Sarcasm as a Tool for Politeness
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Situation 15
Max‟s bf : Hello. Caroline : Oh, hi. Oh, Im so sorry if I woke you up.
Max‟s bf : chuckles Who are you? Caroline : Im Maxs friend. Uh, dont tell her I said that, shed stab me.
Laughs Max‟s bf : What are you doin over there?
Caroline : Just washing my uniform, trying to make it a little more cute and a little less crusty.
Max‟s bf : Oh, watch out pointing out at wastafel Caroline : Oh
Sorry, oh, my… do you have a towel or a rag? Max‟s bf : No, I... I got it. takes off his t-shirt and wiping the floods
Caroline : silent Oh. Okay. Max‟s bf : approaching Caroline and get closer to her I‟m Robbie.
Caroline : I’m uncomfortable. You’re getting me wet.
Max‟s bf : That‟s the point. The conversation between Max‟s boyfriend and Caroline happens as the
continuance of situation 14. After Max takes Caroline to her place, Max leaves her for the part time job, baby sit in Manhattan. Max already shows where the
bathroom, bedroom, kitchen is and she says that her boyfriend wakes up at 4 p.m. Being left alone, Caroline decides to wash her waitress uniform which has bad
smells and full of stains. Unexpectedly, Max‟s boyfriend wakes up and greets Caroline.
At first, Caroline is a little surprised by Robbie‟s appearing behind her immediately but then she tries to have a normal chat as how two strangers who
have just meet. Later, when Caroline forgets to turns off the faucet, Robbie helps her by
takes of his cloth and uses that moment to flirt Caroline. As Max‟s friend, Caroline chooses to refuse his flirt and pushes him away from her. However, as
the guest in Max‟s place, Caroline still wants to be polite with him that can be seen through her utterance, “I‟m uncomfortable. You‟re getting me wet”. Instead
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of attacks Robbie with the aggressive manner, Caroline as the speaker tends to express her uncomfortable with the use of sarcasm but as a tool for politeness.
Situation 22
Max : Hi, what can I get you? Hes obviously good drink-wise.
Customer : I‟ll have tea and a turkey club.
Max : Anything for him? Coffee for the milk? Burger? Fries?
The situation above happens when Oleg, Han, Earl and Max are starring at the customer who is a mother and her son who is about 4 years old but her
mother still breast-feeding him. It is clearly seen through the table where Oleg, Han, Earl and Max stand and they stare at how the boy stands beside her mom but
a half of his body is inside her mother‟s shirt. When the mother finally calls the waitress, Caroline feels that she cannot serves the customer with her saying that
actually she respects it all, but she will throw up at the end. Finally Max with her curiosity goes to her table as the waitress to write
down her order. Nonetheless, Max does not only write the order but she also gives her comment for h
er son which says that “Hes obviously good drink-wise”. Again, after the mother orders the food, Max still offering menu for her son and
the sarcastic utterance is her questioning whether he wants coffee for the milk or not.
Both of the utterances says by Max are actually sarcastic comments for the son as the result for her curiosity. In this situation, Max uses sarcasm as tool
for politeness. For this reason, her customers as the hearer do not get offended considering Max‟s choices of words and politeness she uses.
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Situation 44
Han : Hello, Earl. Hello, Caroline. Hello, reason I do two hours of
phone therapy every wednesday before work. So, did you all miss me?
Caroline : You were gone?
The situation above takes place in the diner when Han comes back from a convention about the restaurant and diner association at San Fransisco. When he
enters the door, he greets the co-workers in his diner hopes that they are missing him as he gone for several days ago. Meanwhile, his co-workers in the diner does
not realize that he is gone since they seem fine and are not surprised when Han appears at the diner‟s door.
In order to reply Han‟s question, Caroline as the speaker still want to save Han‟s face and not uses any overt aggression. She chooses to ask “you were
gone” rather than says that she does not care about Han‟s leaving which is more impolite. Caroline‟s act in saving his boss or the hearer‟s face can be the indicator
of sarcasm as the use to show politeness.
Situation 46
Woman 1 : Would you be interested in having a popular reality show filmed here? You... phone rings Im so sorry. I have to take this. Just a
minute. talking on phone So what are we think? Caroline : Wed love it. Were in. What show?
Woman 1 : Keeping up with the Kardashians. Caroline : Finally, God opens a door
Max
: And I’m closing a window. closing the windows
The situation 46 above takes place in Max‟s cupcakes shop when a woman with a fancy car stops by and walks to the shop. The woman wants to talk
to the owner of the shop to offers a special opportunity for them. The offer is that their cupcakes shop will be the place for filming one of popular reality show on
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TV which starring the Kardashians. Caroline and Max have different response to the offering since Caroline knows the whole thing about Kardashians‟ family
while Max is not. Caroline cannot agree more if the Kardashians will use their place as the
setting to film their reality show which famous on TV. As Kardashians‟ fans,
Caroline knows how hard it is to meet them and it is an honor to have them in the cupcake shop. Besides, the reality
show will increase the popularity of Max‟s cupcakes shop since people around the world will watch the Kardashians‟ reality
show. Meanwhile, Max has the opposite response from Caroline which totally
disagrees with the opportunity offers to her. However, Max chooses to refuse the offer by using sarcasm as a tool for politeness since she knows that the woman
stands in front of her is someone whom she should give respect to. By saying, “and I‟m closing windows” Max wants to show her disagreement but not in literal
meaning. She tends to use figurative language in refusing the offer.
Situation 61 Caroline : Is it even possible for Sophie to have a baby? I mean, didnt that
window close around the same time Blockbuster Video did?
Max : Well, we dont know how old she is. Sophies ageless, like a
unicorn or... Anderson Cooper.
The conversation above happens with the shocking news at that morning in the diner when everyone is working than suddenly Sophie comes with her
happy face and the news about her being pregnant. Everyone in the diner knows that Sophie is Oleg‟s wife but they are married when both of them is no longer
young. Sophie says that she feels something in her belly and that her boobs are PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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really sore. Max and Caroline do not take the news seriously because as woman they know that Sophie is not in her fertile age anymore. Besides, Sophie has not
taken her pregnancy test yet. In order to make the news official, Sophie buys several sticks to prove
her pregnancy. While Sophie is at the rest room, Max and Caroline talk about Sophie and her possibility to be pregnant. Caroline politely gives her comment
about Sophie‟s fertility that she illustrates like the Blockbuster Video‟s door which opens and closes in seconds an
d in any means Caroline wants to say that Sophie‟s fertility cannot be expected and is not easy to have a baby. Max as the hearer
cannot gives her agreement to Caroline‟s assumption since none of them knows how old Sophie is since her face cannot be the indicator for identifying her age.
Since Max does not know Sophie‟s exact age, she says that Sophie is ageless just like a unicorn or Anderson Cooper, one of Max‟s favorite actors
which look younger than he actually is. Caroline and Max‟s sarcastic utterance
here are the example of sarcasm as the use of politeness‟ tool. Both Caroline and Max tend to not use any rude words while talking about Sophie and her pregnancy
still it is a sensitive thing for woman.