On Joking Contexts: An Example of Stand-Up Comedy

Ibukun Filani

doi:10.1515/humor-2016-0107

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On Joking Contexts: An Example of Stand-Up Comedy

Ibukun Filani

Published/Copyright: August 18, 2017

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From the journal HUMOR Volume 30 Issue 4

Abstract

Studies on stand-up comedy and jokes have noted that context plays a major role in the generation and interpretation of jokes and humorous routines. However, these studies do not formalize the concept and what constitute it in joke exchanges. Focusing on Nigerian stand-up comedy, this study is aimed at conceptualizing and describing the contexts that could be found in joking exchanges. The study proposes two types: context-of-the-joke and context-in-the-joke. The context-of-the-joke is grounded in shared beliefs that exist between the participants-of-the-joke. The context-in-the-joke is characterized by features such as joke utterance, participants-in-the-joke (most especially the target) and activity-in-the-joke among others. These features make up the contextualization cues that the participants-of-the-joke (both the joke teller and recipient) use in joke generation and interpretation.

Keywords: Participants-of-the-joke; targets; stand-up comedy; activity-in-the-joke; contexts

Appendix

Transcription conventions

/: Indicates line boundaries in the translations
!: Accents, it indicates emphasis. When it is more than one, it indicates a stronger degree of emphasis
?: Raising intonation
“”: Quotation marks, denotes utterances adduced to participants-in-the-joke
:: Length
CL: Comedian laughs
AL: Audience laughs
Word: Yellow highlight indicates a slower speech rate
Word: Green highlight indicates a faster speech rate

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Published Online: 2017-8-18

Published in Print: 2017-9-26

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2016-0107

Keywords for this article

Participants-of-the-joke; targets; stand-up comedy; activity-in-the-joke; contexts