Linguistic Aspects of Verbal Humor in Stand-up Comedy

Dissertation

zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der Philosophie der Philosophischen Fakultten der Universitt des Saarlandes vorgelegt von

Jeannine Schwarz aus Saarlouis

Dekan: Univ.-Prof. Dr. W. Behringer Erstberichterstatter: Herr Univ.-Prof. Dr. Neal R. Norrick Zweitberichterstatter: Herr Univ. Prof. Dr. Erich Steiner Tag der letzten Prfungsleistung: 25. Januar 2010

A journey of a thousand li starts from where one stands.

Lao Tzu, The Way of Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher (604 BC-531 BC)

A Jeanne et Roger Avec toute ma gratitude et un amour profond pour leur soutien sans faille

Table of contents

page numbers

Acknowledgements..........................................1

Abstract (English)........................................3

Abstract (German).........................................5

1 General Introduction....................................8

2 History of Stand-up Comedy.............................17

3 Jerry Seinfeld.........................................24

4 Steven Wright..........................................28

5 Data...................................................32

6 Transcription Conventions..............................36

7 Humor Theories.........................................39 7.1. Incongruity Theories................................41 7.2. Hostility Theories..................................47 7.3. Release Theories....................................51 7.4. The General Theory of Verbal Humor..................56

7.4.1. The Semantic Script-based Theory of Humor (SSTH)..56 7.4.2. The General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH).........58

8 Genres of Humor........................................63 8.1. The Internal Structure of Jokes.....................65 8.2. Characteristic Forms of Jokes.......................69

9 Stand-up Comedy........................................81 9.1. Differences between Stand-up Monologue and Conversational Dialogue.............................81 9.2. Differences between Joke Telling in Stand-up Comedy and Conversational Joke Telling.....................84 9.3. Joke Performance in Stand-up Comedy.................88 9.4. The Central Role of the Audience...................100

10 Joke Techniques......................................105 10.1. Paralanguage......................................105 10.2. Ridicule..........................................107 10.3. Satire............................................113 10.4. Power, Solidarity and Politeness..................114

11 The Use of Figurative Language in Stand-up Comedy....122 11.1. Wordplay, Puns and Ambiguity......................122 11.2. Implication and Allusion..........................131 11.3. Hyperbole.........................................133

II

12 Linguistic Features of Joke Telling..................138 12.1. Repetition........................................138 12.2. Formulaicity......................................140 12.3. Disfluencies......................................142 12.3.1. Pauses..........................................143 12.3.2. False Starts....................................144 12.4. Discourse Markers.................................145 12.5. Intonation........................................148

13 Analyzing Verbal Humor in Stand-up Comedy............150 13.1. Analyzing Verbal Humor in Jerry Seinfeld's I'm Telling You for the Last Time.....................155 13.1.1. Ridicule........................................156 13.1.2. Intonation and Paralanguage.....................187 13.1.3. Repetition......................................195 13.1.4. Hyperbole.......................................200 13.1.5. Wordplay and Punning............................213 13.1.6. Disfluencies....................................220 13.1.7. Direct Address to the Audience..................224 13.1.8. Transitions.....................................232 13.1.9. Summary.........................................237

13.2. Analyzing Verbal Humor in Steven Wright's I Have a Pony and I Still Have a Pony......................240 13.2.1. Ridicule........................................244

III

13.2.2. Hyperbole.......................................256 13.2.3. Wordplay and Punning............................258 13.2.4. Intonation and Paralanguage.....................263 13.2.5. Repetition......................................266 13.2.6. Disfluencies....................................271 13.2.7. Direct Address to the Audience..................279 13.2.8. Transitions.....................................286 13.2.9. Summary.........................................287

14 Development of Humor in Stand-up Comedy..............291

15 Conclusions..........................................318

16 References...........................................328

17 Appendix.............................................354 17.1. Transcription Conventions.........................354 17.2. Transcript Jerry Seinfeld: I'm Telling You for the Last Time.........................................357 17.3. Transcript Steven Wright: I Have a Pony...........402 17.4. Transcript Steven Wright: I Still Have a Pony.....422 17.5. German Summary....................................442

IV

Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible without the

support and input of numerous people to whom I am deeply grateful. First of all, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my PhD supervisor Prof. Dr. Neal R. Norrick for his considerable reassure me patience during and willingness when I to came encourage to him and with

the

times

requests and queries, for his unfailing critical advice and guidance in developing ideas, and his excellent support throughout every stage of this work. My gratitude also goes to Prof. Dr. Erich Steiner for his willingness to accept the role of my co-supervisor. I also want to acknowledge how sincerely grateful I am to Prof. Dr. Patricia Oster-Stierle. I will never forget the comfort, strength, and courage I received from her during the final semesters of my studies, in particular the last months and weeks, which were the most difficult in my life. Her encouragement, warmth, and kindness helped me to regain my composure and self-confidence and find the strength to rise to the challenge of beginning and accomplishing this thesis. In addition, I wish to give my sincere thanks to Amanda Rooney, who helped me to fill in the seemingly

unintelligible

gaps

in

my

data

and

thus

contributed

indispensably to the progress of this study. I am also thankful to Joe Doherty, who devoted some of his time to discussing problematic aspects of my work and

provided critical and invaluable suggestions. I also would like to express my deep appreciation to Mary Masters for her assistance with the proofreading of the final versions and for her steady encouragement to finish this project. My great respect and heartfelt thanks go to my beloved friends and colleagues who never let me down and were a necessary support throughout the thesis writing. I want to emphasize that it is impossible to list all of them. But you should know that you all deserve recognition, and I greatly appreciate all of you, who were so insightful and generous with your time while listening to me. I feel very indebted to you and will never forget your unreserved

support during this project. Last, and most importantly, I wish to express my sincere thanks to my family in Germany and France, to my parents and host parents for their continued and unfailing love and support over years, and their endless faith in my ability to accomplish this work. To them, I dedicate this thesis.

Abstract (English) This study attempts to explore the ways in which stand-up comedians organize and perform their material in order to create humor, elicit laughter, and It make also the audience the and

appreciate audience's

their central

performances. role in

examines

comedians'

organization

presentation of the material. In order to provide authentic material, performances by comedians Jerry Seinfeld and

Steven Wright were transcribed and served as main data for the analytical part of this study. The creation of humor in stand-up comedy is seen as a combination of various linguistic features of joke telling such as wordplay and and punning, hyperbole, In repetitions, the

timing,

paralinguistic

choices.

addition,

comedians develop a specific stage persona and create their own style of performing. Spontaneity and flexibility are shown to be two of the most important characteristics that a stand-up comedian must possess in order to give a

successful performance. However, this contrastive analysis of the comedy created by two performers of very different character affirms the observation that successful humor in stand-up comedy depends neither on any specific type of stage persona nor on a specific performance style. Instead, it is created out of a comedian's use of a chain of various linguistic aspects of joke telling and in most cases out of

the incongruity revealed by the punch lines in the stories and jokes. Hence, this study not only represents a

linguistic approach to humor, but also contributes to the field of discourse analysis, in particular when dealing with such features as repetitions, discourse markers,

disfluencies, intonation, and so on.

Abstract (German) Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit der linguistischen Analyse von Humor. Dabei wird der Hauptfokus auf die

Analyse von stand-up comedy gelegt, einem Genre das im Deutschen dem Stegreifhumor mit Vertretern wie Mario Barth und Otto Walkes entspricht. Innerhalb der Studie wird der Frage nachgegangen, mit welcher Struktur und mit welchen linguistischen Mitteln die stand-up Komiker ihr Material und ihre Auffhrungen planen und durchfhren. Bei dieser Analyse wird auch die Rolle des Publikums zum einen fr die Planung der Auffhrung und zum anderen fr die Reaktion auf die Auffhrung bercksichtigt. Um diese Aspekte nher zu untersuchen, wird authentisches Material der amerikanischen stand-up verwendet. Komiker Dieses Jerry wurde Seinfeld zunchst und Steven Wright um

transkribiert,

anschlieend in Auszgen als Analysematerial zu dienen. Die Erzeugung von Humor wird als Zusammenspiel verschiedener Faktoren verstanden. Dazu zhlen das Bilden einer gewissen Persnlichkeit auf der Bhne sowie die Fhigkeit mit dem Publikum zu interagieren und dieses als Mittel zu nutzen, den verbalen Humor zum Tragen zu bringen. Dazu muss der Komiker Spontaneitt und Flexibilitt in jeder ihm

dargebotenen Situation an den Tag legen. Dabei bedient er sich zahlreicher linguistischer Mittel, die es ihm

erlauben, sein Material erfolgreich zu prsentieren und das

Publikum zu amsieren. Mit der Analyse zweier in vielerlei Hinsicht kontrastiver Charaktere wird verdeutlicht, dass Humor in der stand-up comedy nicht durch eine bestimmte Persnlichkeit oder eine bestimmte Art des Prsentierens geschaffen wird. Es handelt sich vielmehr um eine

Verkettung gewisser linguistischer Mittel. Dazu zhlen zum Beispiel der Einsatz Pausen, von Wortspielen, Hyperbeln, die in

Wiederholungen,

Intonationsmustern,

Kombination mit der Art des Prsentierens, je nach Komiker, zum Erfolg fhren. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschftigt sich somit mit der Struktur und Organisation von humoristischem Material und analysiert in detaillierter Art und Weise die Verwendung linguistischer Mittel in verbalem Humor. Somit wird mit dieser Studie nicht nur ein Beitrag zur Analyse von verbalem Humor in engerem Sinne, sondern auch zur

Diskursanalyse in entfernterem Sinne geleistet.

Humor is a serious thing. I like to think of it as one of our greatest earliest natural resources, which must be preserved at all cost.
James Thurber (American humorist and cartoonist, 1894-1961)

1 General Introduction

Humour is probably the most significant characteristic of the human mind.

Edward de Bono, Thinking Course

In observing our behavior in daily life, we surely realize that all of us regularly react with humor and laughter in the most different situations. Therefore, we have to admit that humor represents a central aspect of our everyday conversation and naturally which it is a general fact that in humorous point of speech view and all humans behavior,

participate

justifies

Oring's

when

classifying

humor and laughter as "cultural universals" representing "a condition of our humanity" (2003:x). Gruner (1978:1) emphasizes this point thus without laughter everyday living becomes drab and lifeless; life would seem hardly human at all. Likewise, a sense of humor is generally considered a person's most admirable attribute. This is why the study of humor occupies an important place in research in English linguistics and has attracted the interest and attention of researchers for centuries.

Important philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle laid the foundations of humor research, a field that has been

developing have dealt

continuously with

ever

since.

Various of

researchers1 and have

specific

categories

humor

either developed humor theories or modified theories put forth by former researchers. Although research on humor in its numerous genres has been pursued for centuries, only scant attention has been paid to research on stand-up

comedy. This observation may be due to the fact that standup comedy is a quite "young" genre of humor. It began in the framework of the commedia dell' arte in the 16th and 17th centuries. Close examination of the development of

stand-up comedy has shown that it underwent an important change during the 1960s. Until that time stand-up comedians did not play a central role when performing, but rather served as a kind of pause-filler, as, for example, before the arrival of a famous band or a theatre group. They had to be there to waiting for the entertain the event they audience while actually they were for. So

had

come

listening and reacting to the stand-up comedians' show was just a by-product of waiting for the main event. Starting from the time that stand-up comedians started to appear in TV shows launched during the 1960s and 1970s, the success

Bergson (1911), Freud (1905/1960, 1920/1961), Eastman (1922), Hockett (1960/1977), Fry (1963, 1993), Wilson (1979), Gruner (1978), McGhee (1979, 1983), Mintz (1983), Raskin (1985), Attardo and Raskin (1991), Attardo and Chabanne (1992), Attardo (1994, 2001), Chiaro (1992), Berger (1993), Nilsen (1978, 1998, 2000, 2005), Norrick (1989, 1993, 1993a, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004) For a detailed bibliography on humor research see Nilsen (1992, 1993).

of stand-up comedy as a real linguistic genre began to grow. People started to get interested in the stand-up comedians' work and showed their interest by buying their tapes. Within a few years, stand-up comedy had become a well-known and appreciated form of creating humor that was drawing ever greater popular interest. In the following study, the main focus will be on linguistic aspects of verbal humor in stand-up comedy, and it will be my aim to explore the ways in which stand-up comedians organize and perform their material in order to elicit laughter and make the audience appreciate all their the is

performances. English

American but

stand-up what to they

comedians do with

use

language, with

language talk.

different

regard

normal

everyday

They

principally play with it and use various linguistic and rhetorical structures to achieve their aim of making the audience laugh. My research will deal with the analysis of stand-up comedy, but will narrow the task down by focusing on linguistic aspects of verbal humor expressed in stand-up material and the importance and significance of the

audience. With authentic material2 from two famous American stand-up comedians, Jerry Seinfeld and Steven Wright, I will explore the question of how they realize verbal humor

When I speak of "authentic" material, I think of real, recorded material one can get on tape.

10

in their performances and to what extent humor theories can be applied to their work. Seinfeld and Wright are both popular stand-up comedians and represent surprisingly

different, nearly opposite characters, which justifies the interest in the study of their work. While analyzing their work, I first listened to the tape and transcribed the material, before watching their video performances, in

order to get visual support of what they are talking about. This procedure gave me important insight into their ways of performing the material by using paralanguage in form of gestures and various facial expressions. I realized that examples which did not seem to be funny while just

listening to them became interesting and appropriate for my analysis when watching the DVD. This is the reason why I will also focus on the analysis of gestures and facial expressions in my study, in particular with Wright, because we are repeatedly confronted with the contrast between his apathetic and monotonous style on the one hand, and his use of paralanguage on the other hand. The analysis deals with numerous questions, among

which are most significantly the following: To what extent do Seinfeld and Wright's performances create humor out of incongruity (by means of a clash of contrastive meanings) and disappointment (by means of a surprise ending that the recipients do not

11

expect)? To what extent is their verbal humor covered by the incongruity theory?3 To what extent does their work express aggressiveness and disparagement and is therefore covered by the

superiority theory?4 Do they use verbal humor as a means of power? To what extent can the release theory5 be applied to Seinfeld's and Wright's stand-up comedy? Which humor techniques can be found in their material? What joke strategies do they follow in order to make their performances successful? Why do they use figurative language in their

performances? Which linguistic aspects of joke telling do they

follow? How do Seinfeld and Wright approach their audience?

For further details on the incongruity theory see Willmann (1940), Koestler (1969), Shultz (1972, 1976), Suls (1972, 1977), Nerhardt (1977), McGhee (1979), Pepicello (1979), Wilson (1979),Morreall (1987), MacHovec (1988), Raskin (1985), Attardo and Chabanne (1992), Attardo and Raskin (2001) etc. and section 7.1. 4 For further details on the superiority theory see Bergson (1911), Suls (1977), Morreall (1987), MacHovec (1988), Allen (1998) and section 7.2. 5 For further details on the release theory see Freud (1905/1960), Spencer (in Morreall (1987)), Fry (1963), Grice (1975), Kline (1977), Raskin (1985) and section 7.3.

