Pragmatic analysis of humour strategies and functions in Jenifa’s Diary and Professor JohnBull

Abstract

Studies on humour in Nigeria have been extensively carried out from the perspectives of standupcomedy and computer-mediated communication. There is a dearth of scholarly enquiries onhumour in situation comedies (sitcoms). This paper investigates humour in the interactions ofcharacters in Jenifa’s Diary and Professor JohnBull, with a view to accounting for themanifestations of humour, the humour strategies deployed and the functions that the humorousutterances serve in the sitcoms. The work is situated in Culpeper’s Impoliteness Theory. Eightexcerpts from the sitcoms were subjected to pragmatic analysis. Two discourse functions ofamusing and castigating are discovered in the data. The former serves the function offacilitating discourse and changing presumed power and status, while the latter serves thefunction of maintaining one’s own space and autonomy, and demanding respect. Allusion,parody, retort, tease, banter and put-down are the humour techniques employed in the sitcoms.The study corroborates the claim of earlier studies that humour in every sphere of language useserves certain functions beyond the interactional need to create amusement.