12
CHAPTER II REVEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
There are two sections within this chapter, namely theoretical description and theoretical framework. The theoretical description provides theories employed
in supporting the study. This study applies the theory of verbal humour and its types, General Theory of Verbal Humour GTVH, and theory of radio drama.
How those theories are applied to the study is discussed in the later section, the theoretical framework.
A. Theoretical Description
The theoretical description provides the theory of verbal humour and types of verbal humour, General Theory of Verbal Humour GTVH, and theory of
radio drama. In addition, several related studies are also reviewed in the section of review of related studies.
1. Verbal Humour and Its Types
Before going deeper to elaborate what is meant by verbal humour, it would be better to know what word humour is really meant. Jay 2003 mentions that
humour refers to anything which is funny; either intended or not, if something succeeds in eliciting someone else
‟s smiles or even laughter, it can be included in humour p.306. However, there are indeed many exceptions to such a
straightforward definition of humour. Ross 1998 mentions that it is fairly possible to claim that something is funny when even no one laughs or even smiles
13 because of it. There are also some situations when people laugh at seeing
something humorous but some others may not even smile on it and claim that it is not funny. Furthermore, he adds that smiling and laughter do not necessarily
indicate that something is humorous; they may become an indicator of fear or embarrassment p.1. However, apart from these exceptions, he agrees that
humour can be defined as something that is funny, that is able to make someone smile or laugh.
There are many types of humour. Shade 1996 has suggested four forms of humour, namely figural humour, visual humour, auditory humour and verbal
humour p.2. Figural humour relies on the use of drawing in conveying the
humour. Visual humour such as clowning and impersonation uses visual cues to produce humour. Auditory humour involves the use of auditory cues. Verbal
humour, which becomes the focus of this study, depends on the use of language to create the humour; it uses language in its humour production.
Verbal humour is humour that relies on the use of language to create the funny effect
– not pictures, cartoons, sound, etc. According to Shade 1994, verbal humour often relies on incongruity implemented through contradiction,
understatement, exaggeration, surprise or reversal which is carried out by language medium p.14. Any kind of humour that is conveyed in language
medium, not in other medium, belongs to verbal humour. Speaking about types of humour, there are also many subtypes of it. Shade
1996 suggests many subtypes of humour of the forms of humour previously mentioned. For verbal humour, which becomes the main study for this research,
14 he divides it into 12 types of humour. Following are the quick elaboration for each
type.
a. Pun
Pun uses the humorous use of words. It is the form of humour that relies on a play of word to suggest a different meaning and application. Sometimes pun
uses words that have same – or similar sound – but have different meaning. The
following is the example of pun which is taken from the famous Shakespeare‟s play, Richard III.
Richard: Now is the winter of our discontent,
made glorious summer by this sun of York p.9
These are the first two lines of Richard III play script that is uttered by the
character of Richard. These lines tells about how the sun of York that has been
awaited for some time has come to give a warms summer and blow away the cold
and bad winter from York. However, because of the fact that the word sun is pronounced the same with the word son and that King Richard III is the son of the
Duke of York, these lines become funny.
b. Riddle
Riddle is usually presented in the form of question and answer format. It is presented in the form of a puzzling fact. Riddles are used to mislead trick and
amuse the listener. The following example is taken from Collis 1996. Q: If six children and two dogs were under just one umbrella, how
come none of them got wet?
A: It wasn’t raining. p.44
15 The example of riddle above is funny as the answer of the question asked
is, somehow, unexpected. This riddle is meant to mislead the hearer to think that the umbrella is so big that it is able to cover all six children and two dogs without
getting them wet. The answer, however, is that all six children and two dogs do not get wet mainly because it is not raining.
c. Joke
Joke refers to anything that is said to provoke laughter which involves any or all of the following: multiple meaning of words, idiom and metaphors;
ambiguity; incongruity; sudden change of perspective Shade, 1994, p.3. If it is noticed deeper, there are several different types of jokes:
1 Phonological Joke, a joke that is based on the phonological structure of
words. It means that the sound of the word used takes the responsibly of the humour production. Shade 1996 provides one example of
phonological joke: Rebecca : What is this?
Waiter
: It‟s bean soup.
Rebecca
: I don‟t care what it‟s been. What is it now? As the word bean and been is pronounced the same, these two words
create a misunderstanding between Rebecca and the waiter. This misunderstanding becomes a hilarious source of laughter.
2 Lexical Joke, a joke which based on multiple-meaning of words. The
humorous effect created by this type of joke relies on how words have multiple meaning and, thus, can be interpreted in funny ways. An example
16 written by W.C Fields is taken to illustrate the definition better as cited by
Ross, 1998, p.7
„Do you believe in clubs for young people?‟ „Only when kindness fails.‟
The word clubs here has double meaning. It is reasonable to comprehend the word clubs in the sense of leisure groups or an organization of a
number of people who have the same interest, who have a meeting regularly. However, the punch-line shows that the word clubs refers to a
heavy stick that is used as a weapon. This multiple meaning, thus,
becomes the trigger of the laughter. 3
Surface Structure Joke, a joke that is based on the alternative grouping of words
. The way one‟s grouping the words used can make an ambiguity, which later will provoke a funny effect. The physical spaces that exist
between words can be blurred in order to provide ambiguity. Following is the example from Ross 1998.
The pen is mightier than the penis p.13
The shows the ambiguity and humorous effect crated by the alternative
grouping of words: pen is and penis. The two alternatives of word
grouping create different interpretation. 4
Deep Structure Joke, a joke that is based on the alternative interpretations of a word or phrase. The production of this joke relies on the ambiguity
Kategori