12

To begin this topic I will first report on the history of stand-up comedy in general (Chapter 2), before providing a short presentation of two of the most influential American stand-up comedians, Jerry Seinfeld and Steven Wright

(Chapters 3 and 4), followed by further information about the data and the transcription conventions I used (Chapters 5 and 6). Chapter 7 provides a short overview of previous

research on humor going back to Plato and Aristotle who are considered theories. to be the first it to have the developed most humor

Subsequently,

presents

important

humor theories and their proponents6. In my study, I will deal in detail with the incongruity theory, the hostility theory, and the release theory, because they represent the central theories on which all modern theories are based. Chapter 8 will deal with various genres of humor, particularly jokes, which represent one of the most common topics in everyday conversation and thus build a perfect basis for stand-up comedy. Humor plays a crucial role in our everyday lives and in general helps to ease a situation by making it more comfortable and casual for those

involved, which is one reason why jokes play a central role

See Freud 1905/1960, Bergson 1911/1956; Willman 1940; Fry 1963; Koestler 1969; Goldstein and McGhee 1972; Suls 1972, 1977; Grice 1975; Gruner 1978; McGhee 1979; Wilson 1979; Chapman and Foot 1977; Raskin 1985, 1987; Apte 1985, Morreal 1987; Attardo 2001.

13

in stand-up comedy. Jokes can occur in various forms, as, for example, narratives, knock-knocks, proverbial riddles, phrases, or funny limericks, personal

one-liners,

anecdotes. In this chapter, I will deal with a basic issue about different genres in combination with the discussion of humor theories I mentioned in the the previous internal chapter. structure

Subsequently,

will

explain

according to Hockett (1960), and the characteristic forms of jokes. Chapter 9 represents the main part of my study and deals with stand-up before comedy on in to comparison the to humorous of joke

dialogues,

moving

importance

performance and the role of the audience in joke telling in general, and stand-up comedy in particular. In what follows (Chapter 10) I will deal with

important joke joke

techniques and ridicule

concentrate on power,

non-verbal and

techniques,

and

solidarity

politeness. Chapter figurative 11 provides in an overview of the and use of

language

stand-up

comedy

contains

wordplay, puns and ambiguity, implication and allusion, and hyperbole. In addition, I will deal with the importance of the primary linguistic features in humor (Chapter 12),

reporting on the use of the most common characteristics of stand-up comedy, such as repetition and formulaicity, cut-

14

offs and various disfluencies in the form of pauses and false starts. I will also mention the most common discourse markers and the importance of intonation in joke telling. In the main part of this thesis (Chapter 13), I will relate in a detailed manner the analysis of verbal humor in stand-up comedy and use authentic material from two

American stand-up comedians to approach this subject. I have transcribed the material in order to be able to work on the basis of written text excerpts. Besides the audio recordings on CD and the transcripts, I also watched

Seinfeld's program I'm Telling You for the Last Time and Wright's program When the Leaves Blow Away on DVD, in order to be able to interpret the comedians' non-verbal behavior and the use of paralanguage on stage. I have to mention that Wright's live program When the Leaves Blow Away is identical to his audio tape I Still Have a Pony. In

particular, I will refer to selected jokes and examine to what extent various humor theories can be applied and which linguistic aspects of joke telling are predominant. I will pay attention to features such as repetition of parts of speech (nouns, determiners), verbs, pronouns, frequency of definite and indefinite "and"),

conjunctions

(e.g.

parallel syntax, hesitation phenomena, and interruptions. In addition I will focus on the occurrence of figurative

15

language,

such

as

wordplay

and

punning,

ambiguity,

implication and allusion, and hyperbole. Furthermore, I will examine how the stand-up comedian performs the joke, because jokes depend on performance in various ways. There are significant differences between written joke texts and the oral joke performance. In the oral version, there are pantomimes, gestures, and voice shifts, which will be dealt with in the section on

intonation and

paralanguage. Therefore, I will

identify

characteristics such as false-starts, restarts, cut-offs, stutters, self-corrections, and the reaction of the

listeners during and after the performance. Thus, my study includes several scholarly fields such as research on humor theories (Willman 1940; Koestler 1969; Goldstein and McGhee 1972; Suls 1972, 1977; McGhee 1979; Wilson 1979; Chapman and Foot 1977; Raskin 1985, 1987; Apte 1985, Morreal 1987; Attardo 2001), the internal structure of jokes (Hockett 1960), the language of humor (Ross 1998), as well as the power relations (Holmes 1992, 1995, 2003) between the joke teller and the butt of the joke.

16

2 History of Stand-up Comedy Stand-up comedy is the term for a special genre of comedy in which the performer, who is called the stand-up

comedian, stands on the stage and speaks directly to the audience. In general, stand-up comedians are individual

performers who plant themselves in front of their listeners with their microphones and start telling a succession of funny stories, one-liners or short jokes, and anecdotes, which are often audience laugh. with called The the "bits", in order to make their personalities, and their their to

humorists' audience

interaction

ability

spontaneously react to heckling are crucial aspects for successful stand-up comedy. Research on the origins of stand-up comedy shows that its roots have not been clearly traced. In his Encyclopedia of 20th century American Humor, Nilsen (2000:287) explains that stand-up comedy began to grow out of the burlesque and vaudeville traditions and traces its roots back to the 15thcentury Italian commedia dell' arte. He explains the term vaudeville as either originating from the French "voix de ville" meaning "voice of the village" or from the French "vaux de Vire" meaning "valley of Vire" (2000:304). But whereas burlesque and vaudeville also included music and variety acts besides the comic spoken parts, stand-up

comedy is derived from only the spoken parts of such shows.

17

According

to

Double

(2005:20),

the

history

of

stand-up

comedy originated from the work of jesters, commedia dell' arte, Shakespearean clowns, British music hall comedians, and American vaudeville entertainers. Double also mentions late 19th to century lecturers their such as Mark Twain, who by

started telling

entertain

audiences jokes

successfully and by

humorous

stories

and

creating

uneducated characters who spoke in strong dialect. Mintz (1983:134) also stresses the connection to the commedia dell'arte troupes in the 16th and 17th centuries and

mentions the stock characters and their spontaneous and uncomplicated performances. Their stories were simple, so that even uneducated audiences were able to follow them. In America, the earliest form of stand-up comedy had its roots in vaudeville, which first started in the form of the minstrel or variety show. White comedians painted their faces black and started to perform by speaking and singing in black dialects. Near the end of the 19th century, the minstrel show developed into American vaudeville. The first famous

vaudeville theater was opened in 1865 and was Tony Pastor's New Fourteenth Street Theater in New York. Tony Pastor was the first to present vaudeville to a respectable audience and went down in history as the "father of vaudeville" (Nilsen, 2000:304).

18

At the beginning of the 20th century, humorists all performed burlesque and vaudeville, very popular genres of American variety entertainment or popular theater, before focusing on stand-up comedy. During the 1920's vaudeville theater would undergo a certain pressure because numerous performers also appeared on radio shows, meaning that audiences could listen to their acts without having to pay in the theaters. This was certainly decline one of the nearly reasons why vaudeville disappeared began by to

and

had

completely

1935.

Their main topics focused on everyday matters in their personal lives and could therefore attract the audience's interest. Nevertheless, Americans were able to keep standup comedy alive in the "Borscht Belt", a famous holiday resort area, and along the "Chitlin with Circuit" numerous (Double, cabarets,

2005:23/24), which were

regions

small theaters and nightclubs in America's largest cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Washington, and various others. They offered opportunities for the stand-up comedians to gain popularity. In these years, stand-up comedy became informal and was infused with dark humor, sarcasm, and satire. Lenny Bruce, for example, started off in the

Borscht Belt and became famous for his obscene and vulgar topics and his remarks about illegal drugs, racism, and hypocrisy. From then on, it was normal to break overtly

19

into taboo areas during the performances. Topics dealing with drugs, sex, and violence had become common. The first comedy club worldwide was opened in Sheepshead Bay, New York, in 1962. In the 1970s, stand-up comedy began to reach its peak and expanded rapidly from nightclubs and smaller theaters to huge concert halls and arenas. Names like Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Steve Martin, and Bill Cosby became

predominant in the scene and famous television shows such as Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, Late Show with David Letterman, or The Larry Sanders Show contributed to establishing the success of these stand-up comedians.

Carlin became famous in the early 1970's mainly through his identification with the politics of the hippies and his remarks about drugs. Martin's style was characterized by his highly subversive delivery and he was one of the first comedians to perform in huge arenas. Cosby and Pryor were both African-American comedians, but whereas Pryor dealt with racial topics and presented honest work about his turbulent personal life, Cosby completely excluded racial topics in his performances. Rather he told stories about his childhood and his youth. He also became famous in his successful sitcom The Cosby Show during the 1980's.

Television had developed into a real comedy market place and increased the popularity of numerous stand-up

20

comedians. In the 1980's, stars like George Carlin, Dennis Miller, Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, Jerry Seinfeld, and Billy Crystal became famous because of such television

shows and began to perform live stand-up comedy sessions. Nowadays, stand-up comedy still prevails in our society and is being kept alive by new media such as the Internet ("You Tube" and "Laugh.com" for example) or particular comedy channels like Comedy Central, all over the world. New York, Los Angeles, and Boston are considered to be the

birthplaces of the stand-up comedy scene, and stars such as Jerry Seinfeld or Steven Wright began their careers in the most famous nightclubs in and around these cities. As far as other countries are concerned, it is

important to mention that Great Britain also represents a stronghold of stand-up comedy. Similar to the situation in America, its history began in the late 18th and 19th

centuries, and according to Double (2000:29), "it evolved in parallel with its American counterpart". It mainly found its beginning in huge music halls. The performers in these halls were mostly singers who performed in front of

working-class audiences and could attract their interest so that these music halls soon gained huge popularity. By 1868, London already had more than two hundred music halls in the city center and even more in the outskirts. This music hall style was characterized by songs, which were

21

often

comic

and

performed

directly

in

front

of

the

audience. During the following years, this style approached more and more the modern stand-up comedy style in which performers start telling a succession of funny jokes or one-liners. In the 1920s, variety underwent the same problems as vaudeville in America when it began to decline due to the emergence of films. Thanks to George Black and Val Parnell, the London Palladium reopened in 1928 again so that variety could continue. From 1960 on, variety could not withstand the

competition from television and could only be maintained in the early working-class clubs. Entertainment in these clubs began to boom and new, famous clubs such as the Batley Variety Club were opened in Yorkshire in 1967. In the meantime, more stand-up comedians came from the British folk music clubs in which stand-up comedy was becoming more conversational. Television and radio further contributed to the

increasing interest in stand-up comedy, and such stars as Bernard Manning, Bobby Thompson, Stan Boardman, and Frank Carson became famous and through television Club. shows In like The

Wheeltappers

Shunters

Social

1979,

Peter

Rosengard even

opened the first American-style

stand-up

comedy club, namely the Comedy Store in London, in which

22

the most successful performers of the 1980's began their careers. comedy It began did to not take long all before over British stand-up and

spread

the

country,

particularly political humor began to dominate this comedy scene. When analyzing the history of stand-up in America and in Britain, we have to realize that in both cases it began in theaters or music halls before evolving further in

comedy clubs. In comparison to the history of stand-up comedy in America and in Britain, it is interesting to follow its history in Germany, where stand-up comedy in the American style has only been known since the early 1990's on, when comedians such as, for example, Otto Waalkes and Helge Schneider began to fill their audience with

enthusiasm by performing in live shows and concerts. But even if it took a long time for stand-up comedy to find its place in Germany, television shows such as the Quatsch Comedy Club or Nightwash reinforced its growing success, and nowadays it plays a crucial role in German comedy. Since 1991 Cologne has even been the venue for a stand-up comedy festival which regularly attracts national and

international performers each year and awards the famous German Comedy Prize every October.

23

3 Jerry Seinfeld Jerome Seinfeld was born on April 29, 1954, in Brooklyn, New York. Later, his family moved to Massapequa, Long

Island, where he spent his childhood. From that time on Seinfeld followed the vaudeville performers, before

starting his own career as one of the world's best stand-up comedians ever. After his studies at Queens College, he became more and more interested in stand-up comedy and started to appear in various comedy clubs and television shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, the Late Night with David Letterman, and the Merv Griffin Show. In 1989, he even created a television show, The Seinfeld Chronicles, which was later renamed Seinfeld and became one of the most successful American television sitcoms ever. The show ended in 1998 and brought him several awards, such as the Emmy Award in 1993 (for Outstanding Comedy Series), the Golden Globe Award in 1994 (for Best Actor-Musical or Comedy Series), and even twice the Screen Actors Guild Award in 1997 and 1998 (for Outstanding Ensemble-Comedy Series). Just a few months after his sitcom had ended in 1998, Seinfeld also created one of the most famous comedy specials, I'm Telling You for the Last Time, which will serve as the basis for my study and will be analyzed in the following chapters of my work. It is a live album produced by Jerry Seinfeld and recorded at the Broadhurst Theater,

24

New York on August 6-9, 1998. The tape is 72:27 minutes long and provides the main basis for my linguistic

research. It has 21 tracks entitled 1. "Intro", 2. "Cab Drivers", 3. "Air Travel", 4. "Florida", 5. "Halloween", 6. "Supermarkets", 7. "Drugstores", 8. "Doctors", 9. "Men & Women", 10. "Chinese People", 11. "McDonald's", 12.

"Olympics", 13. "Scuba Diving", 14. "No. 1 Fear", 15. "Sky Diving/The Helmet", 16. "Clothing", 17. "Late TV", 18.

"Crooks", 19. "Horses", 20. "Bathroom" and 21. "Q + A". I have transcribed the whole tape in order to be able to work on the basis of written text excerpts. In my study, I did not take the final segment, "Q + A", into consideration because it cannot be considered stand-up comedy as such, but only provides a section in which Seinfeld voluntarily interacts with his audience. In 2007, Seinfeld also co-produced and starred of the animated film Bee Movie, which was released November 2, 2007. Apart from his career as a comedian and producer, Seinfeld is also the author of a bestselling book called Seinlanguage (1993), which stayed on The New York Times bestseller list for 33 weeks and represents an adaptation of his own stand-up material. Jerry Seinfeld possesses a natural gift for developing humor out of the most everyday topics that are normally not funny as such. But he is able to deal with these common and

25

most ordinary occurrences in a way that is different from most of the other stand-up comedians. Seinfeld's objective is to present critical humor towards mainstream culture. He shows in a perfect manner how everyday situations with the most trivial topics comedy he keeps can serve as raw material the for a

successful performance,

routine. his

Throughout speech

whole and

natural

patterns

develops a stage persona which is very close to his own actual self. This can also be seen by observing his outer appearance. He is always well-dressed and appears very

elegant as a normal New Yorker does. So his stage persona is actually identical to his off-stage persona and allows him to stay the same character as in his everyday life. By focusing on everyday topics to create humor, he does not have to invent funny stories to make his audience laugh. This allows him to make his delivery persona as natural as both

possible.

