255 He also demonstrated a Local joke and stated that a Local guy does not even know the
reason why he finds humor in that joke. Moreover, Bumatai described the properties of a Local joke as inclusive and makes a contrast to a non-Local joke that makes Locals feel
excluded. He constituted ideological factuality that from a Local‘s perspective, an
inclusive type of comedy can be interpreted as endearing while an exclusive type of comedy can be mean, vicious, etc.
6.2.4 Pidgin as the Local voice
Local comedians have a certain stake in sounding like everyone else, which was also expressed by the focus groups. The last shared orientation to Local humor emerges when
I pose a probing question to comedians about Hawai‗i Creole i.e., Pidgin in relation to Local comedy. A general comment about Hawai‗i Creole is found in an interview with
Augie T AT. Following this, he and his wife M jointly introduce a contrastive category ―haole girl,‖ thereby treating Pidgin as a category-bound attribute of being a
‗true‘ Local.
Excerpt 15a: Augie T ―That separates us from everybody else‖
01 02
03 04
05 06
07 08
09 10
11 12
13 14
15 TF
AT TF
AT TF
AT TF
AT to- to what extent . do- do- do you- you think .
pidgin is an important part of Local comedy. .7
I tingk that what separates everybody: I tingk that separates us from
every uh- from- .6 from everybody else. uh huh
[uniqueness. [different from the . mainland?=
=right.
it‟s the uniqueness. [uh huh
[ .3 .5 it‟s uh .8 or it was just
because my wife .4 uh my wife .3 you kno
w doesn‟t [speak pidgin. .6
256
16 17
18 19
20 21
22 23
M AT
[we call haole girl. yeah we call her haole girl. .2
my wife doesn‟t speak pidgin. but she grew up in hawaii: .5
but the uniqueness .4 a:nd speaking pidgin .6 is what 1.1 separates .4 you know: .2 us .5
from .8 every - you know everybody else. I think. you know what I mean?
I ask Augie T about the meaning of Pidgin for Local comedy ll. 1- 2. Augie T‘s response
is not specifically about the meaning of Pidgin for Local comedy, but it is a general comment about speaking Pidgin as a category-bound activity for being Local people.
Augie T‘s paraphrasing of his statement ―uniqueness‖ in line 8 overlaps with my clarification question l. 9 that indicates my understanding of the distinction Augie T has
made between Locals and the mainlanders. Augie T introduces his wife M as a new topic and states that she does not speak Pidgin ll. 14-15. M and Augie T co-construct a
category- bound attribute of being haole or a ―haole girl‖ ll. 16-17. Augie T reiterates
that his wife does not speak Pidgin l. 18, but he indicates that she is not an outsider i.e., ―but‖ and provides a category-bound attribute of being Local i.e., growing up in
Hawai‗i, thereby implying the layered nature of being Local l. 19. However, he orients again to the relevance of Pidgin as a unique identity marker for Local people ll. 20-23.
While still orienting to my question in the previous excerpt, Augie T refers to the category haole again in relation to the act of speaking Pidgin in the following excerpt.
Augie T and his wife M jointly construct Pidgin as a way of becoming like everyone else.
93
93
M came backstage where Augie T and I were talking, and made a comment about one of the songs being played as background music for an audience waiting for the opening of the show. M joined the interview
for a short while.
257 Excerpt 15b
39 40
41 42
43 44
45 46
47 48
49 50
51 52
53 AT
TF AT
M AT
M TF
AT TF
AT TF
ll. 24-38 omitted but I‟m not hia .6
uh huh to: .4 you know: .3 uh: like I said . i- .
im[press [impress
ha[ha [uh huh
I‟m here to make people laugh. uh [huh
[and the way I make people laugh .5 is connecting . a:nd .4 a:nd . and
being like everybody else.
and everybody else that‟s around me . act like me, talk like me, sound like me,
uh huh
Augie T‘s situated identity is jointly constructed by Augie T and M ll. 39 and 41-44. It is also suggested that speaking
‗good English‘ leads to impressing other people, which would not be achieved by speaking Pidgin. Augie T asserts that his goal is to make
people laugh l. 46 and it can be achieved through ―connecting‖ l. 49 as well as through ―being like everybody else‖ l. 50. He paraphrases this as ―everybody else that‘s
around me‖ ll. 51, and follows it up with a set of three actions; that is, ―act like me . talk like me . sound like me‖ l. 52, thereby presenting his rhetoric that he can achieve
his goal by being no one but himself. Another comedian also talks about Hawai‗i Creole i.e., Pidgin and Local
comedy when I ask him a probing question. Andy Bumatai AB states that he does not do a lot of Pidgin humor anymore, thereby implying that there is a socialization process
that Local comedians may go through. Although he presents a slightly different take on Pidgin, he, too, sees Pidgin as a way of connecting with the Local audience. He refers
explicitly to Pidgin not only as the language of comedy but as the language of Locals.
258 Pidgin is part of semiotic chains that constitute a Local as a social type; in other words,
Pidgin defines Local humor.
Excerpt 16: Andy Bumatai ―
E
we are all here we all understand‖
01 02
03 04
05 06
07 08
09 10
11 12
13 14
15 16
17 18
19 20
21 22
23 24
25 26
27 28
29 30
31 32
33 34
35 36
37 38
39 40
41 42
43 44
45 TF
AB TF
AB TF
AB TF
AB TF
AB AB
TF AB
TF AB
TF so how about 1.0 pidgin. .3
is it .6 uh: 1.2 uh: is pidgin .4 important part of .2 Local comedy?
and 1.2 to what extent .5 is pidgin . also important to your style of comedy.
