63
utterance which persuades Han to go back to his seat and let her continue her speech. This is the example of sarcasm used as persuasive aspects.
6. Sarcasm as Retract Ability
There are only two utterances found in the collected data from Episodes 1, Season 1 to Season 5 in Two Broke Girls TV Series. The utterances can be seen
below, Utterance 9: You did better than I thought you would.
Utterance 26: Nice, Han. Shes upset again. Happy? The utterance 9 found in the episode 1 of the first season when the diner
is closed and Max is going to count the tips.
Situation 9
Max : We split the tips. Give me yours.
Caroline : giving 2 Max
: You did better than I thought you would.
Max, who has been waitress in the diner since couple years before, had known already how to get and collect tips from the customer. While Caroline
works on her first day, is not as smart as Max for collecting the tips. Actually, this can be predict by Max since Caroline still does not know how to waitress and
what to do with the customer. However, Max still asks her for the tips, just in case, her assumption is wrong.
By stating “You did better than I thought you would.”, Max does not really means what is literally stated in her utterance. What Caroline did for the tip
is not better at all since hers is just two dollars while Max has faraway more than Caroline. In other words, the sarcastic utterance in this situation allows the
64
speaker not to take responsibility of what she just said because what is stated is the opposite from what the realty is which consider as retract ability.
Situation 26 Max
: Nice, Han. Shes upset again. Happy?
Han : Sorry, I thought we were playing some kind of hiding game.
The context of the situation above is at the diner when Sophie brings the auction catalog of Caroline‟s family. As her best friend, Max knows that Caroline
still sensitive to things which related to her old life, it is why she asks the catalog from Sophie and hides it behind her back when Caroline suddenly comes and
talks to Sophie. Han, who does not know what Max tries to do, innocently asks her about
what is the thing behind her back. Han‟s question makes Caroline who is in front of Max, curious and trie
s to look at Max‟s back and when Max tries to avoid Caroline, the catalog is snatched by Han which stand behind Max. When Caroline
sees the catalog on the floor, she recognizes it easily and is angry because the magazine is the thing that she has been avoiding from for several days.
When Han knows actually what the catalog is and why Max tries to hide it, he apologizes for his thinking that it is a hiding game. Max, feeling fails in
keeping Caroline‟s emotion, is mad with Han. Therefore, Max tends to use her sarcastic utterance which says the opposite with what really happens. The word
„nice‟ from Max does not have the literal meaning of the word itself but it is rather to show the opposite meaning which shows what Han does with his innocence
mess up everything. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
65
B. The Hearer’s Responses of Sarcastic Utterances
In this second subchapter, the researcher does further conversational analysis by finding out what kind of response showed by the hearer after hearing
the sarcastic utterances from the speaker. Pragmatics tools are used to see the connectio
n between speaker‟s intention and hearer‟s ability in understands what the speaker means and ability to give the expected response of the sarcastic
utterances.
1. The Hearer’s Responses of Sarcastic Utterances as a Group Affiliation
As a group affiliation, the sarcastic utterances used are uttered by the speaker to voice a member in certain group. The speaker believes that the certain
group she is in has the standards of solidarity, in order to affiliate someone or something which does not fit the standards. The addressee does not have to be the
hearer of the utterance; it may be the people being referred by the speaker in hisher utterance. To see the responses of sarcasm that is used as group affiliation,
these following situations will be elaborated.
Situation 1
Max : Snaps Is that annoying? Snaps Is that obnoxious and
rude? Snaps Would you find it distracting if someone did that to You while you were working? Oh, you
dont have a job. Sorry.
Customer 2 : Damn, dude, she burned you.
Max : No, hipster. Do not think were on the same team. We
Have nothing in common. I wear knit hats when its cold out. You wear knit hats cause of Coldplay. You
have tattoos to piss off your dad. My dad doesnt know hes my dad.
Customer 1 : The other waitress disappeared, the Russian one. We need
horseradish. Customer 2
: Please. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
66
Max : That, ladies, is how you treat a waitress.
In the situation above, Max, as the waitress, who feels disturbed by how the teenagers calls on her, gives her sarcastic utterances to her customer. Since
sarcastic utterances are related to their contexts, the situation above is necessary to be attached so that the identification becomes easier. The physical environment,
or context, where the conversation in situation 1 could possibly happen is at the restaurant or diner by looking at the member of speakers and also the problem
occurred. In giving her sarcastic utterances, Max as the speaker wants the teenager,
referent of the pronoun “you”, to give respect for the older people. From this utterance “Would you find it distracting if someone did that to you while you
were working? Oh, you dont have a job. Sorry. ”, Max has her own knowledge
that both of guys in front of her are still teenagers so that it is obvious that they are still students and do not know how things are at work. In this case, as the member
of workers in the diner, Max expects her customer to have a good relationship by showing some respect to the older and being a waitress is not an excuse that the
customer can disrespect her. Another sarcastic utterances that the hearer should deal with are
“No, hipster. Do not think were on the same team. We have nothing in common. I wear
knit hats when its cold out. You wear knit hats cause of Coldplay. You have tattoos to piss off your dad. My dad doesnt know hes my dad.
” From the utterance above there are several assumptions that trigger Max to produce the
sarcastic utterance. First is that Max has her background knowledge about hipster. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
67
Second, Max knows Coldplay and its style. The third is the person with reference „he‟ is actually Max‟s father but he does not know that Max is his daughter.
This assumption revealed from Max‟s sentence makes the hearer
surprised because they do not expect the harsh act performed by her. As the response a
fter hearing Max‟s sarcastic utterance, they give their reaction by put of their knit hats immediately and being polite in delivering request to Max as the
woman and older person that they should give respect to which can be seen by the diction, gestures and intonation.
From the connection between Max and her customer above, it can be seen that Max as the speaker expects the hearer to look the meaning beyond from
what she said. Max assumes that the guys in front of her are able to infer the implied meaning of what it is said and it is considered as flouting in conversation.
Another example of elaboration is given for utterance 32, which occurs in the following situation.
Situation 32
Han : Well, I got to go home. Ive been watching Dharma Greg on
Hulu. Oh, I missed so much growing up in Korea. Max
: What, like puberty?
Han : Max, in my country I‟m average height.
What being mentioned in this utterance is the thought that Han does not grow up much in his puberty when he still lives at his hometown, Korea. The
situation happened when Han says to his employees about his going home from the diner since there is an American television sitcom starring Dharma and Greg