Seinfeld's

stage

expresses

determination but also reservedness, which are responsible for his great success. When I speak of determination, I mean Seinfeld's ability to know exactly how to display his personality in front of his audience, which is the reason why he can extract humor out of the most familiar everyday topics. He makes use of these topics in order to directly communicate to his listeners and integrates them in his performance, which helps him to acknowledge his audience.

26

Seinfeld is remarkable in his ability to show that it is sufficient to go on stage and start quipping about events that make the audience aware of their own foibles and therefore cause them to laugh and appreciate his

performance.

27

4 Steven Wright Steven Alexander Wright was born on December 6, 1955, in Burlington, Massachusetts. Like Jerry Seinfeld, he is a famous and successful stand-up comedian, actor, and writer, and is even an Academy-Award winner for his short film The Appointments of Dennis Jennings in 1998. He has created an individual style that is unique in the stand-up comedy scene. One of his performance characteristics monotonous is style his of

deliberately

slow

and

particularly

delivery, which mainly consists of hilarious one-liners and short jokes. In contrast to Jerry Seinfeld, Steven Wright does not talk about everyday topics as such, but fakes everyday life and invents absurd and often surreal stories during his performances. Double (2005:286), in his work, termed this style "deadpan delivery". Wright's monotonous and apathetic style is unique in the stand-up comedy scene. His quite soft way of speaking gives the impression that he is only talking to himself rather than addressing his

audience. Whereas Seinfeld's stage persona is similar to if not even the same as his off-stage persona, Wright invents a passive stage persona and presents the audience material that is explicitly invented for his show. With Wright there is nothing real, everything is invented and faked, even his own persona on stage. One of Wright's predominant

strategies in his verbal humor is timing. He regularly

28

introduces longer pauses in order to prepare his audience for the following punch line and therefore to reinforce the laughing effect. Over the years his unique style of

performing has brought him great success. As far as the structure of his jokes is concerned, we can analyze a definite punch line in each and every joke. The surprise effect always comes in the second part of his jokes. Most of his jokes, in which he regularly pretends to speak from his own point of view, express a bizarre, even surreal content. Nevertheless, we can rarely find real self-

deprecation in his jokes. Wright principally speaks in the first person singular, but only uses this strategy to serve as an example when playing with popular notions rather than to relate any experience he really had himself. The

succession of jokes demonstrates a special sort of fluidity because he chooses the jokes in a way that is appropriate to his audience's reactions. His performance mainly depends on the laughter on the part of his recipients. In contrast to Jerry Seinfeld, who always looks well-groomed and

dresses like a normal New Yorker, Wright even aims to look weird on stage. Most of the time he appears with a hat and shaggy hair, creating humor not only out of incongruous situations in his material, but also out of his outer

appearance on stage. It is obvious that Seinfeld cares more about outer appearance. Using negative politeness, he aims

29

at

expressing

respect

and

social does

distance care

towards about

his

audience.

Wright,

however,

not

formal

politeness and creates solidarity in a different way, by establishing common ground. He stresses in-group thinking and wants to show his audience that they share certain things, such as the understanding and appreciation of his humorous stories and one-liners. Similar interested to Jerry comedy Seinfeld, from his Steven teen Wright years has been

in

on,

before

becoming a star himself. Like Jerry Seinfeld, his career also began to shows Late flourish like The with regular Show, appearances Saturday In on

television Live, and

Tonight

Night

Night with David Letterman.

1985 he

created a live album entitled I Have a Pony, which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1985. It lasts 41:42

minutes and mainly presents Steven Wright's characteristic style of telling successions of one-liners. It has 14

tracks: 1. "Introduction", 2. "Ants", 3. "Hitchhiking", 4. "Ice", 5. "Dog Stay", 6. "Rachel", 7. "7's and the Museum", 8. "Water", 9. "Jiggs Casey", 10. "Cross Country", 11. "Book Store", 12. "Winny", 13. "Apt." and 14. "Babies and Skiing". In 2007 Steven Wright produced the follow-up album entitled I Still Have a Pony. It represents an audio

version of his Comedy Central television special When the Leaves Blow Away (2006) and lasts 42:28 minutes. It has

30

thirteen tracks: 1. "Quote", 2. "I Met This Woman", 3. "The Store", 4. "Camera", 5. "The Kitten Song", 6. "Twin", 7. "Monopoly", 8. "Hitchhiker", 9. "Planetarium", 10. "My

Grandfather", 11. "Shopping Carts", 12. "Mumble Song" and 13. "Friends of Mine Song" and was nominated for the Grammy Award in 2008. Because songs do not belong to stand-up comedy, I will not take the sections "Rachel" (IHAP), "The Kitten Song" (ISHAP), "Mumble Song" (ISHAP) and "Friends of Mine Song" into consideration in the following study.

31

5 Data Stand-up comedy will serve as the data source for the

analytical part of my study. As mentioned in the previous sections, authentic my investigation presented is by based the on a corpus of

material

stand-up

comedians

Seinfeld and Wright: I'm Telling You for the Last Time by Jerry Seinfeld; I Have a Pony and I Still Have a Pony by Steven Wright. Authentic, in this case, means audio and video recordings of actual performances. My data is

therefore performance and not written text. The reason for concentrating on performance rather than pure transcripts is that in written texts linguistic features, such as

discourse markers or disfluencies are completely omitted. But because I focus precisely on these features, my data has to be a live performance on tape. In addition, I used the DVD of the television special I'm Telling You for the Last Time (1998) by Jerry Seinfeld and When the Leaves Blow Away (2006) by Steven Wright, in order to have a basis for analyzing the occurrence of paralinguistic and non-scripted behavior, such as body language (gestures, facial

expressions etc.). The material was chosen because it displays in detail the comedians' strategies for organizing their

performances. As far as Jerry Seinfeld is concerned, his material is, on the one hand, marked by the choice of the

32

topics that are mainly based on everyday situations, and, on the other hand, by the frequent occurrence of

paralanguage. The visualization of absurdities serves to enhance the audience's appreciation of his performance. As already mentioned, Seinfeld restricts the topics of his material to commonplace situations that all members of the audience know from their everyday lives. The material he uses in his performances does not explicitly point to a humorous content, but serves to represent just his own character which and provides a chain aware of of personal their person experiences foibles. he his

make he

the

audience in

own

Whenever presents

speaks own humorous

the

first

singular, renders real

his

self

and

therefore even telling

performances

without

joking

stories. Seinfeld does not create a specific stage persona. He comes on stage and starts speaking of his own, real life. This presentation of authentic experience and the way he performs it are the reason for the funniness of his performances. With Steven Wright, I chose a comedian who is very different from Seinfeld and displays a completely

different procedure in his performances. Whereas Seinfeld tells of real life situations, Wright amuses his audience by telling faked life situations he could never have

experienced. When he speaks in the first person singular, he only pretends to be speaking about his own ego, but

33

actually it is a faked person he is talking about. Wright creates a different sort of relationship to the audience. Whereas Seinfeld is concentrated negative on formal politeness, and

Wright forgoes

these

politeness

strategies

instead builds up solidarity and sympathy by establishing common ground and in-group thinking. So already from this point of view, we can conclude that the success and the funniness of Wright's performances are mainly based on his message of being alike, on the absurdity of his material and his way of presenting this unreal and ridiculous

material as his own experience. In the analytical part of this study, I will examine numerous examples taken from the transcripts of both

comedians in order to clarify

characteristic linguistic

aspects of verbal humor in stand-up comedy. Due to the richness of the examples for the features in question, I will only work with selected and extracts taken from the the

different

performances

will

therefore

restrict

number of examples for each section.7 I want to mention that one extract or example may serve as the basis for illustrating different linguistic aspects of stand-up

comedy in my study. This procedure does not result from a lack of examples, but will serve to emphasize the

The entire transcription of both performances may be found in the appendix to this study.

34

comedian's

skill

in

using

combination

of

different

strategies in order to create a humorous effect.

35

6 Transcription Conventions In my thesis, the transcriptions follow the conventions established system is by Dressler on a and survey Kreuz of (2000), various whose model

based

transcription

conventions8 for discourse analysis purposes. Transcriptions consist of numerous short lines which represent spoken language as segmented into intonation

units. As far as the English language is concerned, an intonation unit typically consists of about four to five words and expresses one new idea unit. Generally,

intonation units begin with a brief pause and end in a clause-final intonation contour. Also, they often match

grammatical clauses. Each idea unit typically contains a subject, or given information, and a predicate, or new information. This flow from given to new information is characteristic of spoken language as Chafe (1994) stresses in his work. The convention of writing each intonation unit in a separate line emphasizes the frequency of intonation units beginning with "and", and thus highlights the greater fragmentation inherent in spoken language (Chafe 1982). As far as capitalization is concerned, it is reduced to the pronoun "I" and proper names; diacritics are used to mark features of prosody rather than grammatical units, and non-

The actual transcription conventions may be found in the appendix to this study.

36

lexical items, for example pause fillers like "ehm" and "um", affirmative particles like "aha" or surprise markers like "oh", are included. The transcript is written in

American English. In my data, I precisely indicated the length of the pauses in order to analyze the comedian's strategy of

timing, either in the sense of gaining planning time or of preparing the audience for the following punch line. The length of the single pauses has been indicated in

parentheses (cf. 17.1. Transcription Conventions). However, I have only concentrated on the fact that the audience reacts to the comedian's performance rather than on the exact time and therefore indicated neither the exact length of the audience's laughter nor of their applause. I have focused on the analysis of the causes of their laughter and the subsequent applause, and thus decided to leave out the detailed indication of the length of the time because it has no influence on my further analysis. Concerning the audience's reaction, I only indicated the most important periods reacted of laughter, in which the audience because obviously of their

with

continuous

laughter

appreciation of the joke or in which they hesitated and only reacted with weak laughter, either because of

incomprehension or of lack of appreciation. Giggling and

37

brief

outbursts

of

laughter

were

not

taken

into

consideration.

38

7 Humor Theories Research on the structure of humorous discourse began in classical philosophy and still represents an essential

research area for contemporary linguists. Many theories of humor have been advanced by famous philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Schopenhauer, and Kant. All their theories dealt with the question of why people laugh at certain situations, whereas they do not show any reactions in others. They tried to explain the various mental

processes that allow us to experience humor. Plato and Aristotle began to deal with the essence of humor about 2000 years ago and laid the foundations for today's modern theories of humor as represented by influential linguists such as Goldstein and McGhee (1972), Chapman and Foot

(1977), Raskin (1985), and Apte (1985)9. In general, the principal theories of humor can be classified into three main groups:

incongruity theories (Raskin 1985:31-36) hostility theories (Raskin 1985:36-38) release theories (Raskin 1985:38-40).

For detailed bibliographies of humor research see Nilsen (1992, 1993), Goldstein and McGhee (1972: 263ff.).

39

This classification can be found in most of the literature dealing with humor research, even if the terms for the different groups may be slightly different. In MacHovec (1988), the term disappointment theory is used when he speaks of the incongruity theory. Whereas Attardo (1994, 2001) adopts the same terminology as Raskin (1985:36-38) when he speaks of "hostility or disparagement theories" and "release theories", I want to emphasize that Wilson (1979) calls these theories in his research "conflict theories" and "relief theories". Raskin (1985) specifies the theories further and points out that they can also be characterized from a psychological perspective as cognitive-perceptual (incongruity), social-behavioral (superiority), and

psychoanalytical (relief). Attardo (1994:47) clarifies this interpretation with a detailed table displaying "The Three Families of Theories".

40

Nothing produces laughter more than a surprising disproportion between that which one expects and that which one sees.
Blaise Pascal (French philosopher and scientist, 1623-1662)

7.1. Incongruity Theories Morreall (1987:6) considers the incongruity theory to be "the most popular current philosophical theory of humor" and states further that it "holds that the formal object of amusement researchers is 'the his incongruous'." view and see Many influential as the

share

incongruity

essential element in eliciting humor. According to Martin (in Ruch 1998:25), incongruity theories "focus on the

cognitive elements of humor." Wilson (1979:9) explains the term incongruity thus: "the general proposition is that the components of a joke, or humourous incident, are in mutual clash, conflict or contradiction". Humor results in this case from the fact that there is a difference between what the recipient of the This by joke expects that to happen is and what by The

actually

happens. evoked

means two

humor

created

incongruity

conflicting

meanings.

introduction and the main part of the joke might evoke a certain expectation as to how it will turn out. But the revelation of the punch line makes our expectation vanish

41

and provokes therefore a sort of discrepancy which elicits laughter. Consequently, incongruity involves a moment of surprise that results from the clash of two contrastive meanings. This brings forward one of the most important humorous features, also supported by which is ambiguity.10 This thesis is Shultz (1976). Nerhardt (1977:47)

considers humor to be the "consequence of the discrepancy between two mental representations, one of which is an expectation and the other is some other idea or a percept". Freud (1905/1960) emphasizes in his work that the joke recipients first have to recognize incongruity before they are able to react to it with laughter. As we can see in Morreall (1987) and MacHovec (1988), Kant, Schopenhauer, and Spencer can be considered the first authors associated with this theory. Kant states that everything intended to cause laughter must be something absurd and he defines laughter as "an affection arising from the sudden

transformation of a strained expectation into nothing" (in Morreall definition 1987:47, shows 130, the two in Eastman 1922:153). of This the

main

characteristics

incongruity theory by expressing that Kant analyzed the ridiculous object in terms of incongruity which emerges from the disappointment of a strained expectation. Raskin

10

For further details see the section 11.1. "Wordplay, Puns and Ambiguity".

