10 burdened by deep sadness of loss, but instead of being concerned of the current
situation, he sends a lunatic request to the bishop asking a new woman to replace his wife for the weekend. One can resolve that the humorous sense lies in the
incongruity of two opposing scripts of “loss” and “gain”. Script Opposition can be experienced in many other scripts, such as “good” and “bad”, “young” and
“old”, “small” and “big”, or other countless combinations. As mentioned earlier, the effect of verbal humor generated from involving
the intellectual activity of the readers. The appreciation of verbal humor can only take place
when the readers discover and resolve the incongruity. “Once the hearer of the joke senses the incongruity, he or she will be motivated to resolve
the incongruity” Wu Chen, 2010. It may lead the readers to confusion if they fail to resolve the incongruity within a joke and they will not laugh at all.
2. Types of Verbal Humor
Shade 1996 typifies verbal humor into 9 groups, namely, puns, jokes, riddles, satire, limerick, parody, irony, wit, and anecdote. Shade 1996
emphasizes these kinds of verbal humor need the listeners’ intellectual ability to resolve the incongruity that leads to laughter. The details of each type of verbal
humor are provided below:
a. Puns
Puns are characterized in the use of words to present different meanings but still maintaining the similar forms, be it in sounds or spellings. Puns are also
popularly called wordplay, since they work on playing of words. Shade 1996
11 believes that it requires witty people who are able to create puns in a clever and
comical manner. Here is an example of punning taken from Shade 1996:3. Brian : Why does it take a runner longer to run from second to third
base than from the first to second base? Eric
:
Because there’s a shortstop in between.
In the example, Eric plays the word “shortstop”, a technical term in baseball field position which located between the second and third base, making it sounds
like “short stop”.
b. Jokes
A joke can be generated from many different ways. Shade 1996 states that jokes are formed by involving multiple meanings of words, idioms, and
metaphors, resolving ambiguity, perceiving incongruity, or experiencing unexpected sudden change of things. Comprehending all of those aspects is also
possible for creating jokes. There are 5 different types of jokes based on linguistics features, they are phonological jokes, lexical jokes, surface structure
jokes, deep structure jokes, and metalinguistic jokes. Shade underlines that these categories of jokes are evidences of the fact that the readers’ cognitive, linguistic,
and metalinguistic abilities are necessary to the appreciation, resolution, and crafting of jokes.
1 Phonological jokes
Shade mentions that these jokes are represented by the use of phonological structure of words. Below is one example Shade, 1996:
12 Rebecca : What is this?
Waiter
: It’s bean soup.
Rebecca
: I don’t care what it’s “been”. What is this now?
It is noticeable in the example that the joke lies in Rebecca’s misunderstanding
of the word “bean” to “been”. Rebecca does not get that the waiter, in fact, answers
“It’s bean soup”.
2 Lexical jokes
A lexical joke is based on the use of words that have numerous different meanings. One can come up with a question and the hearer would create the
incongruity by giving an unintended answer, but the answer still suffices to the question. Here is an example to clarify things Shade, 1996:
Dave : What has 18 legs and catches flies?
Lynn : A baseball team.
The incongruity occurred in the Lynn answering “a baseball team”, while
the answer is supposed to be “a caterpillar”. Lynn’s response does not correctly answer
Dave’s question, but it laughably answers the question since “a baseball team” has the exact features of what Dave asks. Since a baseball team consists of
9 players, which have 18 legs in total, and they catch flying balls being hit.
3 Surface structure jokes
As the name suggests, this kind of jokes rely on the use of surface structure of words. Shade adds that surface structure jokes are based on the alternative
grouping of words. See the example below Shade, 1996: Don
: What kinds of flowers liked to be kissed? Joan
: A tulip two lip.
13 From the example above, it can be seen that the humor lies in
Joan’s playful answer. Joan gives an alternative answer by saying “a tulip”, which has a similar
sound and grouping to “two lip”.
4 Deep structure jokes
Shade explains that these jokes employ alternative interpretation of the word or phrase used. Below is an example Shade, 1996:
Sue : What animal can jump higher than a house?
Chris : Any animal. Houses
can’t jump.
Chris has an interpretation that any house cannot jump. With this
interpretation in mind, Chris delivers an alternative, humorous answer to Sue’s
question that any animal can jump higher than a house.
5 Metalinguistic jokes
Shade 1996 points out that metalinguistic jokes focus on the surface structure rather than deep structure. They work on the language forms instead of
the interpretation. See the example below Shade, 1996: Kathy
: What’s the end of everything? Tim
: The letter g.
The humorous load in this example lies in Tim’s response that plays with
the word form of “everything”. Instead of using thought interpretation, Tim gives
an answer using the language form of the question. c.
Riddle
This verbal humor is formed by puzzling facts, obligating the hearers to think solving the enigma. Shade 1996 points out that riddles have the same
14 essence as jokes, but riddles are commonly applied in a question-and-answer kind
of conversations. There is an example Shade, 1996: Matt
: How do you keep fish from smelling? Jenny
: Cut off their noses.
In this example, Jenny delivers a straightforward answer to Matt’s question.
The answer is still plausible, but it slipped from the expected response and generates a comical sense.
d. Satire
