As explained in the previous chapter, the excerpt above is the situation when Ted‟s parents come to New York for the weekend. During their visitation,
Ted‟s mother tells him about his cousin. Ted clarifies her statement by asking, “You mean the spa the judge ordered him to go to to quit cocaine?” Then, his
mother answers
, “Coffee?”
In the situation above, Ted understands that her mother is trying to change the topic of the discussion because his mother and father apparently do not like to
talk about things that are uncomfortable or emotional. Because Ted is sensitive enough to understand his mother‟s intention of changing the topic, he does not
pose that question again to his mother. It can be seen from the conversation above that Ted‟s mother does not follow Grice‟s cooperative principle. She flouts the
maxim of relation by giving an answer which is not related to the topic of discussion.
Related to the incongruity theory of humor, in the situation above, humor occurs because there are two conflicting ideas between the audiences‟ expectation
of Ted‟s mother‟s answer and what her actual reply in the conversation. Ted‟s mother is expected to provide answer which is rela
ted to Ted‟s question, which is about the spa his cousin visited back then. In fact, it turns out that her answer is
not related to the topic of discussion. She does that intentionally in order to change the topic of discussion. Ted does not expect that his mother will change
the topic of discussion and so do the audiences. The audiences hope that Ted‟s mother will answer Ted‟s question and explain about the spa. Ted‟s mother‟s
action of not providing related answer for the exchange of information is seen as
an absurd and ridiculous attitude. Her unrelated answer in the conversation makes the audiences‟ expectation vanish and transform into nothing. The discrepancy
between what is expected by the audiences and what actually turns out create humorous situation in the situation above.
d. Incongruent idea in flouting of maxim of Manner
There are six floutings of maxim of Manner containing incongruent ideas between people‟s expectation and what actually occurs. The writer highlights one
of them and explains it as follows.
Data code: Situation:
In a strip-club, Barney gets a call from Ted.
Barney Barney.
Ted Uh, hey. Where are you guys?
14FloManInc Barney Were at a fundraiser helping young women
raise money for college. Ted
Strip-club. Nice. Is Marshall OK?
The excerpt above is taken at the situation when Ted and Robin are on their way to Montauk. During the trip, Ted calls Barney to check on Marshall. Ted
asks Barney where they are at that time. Without any doubt, Barney answers him by
saying, “Were at fundraiser helping young women raise money for college
”. After listening to Barney‟s answer, Ted directly knows that Barney and Marshall are in a strip-club. Ted knows that both of them are not really at a
fundraiser. In here, it can be s een from Barney‟s answer that he has flouted the
maxim of manner. Barney‟s answer is ambiguous and he intentionally says that to trick Ted and let him figure out the actual meaning of his statement. Instead of
giving ambiguous statement, Barney could have just said , “We are in a strip club”
to Ted directly. This is another flouting containing incongruent idea between people‟s
expectation and what it actually occurs in the conversation. To understand how this flouting of maxim of Manner creates humorous situations, incongruity theory
of humor is also applied in the analysis. Related with incongruity theory of humor, humorous situation occurs because there are two conflicting meanings that
occur in the conversation. In the situation above, the two conflicting meanings are the audiences‟ expectation of Barney‟s answer to Ted and the actual answer Ted
gets in the conversation. Ted expectation of Robin‟s answer about Lily‟s condition and the actual
answer he gets from Robin. In the conversation, Ted asks Robin a bout Lily‟s
condition after breaking up with Marshall and whether or not she has moved on. He expects Robin to give sufficient answer based on his question. In fact, instead
of giving him sufficient information about Lily, Robin gives information about her own love experience about how she handles a break up with her ex-boyfriend
which is not appropriate in the exchange of information. She even explains it enthusiastically without realizes that she provides unnecessary information to Ted.
This unnecessary information from Robin is not expected by Ted and the audiences. Thus, Robin‟s unexpected answer shows her absurd and ridiculous
action. Her ridiculous action is the result of her unawareness of Ted‟s expectation. In conclusion, the transformation of the idea expected by the audiences and what