42

(1985) takes up the disappointment theory and describes it as an incongruity-related theory in which two incompatible meanings Attardo have to be confronted. According to to him and

(2001),

incongruity

refers

the

cognitive

consequences of humor and the emphasis is focused on the contrastive or distinct meanings of the joke. But Attardo and Chabanne (1992:169) stress that an object is never incongruous "per se", but must occur in a situation which renders it unsuitable or contrastive to another object. They see the main function of the joke introduction and its main part in "setting the background against which and in reason of which the punch line appears incongruous" and is therefore impossible to predict. Morreall (1987:52) also cites Schopenhauer, who gives a more detailed definition in which he explicitly mentions "incongruity". He says that "the cause of laughter in every case is simply the sudden perception of the incongruity between a concept and the real objects which have been thought through it in some relation, and laughter itself is just the expression of this incongruity." In contrast to Kant, who considers humor to result from an unfulfilled expectation, Schopenhauer emphasizes the discord between people's sensory knowledge and their abstract knowledge of the same objects. He stresses that the greater the

incongruity is, the greater the "ludicrous effect which is

43

produced by this contrast" so that "all laughter then is occasioned by a paradox, and therefore by unexpected

subsumption [...)" (1987:52). Among the more contemporary researchers who have dealt with incongruity, Willmann

(1940), Koestler (1969), Suls (1972, 1977), Shultz (1972, 1976) and McGhee (1979) deserve mention. Willmann (1940:72) also mentions the term

"incongruity" when he states that humor results from "the union of two ideas which involve some sort of contradiction or incongruity". He goes into further detail of by this

distinguishing

three

different

realizations

"union." Either the two meanings might be united by common elements, or one might function as an inference drawn from the second meaning, or both might occur in objective

reality. Koestler (1969:35) states within the framework of his bisociation theory that humor involves "the perceiving of a situation or idea, L, in two self-consistent but habitually incompatible frames of references, M1 and M2 [...]." He expresses with the term "bisociation" the idea that two normally incompatible objects or references are perceived in concepts which are actually remote from each other. Humor therefore results from "the collision of incompatible matrices" (1969:92), from "the sudden bisociation of an idea or event with two habitually incompatible matrices

44

(1969:51). According to him, humor and subsequent laughter result mainly from aggressiveness or anxiety. I consider McGhee's definition to be the most precise and detailed definition. He states that the notions of congruity and incongruity refer to the relationship between components of an object, event, idea, social expectation, and so forth. When the arrangement of the constituent elements of an event is incompatible with the normal or expected pattern, the event is perceived as incongruous. (1979:6/7) Before coming to a further humor theory, I want to stress that some researchers such as Shultz (1972, 1976), Suls (1972, 1977), and Nerhardt (1977), have begun debates as to whether incongruity is a sufficient condition for humor or whether its resolution also plays an important part in it. They have pointed out the fact that some incongruous

elements can fit together so that the recipient can make sense of the punch line with regard to the information given in the joke. In this case, they use the incongruity expressed in the punch line to resolve it and make it congruous. Therefore, incongruity represents only a first stage which must be followed by the resolution of this incongruity in order to elicit humor on the recipients' part. Suls states (1972:82 in Goldstein and McGhee 1972): In the first stage, the perceiver finds his expectations about the text disconfirmed by the

45

ending of the joke or, in the case of a cartoon, his expectations about the picture disconfirmed by the caption. In other words, the recipient encounters an incongruity the punch line. In the second stage, the perceiver engages in a form of problem solving to find a cognitive rule which makes the punch line follow from the main part of the joke and reconciles the incongruous parts.

We

can

conclude

that

the

incongruity-resolution

model

stresses that the recipient has a certain expectation that is not fulfilled by the following punch line. It is obvious that a good joke tries to put the recipients on the wrong track in order to surprise them through the revelation of the punch line. After having realized this incongruity, the recipient tries to resolve it in order to be able to make sense of the punch line with help of the information it contained.11 Shultz (in Chapman and Foot 1976:13)

emphasizes that the "mechanism of resolution is apparently necessary to distinguish humor from nonsense." Whereas

incongruity in nonsense cannot be resolved, humor can be characterized as resolvable incongruity. Pepicello

(1983:73) clarifies this by stating that the resolution "is assumed to reduce the arousal produced by the initial

perception of incongruity, and such decreases in arousal are seen as pleasurable". When the recipients are unable to

11

For detailed examples of Shultz's and Suls' theory, see Rothbart and Pien (in: Chapman and Foot 1977:37).

46

resolve the incongruity, we can state that they do not understand the joke.

Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of man's superiority to all that befalls him.
Roman Gary (French novelist 1914-1980)

7.2. Hostility Theories Hostility theories, also known as disparagement theories (Suls 1977), derision theories (MacHovec 1988), superiority theories (Morreall 1987), or disappointment theories and the theories of frustrated expectation (Allen 1998:10), go back to Plato's and Aristotle's early work and refer to the negative and the aggressive side of humor, which is mainly used to disparage and humiliate specific opponents. Both philosophers emphasized in their work that laughter is a means of power and superiority when it is directed against the faults of other people and it thus expresses their inferiority. Plato considered amusement to be "a kind of malice toward [powerless] people" (in Morreall 1987:10), and Morreall (1987:3) emphasizes that "laughter is always directed at someone as a kind of scorn." In Allen

(1987:10), we can find Aristotle's attitude to the source

47

of humor when he defines it as "enjoyment of the misfortune of others due to a momentary feeling of superiority or gratified vanity that we ourselves are not in the

predicament observed." Hobbes shares that conviction and asserts that "the passion of laughter is nothing else but sudden glory

arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly: for men laugh at the follies of themselves past, when they come suddenly to remembrance [...]" (in Morreall 1987:20, 129, in Eastman 1922:33).12 Considering that Hobbes was a political philosopher, we can come to the conclusion that for him, humor served as a means of expressing power and control in social domains such as politics as well. Even nowadays, we use humor in the same sense when we think of it as a regular means of expressing power and superiority over those we dislike. In his work Human Nature, Hobbes (1650/1999:54) also stresses the fact that laughter stems from the feeling of superiority of the person who is laughing at some object. He even distinguishes between two sorts of laughter: Men laugh often (especially such as are greedy of applause from every thing they do well) at their

12

For the original citation see Hobbes 1985 (1651): 125, Hobbes 1999 (1650): 54,55. La Fave, Haddad (et al.) (in Chapman and Foot (1996:63,64)).

48

own actions performed never so little beyond their own expectation; as also at their own jests [...] Also men laugh at the infirmities of others, by comparison of which their own abilities are set off and illustrated. Also men laugh at jests, the wit whereof always consisteth in the elegant discovering and conveying to our minds some absurdity or another. Hobbes's theory of humor not only takes superiority into consideration but also suddenness, which serves to create a surprise effect and seems to become a further necessary condition for humor. Bergson (1911/1956) can be considered one of the most influential proponents of the hostility theory. For

Bergson, the ridiculous is "something mechanical encrusted on the living" (in Morreall 1987:117). According to him, "the purpose of laughter is to remove that encrustation through humiliation, and thus promote free, well-adapted behavior" (in Morreall 1987:117). He defines laughter as a social corrective and points out that it is people's

mechanical behavior that we laugh at rather than at the individuals themselves when he states that we laugh at their "mechanical inelasticity" (Morreall 1987: 117, 121, 125, Bergson 1911:5,9). This means that when someone

automatically or mechanically behaves in a manner that is incongruous with a social norm, they become the target of the joke and elicit laughter among the others. This

49

laughter results from the feeling of superiority felt by the recipients.13 Suls (1977:41) clarifies in his work that

disparagement theories "mean those theories of humour based on the observation that we laugh at other people's

infirmities, particularly those of our enemies." He further states that the incongruity-resolution model, mentioned in the section above, can account for disparagement humor in those cases where the incongruous punch line involves a surprising misfortune. It is of interest to note that a major finding of his research was that the recipients who are part of the disparaged group will be less likely to resolve the punch line and make sense of it, whereas those who feel hostile and superior to the disparaged group will be able to make sense of the surprising punch line. I want to conclude this section by mentioning Gruner (1978), who also stressed in Understanding Laughter that laughter serves as a means of expressing superiority over the inferior persons and therefore "substitutes a verbal attack for physical violence" (MacHovec 1988:31). In

general, we can state that humor increases when the butt of

13

For a summary of the three basic elements of Bergson's essay, Laughter: an essay on the meaning of the comic, cf. MacHovec 1988:74, 75.

50

the joke is someone or a group of persons we do not like or towards whom we even feel hatred.

Language is power, life and the instrument of culture, the instrument of domination and liberation.
Angela Carter (English novelist and journalist, 1940-1992)

7.3. Release Theories As their name suggests, release theories posit that humor is used to release tensions or to make one feel liberated when talking about taboo topics influential proponent of this such as sex. is The most Sigmund

humor

theory

Freud, which is the reason why I will focus on his work in this section.14 Freud was the first to work on real

humorous texts; he started to identify the various joke techniques in terms of "sounds, syllables, repetition, and variation" (Norrick theory 2003:1334) of humor. and Like formulated Spencer, the Freud

psychoanalytic

considers laughter to be "an outlet for psychic or nervous energy" (Morreall 1987:111). For him, humor represents a

14

For a more comprehensive overview of other proponents of release theories see Spencer (in Morreall (1987)), Fry (1963), Grice (1975), Kline (1977), Raskin (1985).

51

means of defense that enables people to experience pure pleasure. In his early book Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (1905/1960), Freud distinguishes three

situations in which laughter might be revealed: jokes or wit, the comic situation, and the humorous situation. All three situations contain a build-up of psychic energy which fuels the release of emotion. According to him, "this

superfluous energy is what is discharged in the muscular movements of laughter" (Morreall 1987:111). In the comic situation, the amusement arises because of the economy in the expenditure of thought. There is always some

disappointment or deceived expectation involved in comic situations. In wit, the pleasure results from economy in the expenditure of inhibition, whereas in humor, it is due to the economy in the expenditure of feeling. Situations which would cause a sort of suffering are given less

significance from a humorous standpoint (cf. Keith-Spiegel (1972:12/13, 30). In his research, Freud analyzed various jokes with help of reduction mechanisms and came up with twenty different categories, and detailed the humorous

techniques they employ. In Freud's view, the main criteria and characteristics of joking include the relation to the content of our thoughts, the characteristic of playful

judgment, the coupling of dissimilar things, contrasting ideas, sense in nonsense, the succession of bewilderment

52

and enlightenment, the exposure of what is hidden, and the brevity of wit. As one of the major structural techniques of jokes, Freud mentions condensation, in which the actual thought is condensed by introducing a composite word which cannot be understood in itself but in the context it

occurs. Freud uses the term "technique" to refer to the way the joke is constructed. He even classifies subcategories of condensation, such as the dividing up of words, the multiple use of the same material as a whole, in parts, in a different order, or with slight modification.15 He cites all these mechanisms as examples of economy. He also

mentions displacement, in which "emphasis is displaced from the relevant to the irrelevant" (Wilson 1979:17), which means that emphasis shifts to a completely different

meaning of the word. Moreover, he puts forward faultyreasoning, absurdity, unification, representation by the opposite and the indirect representation or reference to the similar.16 Following his discussion of humor techniques, Freud introduces two forms of joking: "innocent" and

"tendentious" jokes. Tendentious jokes describe events that would normally leave the audience shocked or terrified. For

15

Examples of various humor techniques are provided by Kline (1977:7/8). He also provides various hypotheses on each of their distinguishing characteristics. 16 For detailed examples see Freud (1905/1960: p.14-96), MacHovec (1988:39ff.).

53

Freud these jokes have two functions; either they serve to express hostility and aggressiveness or obscenity and

exposure. He argues that in a tendentious joke, there is an underlying, unconscious thought which is responsible for the joke's release of repressed feelings. Pleasure results in this case from the hidden aggression and hostility we feel towards certain than persons we who hold perhaps a more the

powerful

position

ourselves.

Freud

defines

tendentious joke as a joke that displaces aggression, and he presents three different categories of tendentious (hostile) jokes"

jokes: "exposing jokes [and]

or obscene

jokes, aggressive

cynical

(critical,

blasphemous)

(1905/1960:137). Hostile jokes can be used to attack other people and therefore express aggression, defense and

dominance. Obscene jokes express exposure because they are mainly of a and sexual at the that nature. same They time, serve to to overcome shameful because

inhibition thoughts or

satisfy repress

ideas

people

normally

their content is generally considered unacceptable. Freud explains these facts when he states that tendentious jokes serve to overcome "the obstacle to the aggressiveness"

(1905/1960:124) and that the prevention of invective or of insulting rejoinders by external circumstances is such a common case that tendentious jokes are especially favoured in order to make aggressiveness or

54

criticism possible against persons in exalted positions who claim to exercise authority. The joke then represents a rebellion against that authority, a liberation from its pressure. (1905/1960:125) This sort of "liberation" and the economy of psychical expenditure, which means a saving of energy, are

responsible for the ensuing laughter. Innocent jokes, known as "innocent humour, or nonsense" (Wilson 1979:159), refer to amusement at bizarre is happenings, caused only illogicalities by the and

absurdity.

Amusement

incongruity

predominant in these nonsense jokes. In this case, it is the technique rather than the aggression which amuses the audience and causes laughter. Freud states it thus: On the basis of suitable specimens of innocent jokes, in which there was no fear of our judgement being disturbed by their content or purpose, we were driven to conclude that the techniques of jokes are themselves sources of pleasure. (1905/1960:146) Whereas jokes tendentious threaten their jokes their display aggression, but innocent elicit "this

never of

listeners Freud

rather that

enjoyment

content.

assumes

enjoyment is no doubt correctly to be attributed to economy in psychical expenditure" (1905/1960:147). In conclusion, I want to emphasize that Freud's theory often represents a synthesis of release, hostility, and incongruity theories and can therefore be considered to be

55

more comprehensive than any other models which mainly focus on one of the theories explained.

7.4. The General Theory of Verbal Humor Raskin (1985) deals with the semantic script-based theory of humor (SSTH), which led to the general theory of verbal humor (GTVH) a few years later (Attardo and Raskin 1991). Both theories became influential in the analysis of

verbally expressed humor.

7.4.1. The Semantic Script-based Theory of Humor (SSTH) Raskin deals with the concept of the "script" and defines it as the meaning of the text of the joke. This script represents a "structured configuration of knowledge about some situation or activity" (Ritchie 2004:70). This means the script provides information about an object, an action, or an event and reveals the structure of an entity by dealing with its parts, describing how an activity is done, or how a relationship is organized. A script is defined by Raskin (1985:81) as: a large chunk of semantic information surrounding the word or evoked by it. The script is a cognitive structure internalized by the native speaker and it represents the native speaker's knowledge of a small part of the world. Every speaker has internalized rather a large repertoire of scripts of "common sense" which

56

represent his/her knowledge of certain routines, standard procedures, basic situations etc. Attardo (2001:3) underscores Raskin's insistence on the

fact that "scripts [...] are immediately related to, and evoked by, lexical items." Raskin (1985:99) explains his theory in the following way: A text can be characterized as a single-jokecarrying text if both of the conditions [...] are satisfied. i) The text is compatible, fully or in part, with two different scripts ii) The two scripts with which the text is compatible are opposite [...] The two scripts with which some text is compatible are said to overlap fully or in part on this text. The first condition means that the joke is described as consisting of an initial part which can be subject to two possible interpretations. For the listener one of these two interpretations seems to be more obvious than the second one, which first passes completely unnoticed. In a quite sudden and surprising way, the last part of the joke brings this second possibility of interpretation closer to the listener's consciousness. The second condition reveals that contrast plays a central role; Raskin states that the two scripts must be opposed. This opposition can be realized through situational, contextual, or local antonyms. He

57

mentions three abstract binary oppositions, which he calls actual/non-actual, normal/abnormal and possible/impossible. So we can conclude that Raskin's hypothesis demonstrates that a text can only be considered funny if it has two different scripts and if these scripts stand in opposition to each other.

7.4.2. The General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) The general theory of verbal humor (GTVH) is a theory that was developed by Raskin and Attardo in 1991 and can be described as the follow-up to Raskin's semantic scriptbased theory of humor (SSTH) mentioned above. The GTVH is focused on verbal humor and describes a joke as a

construction of six knowledge resources which contain 1. script opposition (SO), which we are already

acquainted with from Raskin's SSTH, 2. the logical mechanism (LM), which embodies a local logic and deals with the way in which the two scripts in a joke are brought together, 3. the situation (SI), which describes the various

persons playing a role in the joke, the objects, and the location of the joke, 4. the target (TA), which describes the person or group of persons at whom the joke is aimed and who or which are ridiculed or attacked,

58

5. the

narrative

strategy

(NS),

which

identifies

the

style used to present the joke (e.g. a dialogue, a riddle, a narrative etc.) and 6. the language (LA), which represents all the words and other linguistic units used in the text.

