A humor typology to identify humor styles used in sitcoms
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Jennifer Juckel
Jennifer Juckel completed her Ph.D. in media psychology at Murdoch University in Perth (which this paper is based on). She currently works at General Practice Training Qld as a research officer, working on research that aims to improve the standard of training given to registrars on their way to becoming general practitioners.
,
Steven Bellman
Steven Bellman is the MediaScience research professor at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, University of South Australia. His research on viewer responses to media content and advertising is funded by the sponsors of the Beyond:30 project, who include many of the world’s leading TV networks and advertisers. He has a Ph.D. from the University of New South Wales, and is on the editorial boards of Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, and Journal of Interactive Marketing.
and
Duane Varan
Duane Varan is CEO of MediaScience in Austin, Texas, facilitator of the ESPN Lab. He also oversees Beyond:30, a collaborative industry project exploring the changing media landscape, He has a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, is well-published and is the recipient of numerous awards including the Australian Prime Minister’s University Teacher of the Year Award. MediaScience operates audience research labs in Austin and Chicago.
Abstract
The sitcom genre is one of the most enduringly popular, yet we still know surprising little about their specific elements. This study aimed to develop a typology of humor techniques that best describe the components comprising the sitcom genre. New original techniques were added to applicable techniques from previous schemes to propose a sitcom-specific humor typology. This typology was tested with another coder for inter-coder reliability, and it was revealed the typology is theoretically sound, practically easy, and reliable. The typology was then used to code four well-known US sitcoms, with the finding that the techniques used aligned with the two most prominent theories of humor – superiority and incongruity.
About the authors
Jennifer Juckel completed her Ph.D. in media psychology at Murdoch University in Perth (which this paper is based on). She currently works at General Practice Training Qld as a research officer, working on research that aims to improve the standard of training given to registrars on their way to becoming general practitioners.
Steven Bellman is the MediaScience research professor at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, University of South Australia. His research on viewer responses to media content and advertising is funded by the sponsors of the Beyond:30 project, who include many of the world’s leading TV networks and advertisers. He has a Ph.D. from the University of New South Wales, and is on the editorial boards of Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, and Journal of Interactive Marketing.
Duane Varan is CEO of MediaScience in Austin, Texas, facilitator of the ESPN Lab. He also oversees Beyond:30, a collaborative industry project exploring the changing media landscape, He has a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, is well-published and is the recipient of numerous awards including the Australian Prime Minister’s University Teacher of the Year Award. MediaScience operates audience research labs in Austin and Chicago.
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©2016 by De Gruyter Mouton
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- The role of economic conditions on humor generation and attitude towards humorous TV commercials
- A Semiotic Analysis of Political Cartoons in Jordan in Light of the Arab Spring
- Bridging notions of language play and language awareness
- The development of a humor styles questionnaire for younger children
- A humor typology to identify humor styles used in sitcoms
- The seriousness of ethnic jokes: Ethnic humor and social change in the Netherlands, 1995–2012
- Book Reviews
- Moira Marsh: Practically Joking
- Daniel Bowles: The Ends of Satire: Legacies of Satire in Postwar German Writing
- Gian Luigi De Rosa, Francesca Bianchi, Antonella De Laurentiis, and Elisa Perego: Translating Humor in Audiovisual Texts
- Erratum
- Erratum to: Faith and laughter: Do atheists and practicing Christians have different senses of humor?
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- The role of economic conditions on humor generation and attitude towards humorous TV commercials
- A Semiotic Analysis of Political Cartoons in Jordan in Light of the Arab Spring
- Bridging notions of language play and language awareness
- The development of a humor styles questionnaire for younger children
- A humor typology to identify humor styles used in sitcoms
- The seriousness of ethnic jokes: Ethnic humor and social change in the Netherlands, 1995–2012
- Book Reviews
- Moira Marsh: Practically Joking
- Daniel Bowles: The Ends of Satire: Legacies of Satire in Postwar German Writing
- Gian Luigi De Rosa, Francesca Bianchi, Antonella De Laurentiis, and Elisa Perego: Translating Humor in Audiovisual Texts
- Erratum
- Erratum to: Faith and laughter: Do atheists and practicing Christians have different senses of humor?
