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By: Tanishka D
By: Tanishka D
Sitcoms or situational comedies are beloved and hilarious. They capitalize on the situation at hand and use jokes to elevate the scene, making it funny. Some of my favourite sitcoms are the good place, 30 Rock and arrested development. My love for these shows lead me down a rabbit hole of the linguistic principles behind constructing a humorous moment in a sitcom and this article will explore just that using principles of pragmatics such as the grice maxims.
What is pragmatics?
What is pragmatics?
Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics that focuses on how context of the way words or sentences are used contribute to the overall meaning of what is said. Pragmatics also takes into account ambiguity in what the speaker says, allowing for varying audience interpretations. Analyzing the usage of pragmatics in sitcoms is interesting as the situations created are often a result of misunderstanding or characters breaking the rules of conversation.
An introduction to Grice's maxims
An introduction to Grice's maxims
The Grice maxims were formulated by Paul Grice as part of the cooperative principle, which describes how people effectively communicate in everyday scenarios. There are 4 maxims to this principle. They are as follows:
1) Quantity: The information conveyed should be enough for the coverstion, not more nor less.
2) Quality: Information provided should be truthful.,So liar liar pants on fire.
3) Relevance : The information supplied should be relevant to the current conversation. You would not want to talk about your dogs favourite toy during a debate on world peace.
4) Manner: Be consice. Avoid miscommunication by avoiding ambiguity.
Grice's maxims
Flouting the maxims
Flouting the maxims
A conversation is said to effective when all the 4 maxims are in cooperation with one another to create meaning. However there exists situations where these parameters are violated. This is known as the flouting of the maxims. One example can be when the time is asked and a person replies by saying that it is the same time as it was yesterday. This exchange flouts the maxim of manner as the information about the time is not communicated clarly as to deliberately create confusion.
How does this relate to sitcoms?
How does this relate to sitcoms?
Sitcoms often tend to eggagerate everyday actions to create humour. This is done by flouring if the maxims when it comes to dialogue. This can lead to hillarous scenarios that create misunderstandings that drive the story forward.
Example: Arrested development
Example: Arrested development
One instance where this principle of pragmatics can be observed in in the acclaimed sitcom arrested development, particularly in a moment that occours in season 1, episode 2, which revolves around the bluth family's banana stand. There is a recurring bit in the episode where the characher of george sr ( Jeffery Tambor) keep saying that there is money in the banana stand. Later in the episode, it is revealed that the banana stand was lined with 250,000 dollars.
Saying that "There is money in the banana stand" could mean that the stand is very profitable, but it is unclear to what extent. This flouts the maxim of manner, which creates humour that carries through until the final reveal.
Here is the clip for reference:
A character in the show who exemplifies flouting of the maxims to the highest degree is the very literal doctor, Dr Fishman. He loves to use words in creative ways and it leads to some really funny moments in the show. In the season finale for the first season, Dr fishman comes to the bluths with disturbing news when they go to the hospital to meet George Sr, who had a heart attack. The doctor proceeds to tell the family that they lost him, leading them to belive that he had passed away. When he leads the rest of the family into the hospital room they see that george sr has escaped the from hospital and is still alive somewhere. Once again, this line of dialogue flouts the maxim of manner though it can be said that the maxim of quantity is flouted due to the doctor revealing half truths by providing to little and too vague of information. Here is a compilaton of some of Dr. wordsmith's best moments in the show.
To finish off pragmatically
To finish off pragmatically
Now that we have looked at how pragmatics influences the way humour is constructed in sitcoms, it is important to note that it is not the only way writers create humour. Concepts such as politeness theory and relevance theory can be other ways in which the humor of sitcoms can be analysed through the lens of pragmatics.
If you made it to the end, thank you so much and i hoe you learnt something new today. If you have a favourite movie or television show that you would like for me to analyse on this blog, please do leave a suggestion in the suggestion box. I would love to hear from all of you . Until then, have a great day and bye :)
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