OFFENCE BUILT ON AMBIGUITY IN STAND-UP COMEDY HUMOUR
OFFENCE BUILT ON AMBIGUITY IN STAND-UP COMEDY HUMOUR

Author(s): Roland Szabó
Subject(s): Pragmatics
Published by: Scientia Kiadó
Keywords: stand-up comedy; humour; pragmatics; offensive language; ambiguities;
Summary/Abstract: This study represents part of a larger research within the field of pragmatics. The area of study is the language of stand-up comedies, namely, utterances considered to be rude and offensive, which are eventually perceived as humorous. The present paper points out lexical and structural ambiguity in a collection of jokes performed by British stand-up comedian Jimmy Carr and looks into the meticulous construction of their language with the purpose to show how successfully the comedian manages to increase humorous impact by using offence embedded in ambiguities.

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