To conclude this section, I would like to refer once again to the incongruity theories discussed in section 7.1. At first glance one could assume that Raskin's script-based semantic theory of humor is also essentially an incongruity theory. But Raskin himself (1987:17) disproves this

assumption with help of an example which I will cite: "Is the doctor at home?" the patient asked in his bronchial whisper. "No", the doctor's young and pretty wife whispered in reply. "Come right in." Raskin suggests that we are confronted with two scripts in this joke; the DOCTOR script on the one hand, and the LOVER script on the other hand. The latter emerges from the

wife's response at the very end of the joke and reveals itself to be compatible with the text's narrative because it gives a "natural" answer to the question asked by the patient. But this second script is incompatible with the first one because the text cannot be describing a patient looking for medical help and a lover trying to see his beloved in secret at the same time. This incompatibility

59

represents the script opposition for Raskin. He underscores the fact that the two opposite scripts "are not to be identified with the two situations brought together in a joke as postulated by the incongruity-based theory; the scripts are formal [...] structures analytical resulting procedure" from an

independently

postulated

(Raskin

1987:17). He justifies this by explaining that the goal of his theory is to "analyze the text of the joke rather than the psychological or other reasons for its production"

(Raskin 1987:17). With regard to what I have learned about Raskin's theory, I want to emphasize that it is valid for written joke texts not necessarily for joke performances as we find them in stand-up comedy. Because the theory

completely depends on scripts based on written words, it neglects performance completely and does not deal with body language or intonation changes, which are essential

features of stand-up comedy performances. Although it is called a "general" theory, it cannot be considered general because it is limited to verbal humor. Raskin and Attardo's material is text that incorporates jokes and not

performance. That means, what is excluded is "non-verbal humor" in form of paralanguage and prosody. Therefore, I will not put the main focus on this theory in the

analytical part of my study.

60

To sum up the section on humor theories, I want to stress that all theories have met with criticism over the years. So it is obvious that the early research on

incongruity, superiority, and relief theories has received the ongoing attention of more modern linguists. Morreall (1987:128ff.), Clark (in Morreall 1987:139ff., in Langevin and Day (in Goldstein and McGhee 1972: 131)), and Martin (in Morreall 1987: 172ff.) represent only some of those who have criticized the early theories. Morreall (1987: 129ff.) shows that not all cases of laughter and amusement express feelings of superiority or result from incongruity. He

justifies his opinion with findings on the behavior of babies. Morreall emphasizes that they also laugh, but that this kind of laughter cannot be attributed to a feeling of superiority. Nor does it involve incongruity, so that the two theories cannot be considered to cover all cases of humorous laughter. Clark and Martin further and come deal to with the

Schopenhauer's

incongruity

theory

conclusion that incongruity is only a necessary, but in no way a sufficient condition of humor. Martin (in Morreall 1987:175) theory. As far as the analytical part of my study is also provides a number of objections to his

concerned, I will mainly refer to Freud because his theory can be considered as a synthesis of release, hostility and

61

incongruity theories and thus represents a comprehensive model. Concerning incongruity as such, I will examine the jokes in order to find out if they contain incongruity in the sense of incompatible McGhee and contrastive Raskin ideas (1985)) (cf. and

Morreal

(1987),

(1979),

unfulfilled expectation, as Kant stressed in his research (cf. Morreall 1987:47, 130, Eastman 1922:154). Moreover, I will examine them for their expression of superiority

towards the persons that are ridiculed. Therefore, I will mainly follow Plato's, Aristotle's and Hobbes' research

(cf. Morreal 1987, Allen 1987, Hobbes 1650/1999) because they focused on laughter as an expression of superiority of the persons who are laughing at powerless people or

specific objects.

62

8 Genres17 of Humor This section provides a brief overview of the various

genres of humor. Stand-up comedy represents only one field of humor. Wordplay and puns, ridicule and funny personal anecdotes are others. In general, jokes can take many

forms, such as narrative jokes, proverbial phrases, oneliners, knock-knock jokes, or riddles. They all have their own particular structure. Various linguists have already dealt with the most different kinds of humor. Among those who have dealt with the discussion names (1968; and such 1982; the as analysis Freud of joke telling are

important Schegloff 1974;

(1905/1960; Sacks

1920/1961), (1972; 1973; and

1987;

1988),

1992),

Schenkein

(1972),

Tannen

(1984;

1989)

Norrick (1989; 1993; 1993a; 2000; 2001; 2003; 2004). They focused particularly obviously different on conversational joking, from stand-up at comedy. least which is in

Whereas

conversational

joketelling

two

persons humorist's

participate, stand-up comedy consists of the

monologue addressed to a receiving audience. As for the differences between dialogues and monologues in joke

telling, I will explicitly deal with them in the paragraphs 9.1. and 9.2.. Nevertheless, the researchers' work served

17

I used the term "genre" in the sense of a certain type of humor which is considered as a class because it has special characteristics.

63

as essential background material for my analysis because their research on conversational humor contains crucial

insights that can also be applied to the genre of stand-up comedy and which of point to interesting and and the aspects in the

examination

differences joke in telling

similarities stand-up

between I the

conversational emphasize here

comedy. of

particular

importance

comedian's identity and his performance skills, but also the audience's reaction in form of laughter. Humor normally causes laughter and this laughter results from something that happens unexpectedly or that is completely irrational, illogical, unreasonable, or extremely exaggerated. McGhee (1979:10) maintains that "incongruity is central to all humor" and thus puts the focus on the incongruity theory referred to in section 7.1. Fry (1963) emphasizes that humor results from ridiculous situations that consist of several paradoxes, and that humor only becomes obvious when a punch line or any other key information serves to resolve these paradoxes in an unexpected way. In the following, I will deal with the internal structure of jokes and their various forms in order to establish a basis for my

analytical discussion of stand-up comedy.

64

8.1. The Internal Structure of Jokes In the examination of the internal structure of jokes, I refer to Hockett (1960), who stated in The View from

Language that jokes have three different components: 1) 2) 3) Build-up Pivot Punch line

The

"build-up" which and

forms

the

body the the or

of

the

joke. and

It

is

the the The the

sentence

introduces much the of

joke

presents action. which

orientation "pivot"

complicating phrase

signifies

word

around

ambiguity is created. The "punch line" serves to conclude the joke and often introduces "a conflicting point of view or a new scene entirely", as Norrick explains in his work (1989:118). The punch line therefore represents a surprise effect for the audience and is responsible for their

amusement and appreciation, normally expressed in general laughter. To clarify the structure, I have chosen an example from Alexander (1997:42): After waiting for half an hour in a Soho restaurant the customer called over to the waiter: "How long will my spaghetti be?" he asked. "How should I know", replied the waiter. "I never measure it."

65

The three components of the internal structure according to Hockett (1960) are:

After waiting for half an hour in a Soho restaurant the customer called over to the waiter: Build-up

"How long will my spaghetti be?" he asked. Pivot

"How should I know", replied the waiter. "I never measure it." Punch line

The build-up consists here of the orientation section and much of the complication action. It informs the recipient about a customer who is waiting for his spaghetti in a restaurant. His question "How long will my spaghetti be?" represents the pivot of the joke, because the waiter

misinterprets the question. The waiter's answer forms the punch which concludes the joke. It serves as its

resolution. Although stand-up comedians do not explicitly use the exact structure as described by Hockett (1960) when telling jokes from their own lives or everyday affairs, we

66

can nevertheless comprehend their structure even if they sometimes skip the build-up and start immediately with the pivot. This is the reason why listeners in general do not recognize the pivot term immediately and are amused by the surprise effect of the following punch line. Whereas the build-up section can be neglected without having an

influence on the success of the joke, there must be a pivot section lines. The joke mentioned above also contains some structures of narrative as defined by Labov (1972). There is an which forms the basis for the following punch

orientation and a complication unit, which is represented by the build-up, and there is a resolution, which is

represented by the punch line. According to Sacks (1974:337), the joke structure is similar to the form of a story. He describes joke telling as being composed, as with stories, "of three serially ordered and adjacently placed types of sequences." The

three sequences are called the preface, the telling, and the response sequence. a punch The telling that of a joke its normally response

concludes

with

line

builds

sequence. So the punch line serves to conclude the joke and is intended to cause laughter which in turn emphasizes the recipients' understanding and appreciation of the joke. But Sacks points out that not every recipient has to laugh.

67

Delayed laughter or even silence can also follow a response sequence. These moments of silence can express a lack of understanding or appreciation. The performers can also

encourage his audience by starting to laugh immediately after the to punch laugh line. in They are of thus the prompting joke's their

audience

defense

funniness.

However, if the recipients do not share his amusement, this strategy can also cause arguments. So the best solution for the performer would be to give the punch line and wait for the recipients' to start to laugh before joining in with laughter. As far as the reaction of the listeners is

concerned, we can apply Sack's analysis of the audience's reaction in conversational joke telling to that of stand-up comedy. While dealing with the authentic stand-up comedy material of Seinfeld and Wright, I realized that the

audience does not always react in a consistent manner. Although they most often laugh heartily and express their appreciation of the joke performance, sometimes the

humorist's jokes only set off weak laughter or no laughter at all. At this point in time, we have to analyze the reasons for the delayed laughter or even the complete

absence of it. Absurdity, triviality, or banality might be some reasons; misunderstanding or even complete

incomprehension might be others.

68

8.2. Characteristic Forms of Jokes Preliminary to the analytical part of my study, I want to provide the definitions of different genres of verbal

humor. Jokes in their various forms represent a genre which we regularly encounter in everyday life. It is important to realize that not all jokes are necessarily narrative. There are also jokes which are not narrative in their form, such as one-liners and riddle jokes which will be dealt with in detail in the following section. Another interesting genre of jokes is the knock-knock joke. It has an entirely

formulaic structure and mainly

occurs in conversational

joke telling. This is the reason why I have decided not to concentrate on this genre in my thesis.18 For the purposes of my study of stand-up comedy, I will concentrate on oneliners and short jokes or "bits". Both joke forms are

particularly characteristic for the two stand-up comedians, Steven Wright and Jerry Seinfeld, whom I will more closely deal with in the following chapters of my study.

Particularly Steven Wright's performances are made up of very short and often confusing jokes. They cannot even be compared to short stories but rather to traditional oneliners. described Chiaro them (1992:65) as "an dealt with one-liners category and to

extremely

slippery

18

For a detailed analysis of knock-knock jokes see Chiaro (1992) and Alexander (1997).

69

classify because so many examples are indeed 'original' in structure and thus impossible to group together with

others". As their name suggests, one-liners consist of one line as in the example below from Chiaro (1992:66):

A vegetarian is someone who gives peas a chance.

Nash

(1985:38)

would

categorize

this

one-liner

in

his

section "joking definitions and humorous verdicts" which present a syntactic pattern as we can see in the example above. This example consists of a subject which reveals the person to be defined, the copulative verb "(to) be", and the definition of the person in question. Referring to the humor theories, we can apply the incongruity as well as the release theory to this one-liner. We can consider parts of the joke to be incongruous when we take into consideration that "peas" are vegetables. Nevertheless, they are

personalized. The way in which the vegetarian is described and defined leads the readers and the listeners to the comical. But the personalization of the vegetables is only one source of amusement. At first glance, the joke does not seem to be aggressive or hostile towards a certain group of people because it just mentions vegetarians and even puts them in a positive light by presenting "their favorable attitude" towards vegetables. But when we analyze the joke

70

in

detail,

we

become

aware

of

the

fact

that of

the

joke

actually

addresses

two

different

groups

people:

vegetarians and non-vegetarians - even if the latter are not mentioned explicitly. The assertion that a vegetarian is a person who gives peas a chance dramatizes the

situation by implying that non-vegetarians are waging war on vegetables. This exaggeration in form of punning builds the source of humor in this example. The use of figurative language ( implication) allows the speaker to express his aggressive directly feelings addressing towards them. non-vegetarians we can without consider

Therefore,

figurative language to be a further way of expressing power over specific opponents. The following example is taken from Ross (1998:10):

Keep Fit by Jim Nastics

The

humor

in

this a

example type of

derives

from

punning

and that

therefore

involves

linguistic

ambiguity

consists of running words together in spoken language. It results from the similarity of the pronunciation of two words, which is the basis for the humorous comment in the end. Whereas "Jim Nastics" stands for the company name or the name of the person who could help to "keep fit", the stream of sounds forcibly makes 71 us think of the noun

"gymnastics", fitting perfectly in the context of sport, which the slogan is actually all about. Moreover, riddle jokes represent a further form jokes can take. Shultz (in Chapman and Foot 1977:19) defines riddles as a form of humour which is somewhere between problem solving and the appreciation of jokes; it's a problem whose solution evokes a good deal of pleasure and humour. The solution of the riddle generally elicits laughter

through its incongruity. The unexpected and surprising end forces the recipients to figure out the way in which it really makes sense. Often the recipient has to detect

linguistic ambiguity to resolve the incongruous element. This process justifies the categorization of riddles within the incongruity-resolution model. Green and Pepicello (1979) define the riddle as a humorous form that is: (1) based on the question-answer format; (2) potentially solvable from the information included in the question, if the riddlee is able to determine the witty devices for confusion employed in the riddle; (3) solvable by virtue of participation in a cultural system (i.e., shared language, world view, and tropes); and (4) placed in a conventional locus within a particular tradition in a performance context. So a riddle joke consists of a short question and answer exchange between two people. It is important to mention

72

that its purpose is not for the recipient to give the answer. Normally, the answer is provided by the person who asked the riddle unless the recipient has already heard the joke before. Originally, the riddle joke started as a word game which was formulated in rhyme, as shown in an example taken from Geller (1985:71): Riddle me, riddle me riddle me ree, I saw a nut cracker up in a tree. What the riddle describes is a squirrel. It is interesting to analyze the structure of this riddle as far as the repetitive pattern in the first two lines is concerned. The humorist repeats the same term three times before adding the nonsense syllable "ree", which is necessary to complete a regular rhyme scheme. Neither example is funny in the real sense. It is only the wordplay and their strict rhyme schemes which are responsible for the amusement of the readers and the listeners. In the latter example, humor derives from the play on the word "nut cracker" which is used as a it riddle word for at the the solution same time "squirrel". a sort of

Moreover,

represents

absurdity and is thus covered by the incongruity theory. The absurdity can be found in the idea of a "nut cracker" sitting up in a tree.

73

As

far

as

the

focus

of

this

study

is

concerned,

riddles do not occur in stand-up comedy performances in their traditional form. Rather they mainly occur as short stories or jokes about everyday situations revealed in a monologue in front of an audience. When we find riddles, they are no longer formulated in rhyme, but have a

question-answer structure, such as the famous "What's the difference" jokes, which all start in the same formulaic way with the question "What's the difference between X and Y?" The answer is always meant to elicit laughter and

amusement and often consists of a play on words, e.g.

What's the difference between a jeweller and a jailor? One sells watches and the other watches cells.

