30 drama series is a compilation of radio dramas which has the same main characters
in each episode. Each story in a drama series is completed in one program. Extra characters may appear and disappear throughout the stories, but the major
character stay the same. A serial radio drama tells about one big story that continues from one broadcast to another; each episode in serial is open-ended
Fossard, 1996, p.38. In radio drama series, there is
a popular term called “sit com” or situation comedy. It refers to the type of radio drama that is intended to amuse the audience
or the listeners. It is a type of radio drama that is funny or, at least, has a happy ending. Sit-coms often use exaggerated or far-fetched plots Fossard, 1996, p. 38.
4. Reviews of Related Research
A number of studies of humour have been conducted. This section will elaborate briefly some of the researches that have been done prior before this
study. There are two studies that will be reviewed briefly here. The first one is a study conducted by Magnotta and Strohl in 2011. In their
paper entitled A linguistic analysis of humor: A look at Seinfeld, they investigates humour found in a Television Show Seinfeld. Using the Incongruity Theory of
humour and the Interactional Sociolinguistic Methodology of discourse analysis, they examine the incongruous elements, such as moral short-comings, ignorance,
and impersonation found within the object. In addition, they also observe the contextualization cues used in its humour production. This study results that the
incongruities and contextualization cues provokes humour in the object. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
31 The research done by Magnota and Strohl is somehow related to the study
the writer is conducting now, although not directly. A linguistic analysis of humor: A look at Seinfeld investigates humour based on the incongruity theory
which is very similar to what is called as script opposition – one of the six KRs in
this research. Generally, incongruity theory basically explains that a humour can be funny because there is an incongruity created
– the discrepancy between what is heard and what is expected to be heard
– within the humorous text Shade, 1994, p.10. Similarly, script opposition is defined as the opposition of two
scripts, such as real vs. unreal. Another study is conducted by Baskara in 2013. In his research entitled An
Analysis on the Verbal Humour and the Consistency of the Indonesian Subtitle in Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, he observes the verbal humour found within
the object and categorize them into several categories. Furthermore, he tries to investigate how well the dialogue within the movie is translated into Indonesian
language. The study results that 57 out of 64 verbal humours within the object is consistently translated into Indonesian language. The research conducted by
Baskara is related to this study, especially in the first part, as he analyses and observes the verbal humour and categorizes them into several categories.
B. Theoretical Framework
In this study, the researcher aims at investigating verbal humour found in BBC Radio Drama Series Cabin Pressure: Abu Dhabi. Related to this matter, the
researcher has formulated two research questions. The first research question deals with identifying the types of verbal humour in BBC Radio Drama Series
32 Cabin Pressure: Abu Dhabi. The second question is how to analyse linguistically
the verbal humour found in BBC Radio Drama Series Cabin Pressure: Abu Dhabi using General Theory of Verbal Humour GTVH.
Three theories which are directly connected to the research problems have been presented in the previous part. The first one is the theory of verbal humour
and its type. It defines what verbal humour is: humour that is expressed verbally, using language as its means, and deals with the categorization of the verbal
humour. As elaborated, verbal humour falls into 12 different categories: pun, riddle, joke, satire, limerick, parody, anecdote, farce, irony, sarcasm, tall tale, and
wit. The characteristic and the example of each category have been elaborated in the previous part. The next theory deals with General Theory of Verbal Humour
GTVH. This theory explains about humour that can be viewed linguistically using six-hierarchical organization of the Knowledge Resources KRs, which are
Language LA, Narrative Strategy NS, Target TA, Situation SI, Logical Mechanism LM, and Script Opposition SO. The last theory describes about the
characteristic of the good dialogue in radio drama. Within the framework, the theories presented will be utilized to help the
researcher to solve both research questions. The theory of verbal humour is utilized in collecting the verbal humour within the BBC Radio Drama transcript.
Using the concept of what verbal humour is, the researcher will be able to collect every single verbal humour found within the object and ignoring any other forms
of humour, if any, to be excluded from this research. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
33 After all verbal humour within the object collected, the researcher will
utilize the theory about the types of verbal humour as a tool to categorize the verbal humour found within the transcript. Having understood each type of the
verbal humour, the researcher will categorize all verbal humour into 12 categories: pun, riddle, joke, satire, limerick, parody, anecdote, farce, irony,
sarcasm, tall tale, and wit. This is done in order to fully answer the first research question.
Meanwhile, the General Theory of Verbal Humour GTVH is employed to solve the second research question. As the second research problem deals with
the linguistic analysis of verbal humour, the GTVH will be very beneficial to help the researcher. By giving attention to every KR in GTVH, the researcher will be
able to analyse the verbal humour linguistically found within the object. This entire framework is constructed within the context of radio drama, its
types and its characteristic, as the object of the research is radio drama. Figure 2.2 is the diagram of the framework to illustrate it better.
Figures 2.2 The Theoretical Framework
