1887
Volume 43, Issue 1
  • ISSN 0035-3906
  • E-ISSN: 1600-0811
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Humorous discourse overlays conventional discourse, providing both a humorous surface interpretation of reality, and a serious or standard underlying one. This paper attempts to show how humorous discourse in printed advertising usually produces a deviant understanding due to the fact that there is normally an incongruous sign or icon that distorts our vision of things. There is a transgression of common norms that transforms familiar things into weird and bizarre, creating a playful message. We distinguish various humorous procedures: irony, sarcasm, parody, pastiche, wit, absurdity, rarity and paradox. These procedures are categorized in three main functions: (a) amusement, when humor is seen as entertainment; (b) cynicism, when it is provocative; and (c) criticism, when it is understood as reproof. Humor must produce an unexpected, but pleasant, relationship with the recipient, who is always prompted to make firstly a common sense interpretation. In that way, recipient’s cooperation is necessary to obtain the humorous effect.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/rro.43.1.03lop
2008-01-01
2024-12-07
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/rro.43.1.03lop
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): advertising; humor; humor categories; humor functions; serious discourse
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error