Humour is a central component in stand-up comedy. The intent of a stand-up comedian is to amuse the audience and the audience laughter is a reaction to humour. This studysought to establish the discourse topics established by the stand-up comedian and the stylistic devices embedded in these topics to elicit laughter from the audience. To achieve this, the study focused on selected performances of Churchill, a comedian, in Churchill Live a Kenyan stand-up comedy. The study was guided by General Theory of Verbal Humour, which was useful in identifying the stylistic devices. Churchill routines from three episodes were transcribed for analysis. The results obtained indicate that social class, ethnicity, politics, religion and sports, are the most commonly discussed topics. The stylistic devices employed are contrast, songs, hyperbole, allusion, ridicule, ridicule and flashback.
| Published in | International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 3, Issue 6) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.24 |
| Page(s) | 409-415 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Discursive Structure, Humour, Discourse Topics, Stylistic Devices, Stand-Up Comedy, Kenya
| [1] | Schwarz, J. (2010) Linguistic Analysis of Verbal Humour. PHD Dissertation: Sarland. |
| [2] | Rutter, J. (1997) Stand up as interaction: Performance and audience in comedy venues. Sarland. |
| [3] | Grunner, C. (1978) Understanding laughter. Chicago: Nelson-Hall. |
| [4] | Barnet, et al (1993) An Introduction to Literature, Fiction, Poetry, and Drama 10th edn. Newyork: Harper college publishers. |
| [5] | Fought, C. (2006) Language and ethnicity: Key topics in Sociolinguistics. Newyork: CUP. |
| [6] | Filani, I. Discourse Types in stand-up comedy performances: an example of Nigerian Stand-uo Comedy. Published. |
| [7] | Akivaga, S. K. and Odaga, B. A. ((1984)) Oral Literature. Nairobi, Kenya: East African Educational Publishers. |
| [8] | Cuddon, J. A (1977) A dictionary of Literary Terms. London: Deutsch. |
| [9] | Baldick, C. (1990) The Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford: OUP. |
| [10] | Berger, A. A (1993) The Anatomy of Humour. New Brunwick: Transaction Publishers. |
APA Style
Mary Muthoni Githatu, Furaha Chai. (2015). Discursive Structure of Humour in Stand-up Comedy Kenya: Discourse Topics and Stylistic Devices in Churchill’s Performances. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 3(6), 409-415. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.24
ACS Style
Mary Muthoni Githatu; Furaha Chai. Discursive Structure of Humour in Stand-up Comedy Kenya: Discourse Topics and Stylistic Devices in Churchill’s Performances. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2015, 3(6), 409-415. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.24
AMA Style
Mary Muthoni Githatu, Furaha Chai. Discursive Structure of Humour in Stand-up Comedy Kenya: Discourse Topics and Stylistic Devices in Churchill’s Performances. Int J Lang Linguist. 2015;3(6):409-415. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.24
Share This Article
Twitter
Linked In
Facebook
Copy
Download@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.24,
author = {Mary Muthoni Githatu and Furaha Chai},
title = {Discursive Structure of Humour in Stand-up Comedy Kenya: Discourse Topics and Stylistic Devices in Churchill’s Performances},
journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
volume = {3},
number = {6},
pages = {409-415},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.24},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.24},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20150306.24},
abstract = {Humour is a central component in stand-up comedy. The intent of a stand-up comedian is to amuse the audience and the audience laughter is a reaction to humour. This studysought to establish the discourse topics established by the stand-up comedian and the stylistic devices embedded in these topics to elicit laughter from the audience. To achieve this, the study focused on selected performances of Churchill, a comedian, in Churchill Live a Kenyan stand-up comedy. The study was guided by General Theory of Verbal Humour, which was useful in identifying the stylistic devices. Churchill routines from three episodes were transcribed for analysis. The results obtained indicate that social class, ethnicity, politics, religion and sports, are the most commonly discussed topics. The stylistic devices employed are contrast, songs, hyperbole, allusion, ridicule, ridicule and flashback.},
year = {2015}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Discursive Structure of Humour in Stand-up Comedy Kenya: Discourse Topics and Stylistic Devices in Churchill’s Performances AU - Mary Muthoni Githatu AU - Furaha Chai Y1 - 2015/11/17 PY - 2015 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.24 DO - 10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.24 T2 - International Journal of Language and Linguistics JF - International Journal of Language and Linguistics JO - International Journal of Language and Linguistics SP - 409 EP - 415 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2330-0221 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.24 AB - Humour is a central component in stand-up comedy. The intent of a stand-up comedian is to amuse the audience and the audience laughter is a reaction to humour. This studysought to establish the discourse topics established by the stand-up comedian and the stylistic devices embedded in these topics to elicit laughter from the audience. To achieve this, the study focused on selected performances of Churchill, a comedian, in Churchill Live a Kenyan stand-up comedy. The study was guided by General Theory of Verbal Humour, which was useful in identifying the stylistic devices. Churchill routines from three episodes were transcribed for analysis. The results obtained indicate that social class, ethnicity, politics, religion and sports, are the most commonly discussed topics. The stylistic devices employed are contrast, songs, hyperbole, allusion, ridicule, ridicule and flashback. VL - 3 IS - 6 ER -
Information
Email: