Humor and Sarcasm in TikTok Comments on @fujiiian’s Videos: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis

Abstract

This study investigated how Indonesian TikTok users express humor and sarcasm through comments on Fuji’s official account. The research objectives are to understand how individuals employ language, emojis, and cultural references to convey emotions and meanings in online interactions. The research subjects consist of twelve comments, including six humorous and six sarcastic ones, selected from TikTok through purposive sampling based on their relevance to the themes of humor and sarcasm. The participants are Indonesian netizens, with no specific details on age, gender, or other demographics provided. The research employs a qualitative descriptive approach, utilizing Multimodal Discourse Analysis as the primary framework. Data collection involved selecting and extracting the comments directly from the TikTok platform. Data analysis was conducted across five dimensions: linguistic, visual, typographic, interactional, and socio-cultural. The results indicate that humor often arises from exaggeration, playful slang, and self-deprecating jokes, enhanced by expressive emojis to foster a warm and relatable atmosphere. Sarcasm, conversely, depends on irony and subtle wordplay to offer gentle criticism while preserving a polite and humorous demeanor. Both expressions demonstrate the creative use of digital tools to forge connections, reveal personality, and embody shared cultural values among Indonesian users. The conclusions highlight that humor and sarcasm on TikTok serve as entertainment and significant avenues for expressing identity, emotions, and community in the digital era, with implications for enhancing online communication strategies and fostering cultural understanding in social media environments.