Investigating the cultural signs and ideological representations in Masameer Saudi cartoon: a discursive and semiotic analysis

Abstract

This study is the first of its own, which provides a semiotic and a discursive analysis of the Saudi animated YouTube sitcom, entitled ‘Masameer’ (the Arabic word for ‘nails-metal spike’). Data were collected from the original YouTube channel of the show (Myrkott) and elaborated on 11 settings which contain three broad categories, namely: traditional treatments, social problems,ideological representation, and gender representations. Cultural signs are explained within Barthes’s (1957) orders of signification to describe each message in three levels of meaning as: denotation, connotation, and myth. Fairclough’s (1989) three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis is applied to analyse the underpinning ideologies of the text based on three dimensions of: description, interpretation, and explanation. Lastly, multiple humour theories were used to analyse the humour techniques used in the construction of each setting. The study concludes that ‘Masameer’ contains many cultural-specific signs that require cultural competence in order to elucidate their meanings as well as ideologies which reflect power relations and gender stereotypes. The analysis reveals that ‘Masameer’ is seen not only as an entertaining cartoon comedy, but also as a vehicle for communicating messages, ideologies, and values via humour techniques to poke fun that may stimulate a social change.