attributed and unattributed intertext inclusions as "signs" or "scripts", the authors analyzed McDonagh’s plays through the prism of this theory. The result was a system of scripts and oppositions that form the chronotope of a long text as opposed to that of a joke. The article also introduces the black humor mechanism in McDonagh's plays: it is based on references to the intertextual thesaurus of the potential reader / theatre audience.

The co-construction of humor in computer-mediated teacher-student communication

This paper investigates the way online humorous exchanges are jointly constructed and recognized by a teacher and her students. It focuses on the role humor studies play in understanding issues related to Computer-mediated Communication (CMC). The data consist of synchronous discussions of 11 Tunisian learners of English and their teacher via instant messaging on Skype. The analysis uses the notion of script oppositions (SOs) in the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) and offers an account for the internal structure of exchanges; how the exchange begins with a serious mode, how it gradually develops into a humorous play frame, and how inferences are drawn. The study reveals that humor is created by activating binary SOs and shows that the teacher/student dynamics can make joking online more difficult to interpret than joking among peers. With reference to the analysis of the specific context of the CMC discussions, a serious set up of a humorous sequence created by a teacher can leave students uncertain toward the playfulness of the sequence. A playful set up, on the other hand, makes participants engage in a joint fantasy and build new layers of meaning as the conversation develops.

Translating English humor into Chinese subtitles: a semiotic perspective

This semiotically-oriented study examined the Chinese subtitle translations for humor in English sitcoms and highlighted the interactions between the verbal and the visual modes. Drawing on the General Theory of Verbal Humor and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), this study examined three script opposition types: normal vs. abnormal, actual vs. nonactual, and possible vs. impossible; furthermore, it analyzed three logical mechanism categories: false specification or exemplification; exaggeration or false analogy; and false reasoning on time, space, cause, or condition. It focused on the Chinese subtitles for English verbally-visually expressed humor in the English sitcom Modern Family (Season 5) and found that literal translation and explicitation are the two predominantly employed translation procedures to render script opposition and logical mechanism. This study further demonstrates that the two key concerns for subtitling English verbally-visually expressed humor are highlighting the incongruities embodied in script opposition and triggering the semiotic resolutions represented in logical mechanisms. These findings elucidate the relevance of visual elements for subtitling humor both among subtitle translators and researchers.

Digital Literacy via Readers’ Responses towards Humor Presented in “9GAG Memes”

Language education by using digital literacy via reader response approaches towards humor presented in social media will attract the student attention during learning process. The purpose of this research is to analyze the text produced by learners in order to explain how they provide responses towards humorous, fearing, annoying, pitiful, and confusing memes.This research is a qualitative research. The approach of the research is descriptive approach. This research was a readers response analysis focusing on descriptive qualitative. The data collecting done by observation, documentation and questionnaires. The subject of the study are students of SMA Negeri 1 Pecangaan Jepara. The method applied in this research is General Theory of Verbal Humor and Reader ‘s Response Theory as the approach in which the researcher related the contexts of the data to the data analyzed in order to make replicable and valid inferences from data to its context. The result of the research shows digital literacy skill of the XII grade of SMA Negeri 1 Pecangaan Jepara students is quite good. The reader accepts the aspects of humor through their current contribution on their response inside their peer group.

How to kill with a smile – how to smile about a kill: violent clowns as double incongruity

This article applies the General Theory of Verbal Humor and its expansions to the friendly clown and transfers it to scary materials represented through the figure of the evil, violent clown. It demonstrates that the clown’s effects of exhilaration and fear both rely on incongruity mechanisms and which similarities and differences exist between humorous and scary material. This article focuses on the violent but funny clowns of the Pilo Family Circus and develops the notion of double incongruity to explain why it is possible to laugh about a destructive and brutal clown and how potential recipients process this incongruity type cognitively.

Parsing satirical humor: a model of cognitive-linguistic satire analysis / Raščlanjivanje satiričkog humora: primjer kognitivnolingvističke analize satire

Even though not all satire needs to be funny, it is the humorous element that makes it amusing. This paper attempts at explaining the humorous element along with the inner working of satire from a Cognitive Linguistic viewpoint. This paper proposes an integrated Cognitive-Linguistic approach to verbal and visual satire, and the humor ensuing therefrom. By employing Blending Theory and General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH), the aim is to structure a comprehensive ready-made model for future satire analysis. The present study analyses satire in the fake news TV format of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, a highly potent resource of both verbal and visual type of satire and humor. The results of the study elicit three main features of the satirical discourse of the show – ridicule, visual input, and cultural reference. Besides having significance for satire research, the results of the paper also raise questions on the general understanding of language.

“Women In Jokes”: A Linguistic Analysis of Jokes on Pakistani Social Media in Light of the General Theory of Verbal Humour

Social relations of power are established and negotiated through discourse and joke telling is one strategy among many to do so. The present study is an attempt to examine the representation of women in jokes, circulated on Pakistani social media, by addressing four themes: representation of women in general, women exercising skills/intellect, women as life partners and representation of teenage girls/young women. The study employs the General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH) by Attardo & Raskin (1991) as a theoretical framework. From different social media sources like Facebook and Whatsapp, twenty jokes pertaining to women have been selected randomly and analysed on the basis of the GTVH's six knowledge resources. The study reflects the realization that women are represented as talkative and ignorant beings, devoid of intellect; women as life partners are shown to be domineering and intimidating figures, and the representation of teenage girls/young women reinforces stereotypes circulated by patriarchy discourse. The significance of this work lies in the assumption that systematically analysing jokes about women may help in exposing casual sexism and empower women by provoking them to question instead of internalizing the stereotypes circulated through jokes.

