FUNNY AS HELL: CONCEPTUAL INTEGRATION THEORY AND STAND-UP COMEDY

FUNNY AS HELL: CONCEPTUAL INTEGRATION THEORY AND STAND-UP COMEDY

Hot, Irma

The construction of meaning in humor research falls within the cognitive group of operations present in everyday human life and occurring at a lightning speed invisible to the conscious human mind. The topic of this paper is, hereby, Cognitive-linguistic analysis of humor in stand-up comedy. The analysis is based on Fauconnier and Turner’s Blending Theory with special attention to jokes with religious content taken from the materials of American stand-up comedians. The aim of the paper is to prove that the conceptual integration theory is able to account for the creation of meaning in this type of humorous discourse. Furthermore, the analysis will try to prove that the theory of conceptual integration can explain the creation of incongruity in the blends of religious jokes and show that disparagement is inherent in this type of humor. Keywords:Conceptual Integration Theory, Stand-up Comedy, Incongruity, Religion

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2014

3451