Verbal Humor in Louis C.K.’S Stand-Up Comedy Concert “Oh My God”: The Pragmatic Strategies

Abstract

A stand-up comedy performance is not only about amusing the audiences with the joke, but it also has other functions. This research analyzes the pragmatic strategies and function of Louis C.K.’s stand-up comedy concert “Oh My God”. Raskin and Attardo’s (1992) General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) and Grice’s (1975) maxims of cooperative principle were employed as the framework of the analysis. A descriptive qualitative method was also used to analyze the data. The result reveals that Louis C.K.’s jokes in this concert mostly violate the maxim of quantity to generate laughter through exaggeration and faulty reason. Furthermore, Louis C.K.’s stand-up comedy is not only a way to entertain but it also has another function, that is, to deliver certain messages to the audience. Louis C.K.’s joke is also a form of giving a narrative to the audiences to understand the reality that people face in another point of view.