A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Gender in Persian Verbal Humor: The Case of Online Jokes

The present study aimed to investigate the role of gender in Persian verbal humor. To do so, based on an Iranian mobile app, 354 trending jokes (‘liked’ by at least 50,000 users) were selected and scrutinized to discern how male and female Persian speakers were employed in creating humor. In the light of General Theory of Verbal Humor, the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data revealed that a statistically significant proportion of the online jokes were gender-biased. Furthermore, female Persian speakers were by far the main target of humor in these jokes. Further inspection also indicated that ‘marriage’, ‘reasoning ability and intelligence’, ‘beauty and make-up’, ‘general knowledge and skill’ in the female-focused humor and, ‘(feminine) beauty’, ‘heterosexual orientation’, and ‘social position’ in the male-focused humor were the major themes of ridicule. The findings suggest that Persian verbal humor serves as a true reflection of the Iranian society, mirroring post-revolutionary as well as recent socio-cultural developments. Moreover, gender roles in Persian verbal humor (and perhaps the society), are in a transitory shifting phase to the effect that traditionally masculine hegemonic concepts are giving way, albeit gradually, to emerging patterns which are more in favor of female Persian speakers.

Analysis of Humour in Tv Series Friends and Its Translation Into Lithuanian

Summary The present study examines humour in the tenth season of the TV sitcom Friends and its translation from English into Lithuanian. With humour often believed to be culture-specific, humour translation presents a notorious issue in translation practice, as jocular content in the target language is often criticised for being poor and vague. Grounded in Raskin’s (1985) theory of verbal humour and adopting Schjoldager’s (2008) inventory of translation microstrategies, the article examines the components and mechanisms of humour in the source language and analyses the strategies applied to humour translation, focusing on whether the intended humorous effect is preserved in the target language. The article also seeks to establish to what extent humour as used in Friends is culturedependent. The study was conducted at two levels. First, we briefly presented the essence of Raskin’s model of humour, which centres around the notions of script and incongruity, and later applied it to the selected series to identify and analyse the data in the source language. We then supplemented the findings with the identification of jokes in the target language and assessment of translation microstrategies employed in rendering humorous instances in Lithuanian. The findings of the study are believed to further the theoretical and practical domains of translation from English into Lithuanian in particular and, more broadly, contribute to the discussion on the culture-specific worldview.

Ficción publicitaria radiofónica y humor: un análisis pragmalingüístico

La ficción constituye uno de los exponentes de la creatividad en la publicidad radiofónica. Específicamente, esta modalidad publicitaria parece haber encontrado en el humor una fórmula para llamar y captar la atención del oyente con la finalidad de conseguir la adhesión emocional que lo induzca a la adquisición del producto. Por ello, el objetivo de este trabajo es revisar las estrategias que se emplean para desencadenar los efectos humorísticos incidiendo de forma especial en las particularidades que impone la radio como soporte publicitario. Un análisis que vamos a llevar a cabo a partir de los presupuestos de la Teoría General del Humor Verbal (TGHV) (Attardo y Raskin, 1991). Además, como la publicidad constituye un discurso multimodal (Kress, 2010) en el que convergen diversos códigos, revisaremos tanto los indicadores lingüísticos del humor como aquellos otros recursos (música, paralenguaje y otros efectos sonoros) que permiten desencadenar el efecto humorístico.

A semiotic analysis of cartoons about occupational health and safety issues in the construction workplace

The construction industry in developed and developing countries is almost always among industries with poor safety records. In decreasing the numbers of safety incidents, society’s perception of construction workers, who are the central part of the occupational health and safety issue, can be an important learning tool for these workers in terms of self-criticism. Therefore, society’s perception of the responsibility of workers for occupational health and safety is presented by means of cartoons. For this objective, seven cartoons exhibited in the International Construction Accidents Cartoon Contest held in Turkey are examined through the General Theory of Verbal Humour, a semiotic analysis method. As the main finding, construction-based occupational health and safety perceptions of countries were found not to change significantly. Consequently, these results can have a function in guiding workers and worker unions to revise and manage the general perception of society about them. Moreover, such cartoons can be used as a lingua franca for occupational health and safety training in international construction projects where multinational migrant workers are employed.

Discursive Structure of Humour in Stand-up Comedy Kenya: Discourse Topics and Stylistic Devices in Churchill’s Performances

Humour is a central component in stand-up comedy. The intent of a stand-up comedian is to amuse the audience and the audience laughter is a reaction to humour. This studysought to establish the discourse topics established by the stand-up comedian and the stylistic devices embedded in these topics to elicit laughter from the audience. To achieve this, the study focused on selected performances of Churchill, a comedian, in Churchill Live a Kenyan stand-up comedy. The study was guided by General Theory of Verbal Humour, which was useful in identifying the stylistic devices. Churchill routines from three episodes were transcribed for analysis. The results obtained indicate that social class, ethnicity, politics, religion and sports, are the most commonly discussed topics. The stylistic devices employed are contrast, songs, hyperbole, allusion, ridicule, ridicule and flashback.