Here the recipient could never come up with the answer unless he or she already knew the joke. So the opening question does not represent a real question because the joke teller does not expect the recipient to answer. We can state that the joke teller plays two roles in this case. On the one hand, he or she plays the role of the real joke teller who asks the question. On the other hand, he or she also plays a the funny role and of the fictitious answer and recipient thus who

provides

absurd

provokes

74

amusement in the real recipients. In the above example (Chiaro 1992:68/69), humor derives from wordplay. The

author plays with the homophones "cells" and "sells" and "watches" and "watches" in form of a chiasm. We realize in this case that the author makes use of metathesis or sound substitutions Although the in order to achieve between the humorous (3rd effect. person

distinction

"sells"

singular form of the verb "to sell") and "cells" (plural form of the noun "cell") is not noticeable purely through pronunciation, author has we see in the written by context that the one

played

with

language

substituting

consonant for another, yet the sound stays the same. The parallel sentence structure also plays a crucial role

because it emphasizes the chiastic pattern expressed by the transformation of the verb form "sells" into its homophonic plural noun "cells" and the plural noun "watches" into the simple present verb form "watches" in the second part of the sentence. In contrast to the riddles above, the humor is not verbally expressed, but derives from the

phonological identity of the words. Moreover, we can argue again that amusement results at the absurdity of being called upon to consider a commonality between a jailor and a jeweler so that we can apply the incongruity theory to this example.

75

further

example

in

which

humor

is

based

on

linguistic ambiguity could be found in Ross (1998:9): What's black and white and red/read all over? A newspaper. In this example, the adjective "red" is homophonous with the irregular past participle of the verb "to read". This phonological identity is responsible for the humorous

effect of the joke. Again we have to stress that this confusion can only be effective in spoken language since the words are spelled differently and therefore cannot be confused when we read them in a written text. As far as the humor theories are concerned, we can again state that the riddle contains incongruous elements. It would be absurd for an object to be black and white and at the same time red all over. We can also apply Raskin's semantic scriptbased theory when we consider the colors black and white to be opposite scripts. The fact that the humorist assumes that his audience has never heard the riddle before also allows stand-up comedians to work with this type of joke because they do not have to rely on their audience to get the answer. In case some happen to know it and intervene by heckling, the comedian and prove even has the skill chance in to react

immediately

his

performing

spontaneously. We can find an excellent example of this in

76

the analysis of

Seinfeld's performance (l.14-21), which

will be shown in the analytical part of my study. "Question-Answer" jokes must also be mentioned here. Many of them start by asking: "How many men do you need to do ...?" and end with an answer that provokes laughter. Nearly everyone in the English-speaking world knows the light bulb jokes, e.g. How many real men does it take to change a light bulb? None, real men aren't afraid of the dark. This example, which is taken from the Wellington Corpus (DPC014), creates humor through disappointment and can

therefore be explained by the incongruity theory. Because the joke teller begins the question with "How many", the audience expects a specific number even if the question as such expresses nonsense. Moreover, when the joke teller uses the adjective "real" in front of "men", they

necessarily imply that there is also a group of men which can be classified as "unreal men". So just by asking the question, the listeners will first wonder what they mean by "real men" and how and they define them in comparison men" to

"unreal

men",

certainly

what

"unreal

are.

Moreover, the content of the question as such is senseless because we know that it is absolutely no problem to change

77

a light bulb alone. We have all done it a hundred times so that beginning this question with the question marker "How many..." makes no sense at all. The revelation of the

answer contains a surprise effect in that it does not give an explicit answer to the difference between "real men" and "unreal men". Instead, it argues that the previous question was superfluous. This is the reason why even such a

nonsense remark elicits the audience's laughter resulting from "the abrupt collapse of an expectation", as Eastman (1936/2008:94) explains it. A very common way of joking is the usage of certain formulae or catch phrases which allow the recipients to recognize immediately that a joke is about to ensue. Such formulae can consist of repetitive openings such as the following vocatives "Mummy, Mummy..." or "Waiter,

waiter...". They not only have the function of signaling the audience that the author is about to present a new joke but also to address them directly. Most of the vocatives are spoken with a distinctive intonation as a strategy of getting the audience's full attention before starting with the actual joke content. "Mummy, Mummy, can I play with Grandma?" "No dear, already!" you've dug her up twice this week

78

The humor derives in this example from the paradoxical behavior of the child and the mother. Hearing the initial question, the audience cannot foresee how it will go on or whether the question has already provided the basis for the punch line. At first it seems the child has asked a normal question because it is nothing special for children to want to play with their grandparents from time to time. The surprise effect is provided by the absurdity of the

mother's answer. It is absurd enough that the child is accustomed to playing with his dead grandma from time to time, but it is even more absurd that the mother reacts as if this behavior is normal. Another example is "Waiter, waiter, there's a fly in my soup!" "Don't worry sir, there'll be no extra charge!" In this case, the humor stems from the misinterpretation of the waiter who sees the fly as a free addition to the soup and not as a cause for complaint or reason for apology. Again, the audience cannot foresee the waiter's response even if I consider it to be different from the example I cited above. In this case, I can imagine that the audience is anticipating an unusual response on the part of the waiter. Nevertheless, it is not possible to come up with the exact answer without having heard the joke before. Both examples are taken from Chiaro (1992:61).

79

Also, there are opening frames such as "I say, I say, I say..." which is an ancient way of introducing a joke as in the example below taken from Chiaro (1992:61). "I say, I say, I say, my dog has no nose!" "Really! Then how does it smell?" "Awful!" The humor derives here from the misunderstanding of the ambiguous question. Whereas the person who asks the

question is referring to the dog's ability to smell, the dog owner misinterprets his or her question to be referring to the odor of his dog, to how the dog smells to other people. In this section, I also deal with forms of jokes which are not necessarily characteristic of stand-up comedy. This is the reason why I want to focus on the differences

between dialogues and monologues in joke telling in the following section.

80

9 Stand-up Comedy The following section provides a brief, initial overview of the differences between stand-up monologue contrast and

conversational dialogue,

followed by a

between

joke telling in stand-up comedy and conversational joke telling. In further sections, we will have a closer look at joke performance and the central role of the audience in stand-up comedy.

9.1.

Differences

between

Stand-up

Monologue

and

Conversational Dialogue Attardo (2001:62) calls stand-up comedy "a highly

artificial, scripted genre." It represents a genre in which a single comedian comes on stage with a microphone and starts a performance in front of an audience. The

comedian's performance principally consists of a succession of short joking stories and one-liners that are usually presented in a monologue without interruptions by the

audience. In a conversation, however, it is rare that only one person speaks, while all the others listen carefully and let the speaker finish without interrupting. So it is obvious that we may observe various differences between stand-up monologues and conversational dialogues. Whenever people meet, they normally start talking to each other without being careful not to interrupt others.

81

In a lively conversation, it is obvious that all persons try to participate by making brief comments and utterances while another person is talking. They all want to take part in the conversation, which is the reason for simultaneous talk, a phenomenon we will not find in stand-up comedy. The only way in which the audience can participate in stand-up comedy is by heckling. In conversations, however, the

participants play a central role and sometimes respond to the speaker's comments with brief utterances such as

"really", "yeah", "okay" or "mm hmm" in order to signal feedback to the speaker. These utterances indicate that the listeners are following the comments of the speaker. In addition, simultaneous talk can also occur in the form of overlaps, a term which refers to periods during which more than one person talk at the same time. While one speaker is talking, another suddenly interrupts in order to make a comment on what was said before. Another form of simultaneous talk is expressed by coconstructions speakers and joint productions. They indicate that others in order to continue their

interrupt

utterance and to complete them. Sometimes, both speakers even simultaneously utter the same thing. This happens in particular when the second speaker foresees exactly what the first speaker is going to say. The second speaker

82

demonstrates knowledge by interrupting and finishing the first speaker's sentence. A further difference as compared to stand-up

monologues is the process of latching, in which one speaker picks up the last word of a former speaker in order to be able to continue with his own statement. Norrick (2000:23) defines the term by explaining that occasionally a second speaker times a response or comment to fall exactly at the completion point of a word or phrase in the talk of the preceding speaker, so that neither an overlap nor a transitional pause occurs. Latching is typically transcribed using equal signs on

successive lines. An example can be found in the joke "Mary at home (48.12)" taken from the Saarbrcken Corpus of

Spoken English: 17. Mary I'm supposed to work for Professor Harrison 18. grading tests and stuff over Thanksgiving= 19. =but he decided to do them all himself 20. because .. he said that... 21. he's gotten sort of a way 22. of how everybody is doing, you know? The previous section should be considered an introduction to the following, in which I will concentrate on the

differences that we are confronted with when comparing joke telling telling. in stand-up comedy with conversational joke

83

9.2. Differences between Joke Telling in Stand-up Comedy and Conversational Joke Telling Important linguists such as Schegloff (1982), Sacks (1992), and Norrick (1993, 2000), have concentrated on

conversational joke telling in their work and have mainly focused on characteristic features such as simultaneous

talk, overlaps and latches, as I mentioned in the previous section. Although these features do not prevail in stand-up comedy, I consider them important background for my study. Various aspects of these singular features may also be found, with some modification, in stand-up comedy. One

example is the overlapping of the stand-up comedian's punch line and the audience's laughter. In dealing with stand-up comedy, I have particularly concentrated on the characteristic features of monologues in joke telling. Although there are many similarities to linguistic aspects of conversational joke telling, such as repetitive and formulaic structures and the use of various discourse markers and disfluencies, there are also

differences which result from the fact that a stand-up comedian talks to his audience in a monologue. Attardo and Chabanne (1992:171/172) emphasized in their work that

"comic monologues are often difficult to distinguish from jokes from a textual point of view" and that "sometimes they are just a chain of punch lines". They further explain

84

that

"humorous

short

stories

or

tales,

novels,

one-man

shows [...] can be differentiated from mere jokes by their greater complexity and elaboration". The stand-up comedian, whom they call "a specialist of joking" (1992:172), has the exact program in mind and does not rely on the audience, which is the reason that features such as simultaneous talk, overlaps, and latches do not prevail. This is in no way to diminish their importance and the fact that they are some of the most frequent characteristics in conversational joke telling. Simultaneous speech occurs often particularly in conversational joking. When people meet at a party, they often start telling jokes. Sometimes one of the guests already knows the joke and interferes with the joke

teller's performance by making comments such as "Oh I know" or by joining in and telling the punch line simultaneously with the joke teller. As far as the audience's reaction in form of laughter is concerned, often Norrick overlaps (1993:13) with of also in can emphasizes jokes be so that that

laughter

speech

simultaneous

stretches

laughter

recognized.

Especially after the punch line the whole group normally bursts into general laughter in which one tries to outdo the others. This is an interesting observation which can also be applied to stand-up comedy. Although sections of overlapping talk cannot be found in stand-up comedy, we can

85

often

observe

that

the

last

part

of

the

punch

line

coincides with the audience's laughter and thus constitutes an overlap. This is particularly the case when the stand-up comedian has provided a long build-up which makes the

audience foresee how they will continue, or at least that they are about to reveal the punch line in the next step. In addition, dialogues and conversational joke telling often contain numerous characteristic beginnings which help to transition from the previous topic of the conversation. Simple sentences such as "Oh, I remember a joke" or "Hey wait I've got a joke" (Sacks 1992,vol.I:99) can serve to break off from the previous topic and introduce the joking. From this time on, the introduction of one joke can start a chain of further jokes following in response to the first one. Although this is in some respects a strategy that stand-up comedians also use during their programs, we must emphasize the differences. Stand-up comedians do not expect the audience to comment. when They they just want to get the the

recipient's

attention

explicitly

mention

beginning of a new funny story, whereas in conversation, the humorist tries to get a specific reaction from his recipients. In this context, I want to mention the study by Schegloff (1982:82), who mentions story prefaces that tend to characterize the events taken up in the following story, such as the phrase "a funny thing happened...". There is a

86

form

of

introducing

questions

which

can

also

serve

to

interrupt the preceding conversation and draw attention to another topic. A question like "By the way, do you know the joke about...?" may introduce a completely different topic of discussion. These prefaces often call for response from the recipient. This can be a simple response such as "Oh, yes, I know the joke" or "No, come on, tell it." So just prior to the telling of the actual joke, there is a short lead-up. Simple utterances introduced by the list-

initiating markers such as "first of all" or discourse markers, such as "well", serve to continue the conversation and start the joke telling. This is a phenomenon we cannot observe in stand-up comedy in which the audience has the more passive role of being entertained without being

involved. Various linguists have studied as, response forms in

conversational joke telling,

for example,

Schegloff

(1982), who dealt with the use of "Uh huh" and other forms of response between as These sentences. nods as He also mentions response headforms are

gestures

such

further and

(1982:73/74).

utterances

gestures,

which

referred to as "backchannels", indicate that the audience is captive and is carefully following the joke teller's performance. The phenomenon of back channeling is another difference between conversational joke telling and stand-up

87

comedy.

The

stand-up

comedians

try

to

involve

their

audience in a different way. They address them directly and try to keep their attention and earn their appreciation, but they do not wait for their response. As soon as they realize that the audience is not reacting, they have to change their way of performing so as not to lose their attention. They do not have the time to pay attention to individual persons, so that they cannot rely on back

channeling in the same way that a joke teller in a small group does.

9.3. Joke Performance in Stand-up Comedy Koestler (1969), Wilson (1979), Charney (1983), Suls

(1983), Napier (1996), Allen (1998), Greenbaum (1999), and Norrick (2001) represent only a selection of linguists who have worked on aspects of joke performance in their

research. Wilson (1979:2) defines the term "joke" as "any stimulation that evokes amusement and that is experienced as being funny." This definition puts the emphasis on

amusement but does not take into consideration laughter as a response to humor. However, I consider laughter to be even more important because it shows that the audience has understood the joke. Furthermore, it provides a sort of feedback for the comedians and evaluates their performance of the joke. In my opinion, a lack of laughter signifies

88

that the audience did not understand the joke or did not appreciate it. This leads us to the most important aspect of

successful joke telling, which is the way the comedian presents the joke. A successful delivery has to allow the audience to follow the comedian's train of thought, and professional stand-up comedians have to be funny during each and every performance, no matter what emotional state they are in. Comedy in general is a combination of material and performance in which each needs the other in order to be successful. It requires a lot of effort on the part of the stand-up comedians, but the more effort they put into their performance, the better the results. The performance of a joke often heightens the funniness of a joke and encourages the amusement of the recipients, which leads them to laugh. So the performers themselves bear

responsibility for the successful telling of their joke. The stand-up comedians have to step out on stage with all their material in mind and must face an audience they want to impress and present themselves with great confidence. A comedian's personality, point of view, and original style will be essential for the success of the performance and their appeal. Their main task is to perform the joke in a way that keeps the audience on track so that they can enjoy it from the beginning to end. Greenbaum (1999:33) describes

89

stand-up comedy as "an inherently rhetorical discourse", which "strives not only to entertain, but to persuade." She emphasizes that stand-up comedians "can only be successful in their craft when they can convince an audience to look at the world through their comic vision." The performer's delivery has to create an excitement on the part of the recipients. This excitement must rise with each new word so that the teller can captivate his audience. One way of raising the excitement is to make use of paralanguage, such as gestures and various facial expressions instead of

telling the joke monotonously without any animation. The performers must be liked by their audience, otherwise their jokes cannot be effective even if they are delivered well. Thus it is important for the performers to engage with their audience and to stay connected. Moreover, timing is a crucial aspect of successful and effective delivery. Hobbes was dealing with the issue of timing when he spoke of "sudden glory"19 within the

framework of the superiority theory. Similarly, Koestler (1969:51) also stresses the importance of timing. He

emphasizes that "the sudden bisociation of an idea or event with two habitually incompatible matrices will produce a

19

For further details see section 7.2. and Koestler (1969:53).

