HUMOUR IN SITUATION COMEDIES
HUMOUR IN SITUATION COMEDIES

Summary/Abstract: Sitcoms are television products that conquered the market of ententairment mainly since the end of WWII. There are six major elements in drama: action, character, thought, diction, music, and spectacle that are to be found in sitcoms. The situation comedy/sitcom pattern is basically associated with the idea of humour understood as any communication that generates a positive cognitive or affective response from listeners. A situation comedy, must encompass a series of cultural, human and societal norms, mores, idioms, idiosyncrasies, and terminologies against which incongruities may be found. There are three main types of sitcoms: actcoms, domcoms and dramery. Humour generating techniques are largely explained by Berger (1997) who displays four categories governed by language, logic, identity and action. In sitcoms, which are very culture-heavy, the audience needs to be familiar with the cultural framework at the same level as with language understanding in order to produce reactions as “humor concerns the individuals’ beliefs, cognitions and perceptions”.

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