The Joke
“Jokes are elementary, primitive forms of humorous narratives, and many humorous texts can be fruitfully analyzed as elaborations and computations of an elementary joke.”
“The differences between jokes and short stories are marginal. There are some quantitative differences (the number of script oppositions in the text), but otherwise the same mechanisms are at play.”
“Some part of the information in jokes must be left implicit. Explication of the mechanisms involved in the humorous effect or the text results in the destruction of the humorous effect.”
RASKIN
“Three semantic oppositions:
1. Real / Unreal
2. Normal / Abnormal
3. Possible / Impossible”
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Types of Jokes
1. Referential jokes
-outnumber verbal jokes
2. Verbal jokes – based on lexical ambiguity
-jokes in which disjunctor follows connector outnumber jokes in which disjunctor/connector coincide
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LINEAR ORGANIZATION OF A JOKE
“Whatever linguistic material occurs after the punch line, it is superfluous for the fruition of the text as a joke.”
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GREIMAS
“The Isotopy-Disjunction Model (IDM
(The contribution of the IDM to humor research are principally in the analysis of the disjunction mechanisms and the analysis of the text as a linear sequence of elements.)
1. Jokes are composed of two parts
-narration/presentation
-dialogue
2. Jokes contain ‘opposition’ or ‘variation’ of an isotopy (a camouflage of the opposition)”
“Phonological differences do not match semantic differences.”
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“Three narrative *functions of a joke:
1. Function of normalization
-puts characters in situation
-establishes narrative frame
-works as background for the articulation of the dialogical part
-initial situation, short and elliptical
2. Locutory function of interlocking
- establishes problem to be solved
-usually dialogical
-belongs to discourse or any non-narrative form
-creates expectations
-introduces need for resolution
-’In verbal humor, it often contains the connector, which enables the switch between the two senses in the joke.’
3. Locutory function of disjunction
-solves problem humorously
-end of text
-concludes narration
-contains disjunctor (the element that causes the passage from the serious to the humorous sense and hence is responsible for the humorous effect itself.”
-should have brevity and immediacy
*Function – an act of a character defined from the point of view of its significance for the course of action.”
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The three functions are not specific to the joke, but are present in any narrative text.
NARRATIVE JOKE = F1 + F2 + F3
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“Two mechanisms of a joke:
1. Disjunction
2. Connection”
“Context (both linguistic and situational) reduces the level of ambiguity of an utterance to zero (or rather to levels pragmatically acceptable for the purposes of communication). This phenomenon is known as disambiguation.
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DISAMBIGUATION OF A JOKE:
S1 -> S2 = JOKE
-The passage from S1 to S2 must be unexpected and immediate.
-The element that causes passage from S1 to S2 is called the ‘disjunctor‘. The disjunctor must necessarily follow the connector. The disjunctor is always final.”
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“Connector
- any segment of text that can be given to distinct readings.
-have various potential actualizations until disjunctor comes in.”
“Justification
-cognitive and psychological function of establishing a ‘resolution’ of the incongruity triggered by the disjunctor.”
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MANETTI
The punchline
“The punchline triggers a feedback effect that leads to a rereading of the text to identify its ambiguous part.”
Culture
“A set of cultural specifications preexists the joke and defines what counts as humorous in a culture.”