90

comic effect [...]. Napier (1996:54) describes the art of timing as being able to anticipate the audience reaction to a line [...] and wait to deliver the next laugh [...] until just the right time when the laughter or applause starts to fade [...]. Suls (1983:54) emphasizes that timing must take into

consideration two aspects of humor processing: First, in oral presentation the joke premise must be told in such a way that the listener has enough time to generate an (erroneous) expectation and therefore be surprised by the punch line. Provided with too much time the listener may anticipate the punch line correctly; provided with too little time no expectation will be generated. The emphasis on timing frequently mentioned by comedians suggests this is an important ingredient in producing humor. He states further that timing is also important for the resolution of the incongruity of a joke. It has to occur rapidly, minimal. otherwise These the humorous experience that will remain plays a

remarks

demonstrate

rhythm

central role and the performer has to decide whether to adopt a slow or a fast rhythm for his performance. In any case his style must contribute to his audience's

understanding. According to Norrick (2001:256), the overall tempo of the performance, the ebb and flow of given and new information highlighted by repetition and formulaic phrasing along with

91

rhythms of hesitation and more fluent passages all co-determine timing. Both linguists stress the importance of finding the right moment for delivering the punch line but also for deciding when to continue with the next joke after the audience has laughed. In addition, the use of repetitive structures and

formulaic phrases also relates to successful timing. The comedian has to know when to use hesitation markers and hedges or repetitive structures to build up an effective starting point for his joke. Often the use of formulaicity and repetition creates a specific pattern which contributes to the funniness of the joke. I also observed that the performers use planned pauses as a means of strengthening the comic effect of the joke. They can even increase this comic effect and therefore the audience's reaction, as is often the case in Wright's performance. One of Wright's most frequent strategies is to insert pauses before

revealing the punch line of his joke. Stand-up comedians often make the audience wait for the punch line in order to enhance their reaction. But it is important to choose the correct moment to deliver the punch line, otherwise, the audience could come to a partial or even complete

prediction of the incongruity.

92

Furthermore, it is important to let the audience calm down before starting the next joke performance. This is what I realized when studying Seinfeld and Wright. Although Seinfeld's succession performance of funny is characterized he always by waits a quick the

stories,

for

audience to calm down before starting a new topic. In addition, timing even allows the audience to

participate in the performance in the form of heckling, and it enables the stand-up comedian has to react been as to these by

interruptions. Charney

This

interaction who describes

examined "a

(1983:38),

timing

relation

between the person on stage and the audience." He also emphasizes that the performers have to decide how fast or how slow they want to tell the story in order to ensure the desired effect on their audience. With regard to all these aspects of successful joke telling, I want to emphasize that concentration is one of the most important skills a comedian must have in order to manage timing. No matter what reaction their audience their

shows, they

have

to be able to collaborate with

audience and they are responsible for the moment in which they deliver the most important part of his joke. All in all, I want to conclude that timing is more than just the use of a pause at the correct moment before revealing the punch line of the joke. It already begins in

93

the build-up of the joke when the joke teller has to weigh the use of linguistic aspects, such as repetitions,

formulaic phrases, false and restarts, cut-offs, pauses, and also a variation of his speaking tempo and the change of intonation in order to deliver a successful joke

performance. As briefly mentioned above, the joke teller can also make use of exaggerated intonations. Voice quality plays an important role in verbal humor. The performer must be able to imitate in different order to voices, make even his different regional livelier.

accents,

performance

According to Rutter (1997:234), "the voice is used by the comedian to create a character which they play for the entirety of a narrative sequence." The comedian may also use the voice as a prop for a limited time, as either a "quotation" from a character, or as a caricature by itself. Caricature is a technique in which people are portrayed This therefore by exaggeration can the of their them these occur

characteristics. ridiculous people are and

exaggeration expresses

render that also

fact can

often

disliked.

Caricature

verbally when the joke tellers change their tone of voice and start imitating the particular style of speaking of another person. In both cases, we can argue that caricature fits into the superiority theory because the joke tellers

94

want to express a sort of power and superiority over their inferior opponents. So joke telling in stand-up comedy can be compared with dramatic acting or any other kind of

entertainment. The performers must take on the same tasks that an actor or an entertainer has. Their aim is to tell the joke in a way that amuses their audience. Telling a joke in an entertaining way enables the tellers to increase their appeal to their audience. The performers themselves must observe and analyze

their audience's behavior and only they can decide when to reveal the punch line, as I mentioned in the section about timing. Excellent performers integrate their audience into their performance. wait but This for does not on mean the of that part of they the

compulsively listeners,

responses make

they

can

use

their

slightest

reactions and can select the perfect moment for delivering the last part of his joke. The gift for finding precisely this moment distinguishes a bright comedian from a less successful one. These interactions show that stand-up

comedy can cause a real conversation between the performer and the audience. And the reactions on both sides usually enhance the quality of the performance. As far as the interaction with the audience is concerned, I also want to stress the importance of heckling during the performance. The moment at which someone interrupts the comedian and

95

shouts

something

obliges

the

performers

to

prove

their

spontaneous qualities. The comedians have to demonstrate their ability to respond in a direct and effective way. If the performers are clever enough to respond craftily, they can inspire their audience. As mentioned above, comedy represents a combination of material and performance. Having talked about the

importance of the quality of performance, the material is the second crucial factor in successful stand-up comedy. The comedians have to know what material will cause the audience to burst into laughter and they have to know how to tell their jokes in a quite rapid succession. The

audience always wants to be entertained and does not want to wait for funny moments but demands constant input from the joke teller, which means hard work on the part of the performer. This responsibility and pressure means there is a constant burden on stand-up comedians. Each and every joke has to be as sudden and as pointed as possible so as not to lose the audience's attention, but rather to keep them in a constant state of laughter and amusement. Numerous comedians try to mention various topics in the course of a routine in order to give their audience some references and to enable them to get the joke.

Therefore, most of the best stand-up comedians create humor out of the simplest and most everyday topics, which is

96

another reason why I concentrated on Jerry Seinfeld and Steven Wright. For most of their work they use simple

topics such as phones, cab drivers, private life, airplanes etc., which hardly anyone would ever expect for their

performances. By presenting them in an amusing way, they create humor through the shared knowledge associated with these stories. The art of a good comedian is to find comedy in everything, to find subjects and routines that are

familiar to the audience, to recognize their ridiculousness and to deal with it in a way that is appreciated by the audience. The more experience humorists gain, the more they improve and know how to handle their material and their audience. By understanding how the audience might react, the stand-up comedians can exhibit their ability to control the situation. They can combine their verbal performance with paralanguage in the form of gestures or varying

intonations in order to intensify the comical aspects. Particularly stand-up comedy changes from one time to the next, with each new performance being different from the last one, so that each and every performance represents a new challenge for the comedians. Although the material is scripted and rehearsed, the stand-up comedian's language and performance must be spontaneous. They do not always recite the same lines in the same order, with the same timing, or with the same gestures and intonation. Their job

97

is to entertain their audience, to be able to change their program, and to act spontaneously on stage. They have to find the perfect mixture of planned material and

spontaneous reaction and must also experiment and improvise in order to maintain the interaction with their audience. Allen (1998:194, a 195) stresses the difficulties describing of the

sustaining

high-quality

performance,

situation thus: you can succeed for fifteen minutes and then suddenly, with three weak jokes, a moment of poor timing or a distraction because of some movement on stage, lose command of an audience and be in trouble. He cites Richard Pryor (in Allen 1998:195), who made an interesting comparison when he said: When you're apprehensive and show a little fear and doubt because you're not getting any laughs, man, an audience will eat you alive. They sense fear, and it's like being in confrontation with a wild animal that senses you're afraid. In both cases you're doomed. Greenbaum (1999:34) emphasizes in her work that "comic speech, as it moves from thought to transcript to

performance, is in a constant state of revision, bouncing off the needs and mood of the audience." So the comedians have to be prepared to handle spontaneous incidents before returning to their actual script. The beginning of a joke

98

is the most important moment, so the opening line should be as sharp as possible to get the full attention of the audience and should prepare the audience for fun and

certainly for the opportunity to laugh. If the performers are able to open effectively, they will be able to enhance their audience's laughter from there on out and guarantee their attention throughout his performance. It is obvious that it is hard work for comedians because they can easily lose their audience's attention once they allow them to relax, and it is very difficult to regain it after having lost control over their program. Comedy in general has to develop constantly. Otherwise, it will get boring and the performer will lose the audience immediately. We can all agree on the fact that there is nothing worse than

listening to an old joke for the third time, so the comedy material must be fresh and varied. The performers must be aware of the fact that they have to update their material regularly in order to present inventive, new, and sharp material attention ability so and to that they can attract their audience's "the with

regain

their such

recognition. awkward

Moreover, comes

surmount

moments

experience", as Allen (1998:195) emphasizes in his work.

99

The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.
Mark Twain (American writer and humorist, 1835-1910)

9.4. The Central Role of the Audience Rutter (1997:92) emphasizes the importance of the audience in stand-up comedy by saying that "Like conversation,

stand-up is a 'collaborative production' [...]" and "is made possible by the active involvement of those that make up the interaction." Ross (1998:101) states that "the

'naked' confrontation with an audience makes stand-up more dynamic, but is risky for the performer" at the same time. Stand-up comedy represents a sort of teamwork, a

collaboration between the performers and their audience. Both are dependent on the other and when analyzing stand-up comedy, we become aware that it is mainly the audience that is responsible for the performer's timing. Their reaction in form of laughter or silence shows the joke teller if they have understood the joke or not, and further, if they appreciate it or not. Norrick (2003:1344) describes it

aptly when he says that laughter "ratifies and evaluates the teller's performance." Suls (1972:44) agrees, stating that appreciation of humor requires comprehension of the material and that appreciation should be

100

highest when the material requires a moderate amount of challenge or effort. Appreciation will be low when the joke material is too easy or extremely difficult to understand. Numerous Freud linguists such as Spencer (1922), (in Morreall & 1987), McGhee

(1905/1960),

Eastman

Goldstein

(1972), Chapman & Foot (1977), and Apte (1985) put the focus of their research on laughter in humor. Their work illustrates the diversity of meaning laughter can express. Eastman (1922:4) describes laughter as "a definite

affirmation of hospitality and delight". This definition assumes the audience's acceptance of the joke teller's

humor, an aspect that is also stressed by Kane, Suls and Tedeschi in Chapman & Foot (1977:16), who further state that "laughter can be used as a form of ingratiation (a form of opinion conformity)." Fry (in Chapman & Foot

1977:25) deals with the appeasement function of mirthful laughter and emphasizes in his essay that laughter not only displays appeasement but is actually characterized by a multiplicity of functions. He therefore asserts that

laughter "should be regarded as a node in a complex nexus of impulses and motivation." He also mentions that "a laugh may be a signal of accession 'a laugh of triumph' or of appeasement" and distinguishes it from a smile, which "may express establishment of one's Morreall 1987:99ff.) and Freud dominances". Spencer (in (1905/1960) concentrated

101

their work more on laughter as an expression of a certain kind of "energy". Spencer saw laughter as a means to

channel "surplus energy". Freud refers to Spencer (in Freud 1905/1960:179) and supports his thesis that laughter serves as a discharge of mental excitation when he states that "in laughter [...] the conditions are present under which a sum of psychical energy [...] is allowed free discharge"

(1905/1960:181). All this research indicates that laughter plays a crucial role in humor and thus serves to express a whole variety of feelings within the reaction of the

audience. Giving comedian a good performance audience earn the means hard work wants of for to a be

because If

the they

constantly

entertained.

appreciation

their

listeners, they will generally applaud and laugh. So we can consider laughter a means of classifying the presentation of a joke. The audience can also intervene with laughter. Particularly in stand-up comedy we can observe the audience starting to laugh at the very beginning of the joke or right after the build-up. In this case, we cannot state that laughter serves to evaluate the content of the joke. It rather results from the skillful performance of the joke teller or the fact that the audience has begun to at least partly predict an incongruous punch line.

102

Concerning the end of the joke, it is evident that a joke telling sequence is nearly always completed and

finished by a punch line which serves to conclude the joke and give reason for laughter. But it is obvious that there is not always the same reaction from the audience. Their reaction in form of laughter also depends on the

performance and on their appreciation of the joke. It has to be stressed that the punch line of a joke does not necessarily oblige listeners to laugh. Listeners do have the right to react honestly; delayed laughter or even

relative silence is also a possible reaction to a joke performance. It is also important to stress that each

audience is different. There is no standard audience and therefore no standard style which guarantees that the

performer will be appreciated and achieve success. Each audience responds differently even if the performance is exactly the same. Some may react with weak laughter or no laughter at all, whereas others find the punch line

hilarious and reward their performer with hearty applause. With confirm regard to conversational in stand-up joke telling, has the I can same

that

laughter

comedy

function as laughter in conversation. Sacks (1974) pointed out that laughter is the immediate response to the punch line. A lack of laughter signifies a lack of understanding or appreciation.

103

Schegloff

(1982:73/74)

mentions

in

his

work

on

conversational joking that the recipient can also support the joke teller's performance by making gestures, nods or simple utterances as "mm hmm", or "yeah". These gestures and utterances show that the recipients are interested in listening to the joke and are capable of getting it. Other recipients react honestly by withholding laughter, either having failed to understand the joke or wanting to show the teller their lack of appreciation. Sacks (1974:350)

emphasizes that the recipients can react with no laughter at all in order to "negatively grade the joke or its

telling." Not every joke is considered funny by everyone, so recipients have their lack of amusement at a joke. Although Schegloff and Sacks dealt with laughter in conversational joke telling, I think their observations

about laughter are also true for stand-up comedy. As in conversational joke telling, laughter in stand-up comedy represents a means to attract people to a source of

pleasure. The better the joke tellers perform their jokes, the more they can attract people's attention, cause their amusement, and further, put themselves into the limelight.