1.0 well you know .8
uh
I I don‟t really do a lot of .6 I don‟t really do a lot of pidgin .6 humor anymore
you know? .5 when I do pidgin .5 and you know .3 i:s I .5
primarily depending on your audience .7 I do it .7 in character. 1.2
bec
ause there‟re certain things that you can say in pidgin,
uh huh .4
that you can‟t get away with saying .6 it
‟s just not . funny. uh huh
like .2 I used to do this joke. “e: braDa: o: you get bolo head ae? .5
o: aes good you know cause if you bolo head .3
that way your uku:s can break dance ”.
.5 hahahaha
right? .3
ha 1.0
well. .6 if you said it in good english .
“hey pal you got bald head. .4 oh that‟s good.
that way your- .3 your head lice can .3 break dance ”.
1.3 see?
it‟s kind of mean. .5
right. 1.1
because uku: is a- is a friendly kind of almost childish
uh [huh [way of saying head lice.
uh huh
259
46 47
48 49
50 51
52 53
54 55
56 57
58 59
60 61
62 63
64 65
66 67
68 69
70 71
72 73
74 75
76 77
AB TF
AB TF
AB TF
AB AB
TF AB
TF AB
TF AB
TF and uku:s . when if you say uku:s in hawaii .2
it relates to hanabata day:[s. [uh huh.
and- and- and when we were kids used to get uku:s and .4
it‟s not .3 associated to: uh huh
sleeping with a whore in new orleans. y[eah.
[ you know what I‟m saying?
1.4 so 1.0 pidgin has uh .5 things with it ay: .8
uh: 1.1 friendliness or familiarity. uh [huh]
[but] more the familiarity because .8 when you speak pidgin .9
the people in an audience . who are listening to it 1.1 are 2.9 they are .4
uhm 2.5 uhm 2.1 they are in.7cluded. 1.2 they- .4 they are: under
↑standing it, .5 and by understanding it
and being with other people that understand it .4 they‟re rein.forcing their Localness.
uh huh they
‟re saying .8 “e . we all here we all understa:nd
and guess what. .8 the people who no understand .
they must be haole ah:::[: ”.
[£yeah£. 1.3
see what I‟m saying? uh huh
I ask about the meaning of Pidgin for Local comedy in general as well as for Bumatai‘s style of comedy ll. 1-5, to which Bumatai responds by stating that he does not do a lot
of Pidgin humor anymore ll. 7-10. He also states that whether he uses Pidgin primarily depends on the audience ll. 11-12. Furthermore, he maintains that he uses Pidgin to
represent characters, showing his meta-awareness of the use of represented speech, because there are certain things for which one cannot generate humor without Pidgin ll.
13-15 and 18-19. Bumatai initiates a translation joke l. 21. He animates a Pidgin- speaking character in reported speech ll. 22-25, to which I respond with laughter l. 27,
260 and Bumatai seeks my alignment l. 28. Bumatai starts the second half of this joke l. 32
and voices a stylized English-speaking character that produces an utterance of the same semantic content ll. 33-35.
Bumatai makes an assessment about the second utterance and states that ―see? its
kind of mean‖ l. 37. It is implied here that Pidgin humor is funny by itself, but if it is uttered in English, it becomes not only ―not funny‖ but even ―mean.‖ Bumatai points out
one of the components in the joke i.e.,
uku
and unpacks its culturally-specific collection of indexical meanings ll. 41-42, 44, 46-47, and 49. Bumatai closes up his account with a
jocular note ll. 50, 52, and 54. After a pause l. 55, Bumatai takes the floor again and asserts that the primary
indexical meaning of Pidgin is familiarity ll. 56-57 and 59. He continues to account for this indexical meaning and states that the audience feels included while listening to
Pidgin humor ll. 60-63. He makes an analytical comment about the audience who understands Pidgin humor ll. 64-67. Finally, he voices the audience in reported speech
―they are saying .
e
we are all here we all understand and guess what. . the people who
no
understand . they must be haole ah:::[:‖ in lines 68-73. Bumatai checks my
understanding l. 76. The comedians illustrated the last shared orientation to Local comedy by referring
more explicitly to Pidgin not only as the language of comedy but as the language of Locals. Even though I asked Augie T about the relationship between Pidgin and Local
comedy, he started to respond to me by describing the meaning of Pidgin for Locals in general, referring to it as the uniqueness and claiming that it separates Locals from non-
Locals Excerpt 15. Augie T also asserted that his goal is not to impress, but to make
261 people laugh, which he achieves by means of connecting with them. Pidgin is the primary
means that enables him to act, talk, and sound like everyone else Excerpt 15. Furthermore, when Andy Bumatai explained the difference between an ethnic joke and a
Local joke in Excerpt 14, he performatively constructed the ideological difference between Pidgin humor and ―good English‖ humor Excerpt 16. When he demonstrated a
Pidgin joke in ―good English,‖ he accounted for it by deploying the category-bound attribute i.e., mean that the focus group members of Excerpt 11 used. In his meta-
performance talk, Bumatai accounted for the meaning of the word
uku
by introducing semiotic resources such as ―hanabata days‖ and reinforcing the affective frame. Bumatai
reintroduced ―inclusive‖ as one of the properties of Pidgin humor, as he did in his account of Local humor.
6.3 Discussion
