Marshall‟s desperate action of babbling about anything related to Lily is the action which elicits laughter in that situation.
b. Releasing emotion in violation of maxim of Relation
There only one violation of the maxim of Relation containing humorous situation created by the release of emotion of the characters. The analysis of how
the humorous situation occurs is presented below.
Data code: Situation:
Ted, Robin, Marshall, Lily, and Barney are having brunch with Ted
’s parents. In the middle of it, Lily and Marshall are having a quarrel about who seduces who.
Lily Just admit it. You came here trying to seduce me.
16VioRelRls Marshall
Seduce you? You seduced me.
Lily You sat down next to me and took most of your
pants off.
Marshall You went to San Francisco for three months.
Lily
How is that seducing you?
Marshall Well, its not but Im still mad about it.
Above is a situation when Marshall is having a fight with Lily. They are arguing about who is seducing who. Lily accuses Marshall for seducing her and
vice versa. In the mid
dle of the fight, Marshall says, “You went to San Francisco for three months.
” As explained in the previous subchapter, his response above is not related to the topic of discussion they are having. He does that because he
still cannot accept the fact that his wedding with Lily is canceled due to the fact that Lily flies to San Francisco in order to chase her dream. Thus, he changes the
topic of discussion intentionally and blames Lily all over again for leaving him. Marshall‟s statement above can be seen as a violation of maxim of Relation.
In here, release humor theory is applied in order to see how the humorous situation is created by the violation of maxim of relation. In the situation above,
humor arouses when Marshall violates the maxim of relation, which is the moment when he suddenly changes the topic of discussion by mentioni
ng Lily‟s journey to chase her dream in San Francisco. That statement represents Marshall‟s
anger towards Lily that he still keeps even until after Lily gets back in town. According to release theory of humor, humor is created when someone attempts to
release particular emotion and feelings in his mind in order to be free from that emotion. That being said, Marshall‟s action above can be seen as an attempt to
release the pain he carries in his mind. Thus, when he releases his emotion, laughter occurs.
c. Releasing emotion in flouting of maxim of Quantity
There two floutings of the maxim of Quantity containing humorous situation created by the release of emotion of the characters. The analysis of how
the humorous situation occurs is presented below.
Data code: Situation:
At brunch, the next day.
02FloQuanRls Robin
Why dont you want me to have your grandkids?
Teds mother
Do you want to have my grandkids?
Robin No I mean, I dont know. I just... I want you to
want me to want to have your grandkids. And you should. Im a genetic gold mine. No family
history of diabetes or heart disease. Everyone has nonporous teeth and perfect eyesight. I had
one schizophrenic uncle but even he had perfect vision. Which was unfortunate for the people
around the bell tower he was in, but still he was
