Humor and identity in the performance of a stand-up comedian with disability

Abstract

Being a stand-up comedian with medical issue requires the ability to apply certain techniques to create humor when performing stand-up comedy. Josh Blue (JB) is one of those well-known stand-up comedians diagnosed with cerebral palsy. This study aims to investigate the linguistics aspects applied by JB in delivering his jokes and how these aspects relate to identity JB wants to present. This research employed a qualitative descriptive method to analyze the data. The results reveal that JB uses irony in his stand-up comedy. In terms of linguistic features, JB mostly applies silent pause, while in joke technique JB applies self-ridicule. These findings suggest that the linguistics aspects used by JB present that disability can be a special identity that affects people’s perception and their ways of interaction with other people. JB linked each of his experience of being disabled by wrapping it well as his joke technique. JB has privilege in processing his disability into a primacy in joke technique without sounding condescending and even sarcastic.