104

10 Joke Techniques 10.1. Paralanguage Paralanguage plays a central role in comedy in general and represents a crucial characteristic in stand-up comedy. Apte (1985) puts his emphasis on the verbal performance as the basis for humor and stresses the importance of

paralinguistic elements in humor. Throughout his essay, he supports the thesis that "nonverbal expressive movements, especially gestures, constitute an important element of the key of verbal humor" and emphasizes that gestures are often "essential to convey the nonserious intent of the verbal message" and "can also be exaggerated more readily for visual impact". The revelation of "nonserious intent" by use of gestures can therefore reinforce the incongruity predominant in humor. Further, he states that "gestures are important in humor that depends heavily on performance and acting" (1985:205). These statements reveal that the

quality of the humorists' performance depends not only on the content of the jokes and the stories they reveal. It is far more than just the actual words which contribute to a successful performance. As I have already mentioned in

section 9.3. (Joke Performance in Stand-up Comedy), the comedians need to be aware of the importance of their stage persona and their manner of presenting the show. Therefore, intonation and body language are essential features of a

105

successful performance. We will observe frequent use of paralanguage in the following sections on Seinfeld and

Wright, which is a further reason why I decided to focus on these two comedians and their life performances. Seinfeld has a very active stage persona and often imitates the noises that the characters in his stories make. This

technique serves to enhance the audience's reaction. Wright, however, portrays an extremely passive stage persona. In analyzing his behavior, we have the impression that he does not use paralanguage at all. But upon

examining his performance in further detail, we can come to a different point of view. Wright makes excellent use of paralanguage by incorporating his apathetic style of

performing. Even if he does not imitate characters in the same way Seinfeld does, he has created his own stage

persona and therefore his own style of using paralanguage.

106

Ridicule is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good sense, by attacking everything praiseworthy in human life.
Joseph Addison (English essayist and poet, 1672-1719)

10.2. Ridicule Ridicule and derision are features of the joke telling techniques that display impoliteness and aggressiveness. They are used to overtly reject another person's or group's identity. Speakers often use ridicule to make fun of

someone else or even to insult or attack someone verbally. The ensuing laughter on the recipients' part stresses their agreement excluding and a therefore certain strengthens Berger the intention of

group.

(1993:48)

defines

ridicule as "a

form of direct

verbal attack against a

person, thing, or idea." He further continues by asserting that it is designed to cause contemptuous laughter and humiliation [...] [and] takes a number of forms: deriding, which involves attacking someone with a scornful tone; mocking, which is to imitate another's appearance or actions; and taunting, which is to remind someone of some annoying fact. Wilson (1979:189) states that "the joker derides all or a portion of his audience" in expressing ridicule. He even distinguishes various types of ridicule and also presents

107

"private ridicule", "shared-ridicule" and "self-ridicule" (1979: 189/190). Private ridicule is distinguished by the fact that "the butt of the derision is absent and unlikely to hear of the wit, or dead and buried" (1979:189). This provides an opportunity to express overt hostility towards authority and can therefore even cause a feeling of

solidarity among like-minded people against the person who is the butt of the humor. This definition shows that

private ridicule is directed to real people who are either living or dead, and it is principally used to disparage racial and cultural minorities. Shared ridicule is being used when the jokers deride themselves and their audience at the same time. Freud (1905/1960) addressed shared

ridicule when he argued that Jewish people tend to enjoy telling anti-Semitic jokes and therefore disparage their own ethnic group.20 Self-ridicule is the term used when the jokers only I deride themselves. For the of the purposes of my

analysis, rather

have decided to speak self-ridicule. To me

self-deprecation21 verb "ridicule"

than

carries a very negative connotation and actually is not intended to be funny. But the use of self-deprecation

creates humor by presenting the comedian's own shortcomings

20

For a detailed explanation of ostensibly anti-Semitic Jewish wit see Freud (1905/1960: 36, 55/56, 62/63, 71-73, 84, 92, 95, 133-138, 174). 21 See e.g. Ross (1998:60ff.).

108

with which he wants to amuse the audience. So actually it can be considered a positive source for creating humor which even helps the humorists to express solidarity and make the audience identify with them. By ridiculing someone or something, the speaker wants to express hostility and superiority person or by criticizing in the behavior In of a specific we

group

question.

stand-up

comedy,

principally encounter private and shared ridicule, the aim of which is to focus on a specific person or group by presenting them as ridiculous and silly. But when the

speakers start using themselves as the butt of the joke, I would prefer speaking of self-deprecating humor because they only pursue the aim of exaggerating personal

characteristics or experiences in order to make themselves look funny rather than criticizing themselves or placing themselves at a disadvantage. Self-deprecating humor can only rarely be which found will in be Seinfeld's shown in and detail Wright's in the

performances,

analytical part of my study. Sometimes comedians use selfdeprecating humor to reveal vices or weaknesses that can be generalized for all human beings so that it even tends to turn into shared ridicule. In the sense of the "hostility theories" mentioned in section 7.2., ridicule allows the

109

speaker to display superiority over opponents and "supports existing status and power" (Wilson 1979:212).22

Nevertheless, Wilson stresses that ridicule is a technique which allows the speaker to criticize one's opponents in a "jocular format" (1979:190). He points out the joke's

ambiguous message when he suggests that "the joke content presents serious abuse, while the joke form implies levity and unserious interpretation. Ridicule expresses a double bind. Its form contradicts its content" (1979: 191).

Nevertheless, ridicule is a technique people use daily in their everyday lives. There are many situations in which they react with sarcasm, which is also a form of ridicule. Sarcasm makes use of "cutting, contemptuous, and "biting" remarks, delivered often in a hostile manner" (Berger

1993:49). Berger also stresses that sarcasm is used "as a stance, as an everyday manner of dealing with people." In using it, people often say exactly the opposite of what they mean. It often happens that someone tells a story which is interesting and funny in their opinion, whereas for others, it does not seem to be funny at all. So the normal reaction people show is to respond dryly: "Oh, yes, very funny" without showing any emotion, not even a hint of a smile, and especially without raising the voice. So

22

For a detailed study of hostility theories see Hobbes (1650, 1969), Bergson (1911/1956), Suls (1977), and Gruner (1978).

110

sarcasm mainly serves to make the speaker feel embarrassed and "tends to be a costly kind of humor, unless the sarcasm is directed towards oneself and turned into a victim humor" (Berger 1993:49). The same reaction occurs when speakers make mistakes. This situation immediately provokes ridicule, which leads to general laughter and amusement. Only rarely are such slips of the tongue ignored and treated politely. Normally, speakers and listeners try to Wilson (1979:194) also asserts mock wherever possible.23 that ridicule serves to form of

portray social criticism or persuasion when the speakers want to "humiliate or discredit" their opponent in front of the rest of the audience. In this case, ridicule can even be used in the sense of satire, which means "ridicule of behaviour or attitudes of which the joker disapproves." The main aim of the speakers is to attack their opponents by laughing at them and presenting them as ridiculous. It is obvious that ridicule causes the most amusement when the butt of the joke is not liked or appreciated by the

audience.24 But ridicule is not only an aggressive and impolite technique. Self-deprecation and self-sarcasm are forms of

23

For a detailed analysis of slips of the tongue see Freud (1915, 1991: 50-108). Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. 24 For further information on the audience's reaction to the form and content of derisive jokes, see Table 1 in Wilson (1979:205).

111

ridicule

that

help

to

show

sympathy.

By

telling

embarrassing personal stories, speakers openly admit to not being perfect themselves. They even allow the audience, through their behavior, to make fun of them in turn. This form of ridicule emphasizes that they do not consider

themselves perfect human beings who are only capable of laughing at other people's faults; on the contrary, it emphasizes that they do not take themselves too seriously, and that they are even willing to make fun of themselves. So in this situation, they allow others to profit from their own faults and misbehaviors in order to laugh and to enjoy them at the speaker's expense. Freud (1905/1960)

alludes to the self-ridicule expressed in jokes, citing in his book numerous Jewish jokes in which Jews make fun of themselves and some characteristics of their own ethnic group.25 This use of ridicule is widespread in the stand-up comedy scene and enhances the audience's amusement.

25

For a detailed analysis of self-ridicule in Jewish jokes see Freud (1905/1960) Part A. Analytical Part: p. 36, 55/56, 62/63, 71-73, 84, 92, 95, 133-138, 174.

112

As the purpose of comedy is to correct the vices of men, I see no reason why anyone should be exempt.
Tartuffe, preface (1669) Molire (French comic playwright, 16221673)

10.3. Satire In terms of the humor theories, it is clear that ridicule and satire are closest to Plato's hostility or derision theory (see section 7.2.). Satire is mostly used to make fun of people superior to oneself. According to Berger (1993:49), institutions "satirists or attack specific Koestler individuals (1969:72) or

happenings".

defines

satire as "verbal caricature which distorts characteristic features of an individual or society by exaggeration and simplification." Kane, Suls and Tedeschi (in Chapman & Foot 1977:15) concur with Berger and Koestler by emphasizing that "a satire of may have the purpose of class showing the

absurdity

certain

mannerisms,

privilege,

professional pretensions, institutional rules[...]." They further note that "in face-to-face interactions poking fun at or ridiculing or putting down another person amounts to a refusal to accept the identity projected by the target and the meaning of the social situation that the identity implies." Satire can be considered a subcategory of

ridicule and is thus a further humor technique that can be regularly found in stand-up comedy sessions.

113

10.4. Power, Solidarity and Politeness Power, politeness, and solidarity are social phenomena we are all familiar with in everyday life. With regard to our language we have and our to emphasize that it The the contains a

referential function of

affective language

function. refers to

referential of

conveyance

information, whereas the affective function has to do with the expression of people's feelings and the display of various social relationships. Politeness is a sign of

respect and thus the expression of what people feel for others in apologies, compliments, greetings, or thanks, for example. It is obvious that the rules of politeness differ from one country to another so that "linguistic politeness is culturally determined", as Holmes states in her work (1992:285). Further, she asserts that "different speech communities particular emphasize functions different differently" functions, and express and

(1992:285).

Brown

Levinson (1987) developed a politeness theory with various politeness strategies which are meant to save face for the recipient. Demanding or imposing utterances intrude on a person's autonomy and can therefore be considered "a

potential face-threatening act" (Holmes 1995:5). Brown and Levinson (1987) consider these threats a danger for the communication and speak of a need to make mitigating

statements or some verbal repair in the form of politeness.

114

Politeness, in their opinion, consists of strategies that are adopted by the speakers. One of these strategies is bald on record, in which face-threatening acts occur in unmitigated form (cf. Mills 2003:ch.2). Further, they

analyze the positive politeness strategy, which builds on a positive relationship to the other person and is mainly used when the speakers know their audience quite well. It is concerned with "demonstrating closeness and affiliation (for example, by using compliments)" (Mills 2003:59). It is characterized by more directive speech acts, and even the use of slang expressions or swearing can be considered to be positive politeness. which They also analyze it negative is the

politeness,

expresses

indirectness;

behavior of not wanting to impose on others, and thus it avoids face-threatening respect for acts, as mentioned differences above. and It is

expresses

social

characterized by the fact that the speaker maintains some social distance and and formality Lakoff (by using apologies, states that

mitigation,

hedges).

(2003:514)

"positive and negative politeness strategies are often tied to meanings of solidarity and power" by virtue of the fact that "positive politeness is tied to solidarity (because of its focus on connections) and negative politeness to power (because of its focus on freedom and independence, which a powerful person has more of than a non-powerful person)."

115

The last strategy Brown and Levinson (1987) analyze is offrecord, one that avoids overtly committing face-threatening acts by using indirectness, silence, or ambiguous

utterances. Power, from a linguistic point of view, means that a speaker is both able to control his audience and reach his aims. Politeness and power can be expressed through various linguistic features. Directive speech acts such as orders or commands are mostly realized in the form of imperatives and thus express a form of the speaker's power over the recipients. Indirect speech acts help to express politeness and occur in the form of indirect questions, hedges or the use of modal verbs. Hedges such as "you know", "I think", "sort of", or "of course" help to express politeness.

According to Holmes (1995:87), "you know" can reveal both referential and affective meaning. In its affective

meaning, it is a solidarity marker and thus a positive politeness device. It can be used by the speakers to

attribute understanding and sympathy to their

audience.

Moreover, it can also function as a booster, stressing the mutual knowledge of the participants. In its referential meaning it is used as a hedge and expresses the speaker's uncertainty about a certain topic. "I think" is a negative politeness device and mainly functions as a hedge in order to soften negative utterances and criticism or as an

116

expression of uncertainty. "Sort of" is principally used as a hedge in the function of a solidarity marker and thus expresses positive politeness. In addition, intonation and the tone of voice also play a central role in the

expression of politeness. Lakoff (2004:49/50;

in Holmes

1992:318) calls tag questions a politeness device which can express uncertainty on the one hand, and facilitative or positive politeness on the other hand. Further, tag

questions can be used to soften directives or criticism. In contrast to Brown and Levinson's (1987) rather

form-based approach, Spencer-Oatey (2009) has studied what she terms "face needs" (2000:13) and focuses on an identity perspective that is more action-oriented. For her, face and identity are cognitively similar because both relate to the notion of 'self'-image (cf. Spencer-Oatey 2007:644) and consist of a range of attributes and self-aspects. She refers to Brown and Levinson's (1987) thesis that speech acts are intrinsically face-threatening to either the

hearer or the speaker but reproaches them for ignoring "the dynamic aspect of people's face sensitivities" (2009:137). In her opinion, Brown and Levinson (1987) more strongly emphasize the hearer's face needs and neglect those of the speaker. In her approach, however, Spencer-Oatey (2009:147) considers self-presentation "an important interactional

concern that interrelates with issues of face." In that

117

case speakers not only keep up the face of the hearers by performing positive politeness but also maintain their own face by presenting themselves as respect-worthy persons. It is also important to mention her assertion that during an interaction "people only feel a threat/loss/gain in face when they perceive that an attribute they are claiming is not ascribed to them by others (or vice versa, in the case of negatively-evaluated traits)" (2009:141). As far as the term "face" is concerned, Spencer-Oatey suggests that it should be replaced by "rapport-management" (2000:12)

because face seems to focus on concerns for self, whereas rapport-management expresses a balance between self and the other. For her, face is associated with personal (2000:14, "quality face") and social value value

(2000:14,

"identity face"). The aim of her study is to concentrate on the "management of interpersonal relations" in a way that language is used to "promote, maintain or threaten

harmonious relations" (2000:3). Rapport-management further analyzes maintain the way that language social is used to "construct, and []

and/or

threaten

relationships

includes the management of sociality rights as well as of face" (2000:12). analysis Therefore focuses we can on argue the that Spenceraspect of

Oatey's

more

social

politeness than Brown and Levinson's (1987) does and makes more sense when applied to stand-up comedy. Her focus on an

118

identity perspective can be brought in connection with the creation of a specific stage persona. Stand-up comedy does not aim to showcase an ideal person, but a specific person who creates their identity on stage. This is why the

process of creating a specific stage persona ties in with Spencer-Oatey's concept of identity. Moreover, in contrast to Brown and Levinson(1987),

Spencer-Oatey deals with impoliteness, which can also be found in the material I deal with in the analytical part of my study. Steven Wright does present himself in an impolite way towards his audience when reacting in his apathetic and monotonous way of performing, so that it is important to take it into consideration, too. In conclusion, note that these strategies can also be found in humorous contexts. As far as the humor theories are concerned, we should note that the hostility theory as well as the release theory include power as an essential element. Plato, Aristotle, and Hobbes considered power to be a crucial element in their work when they note that laughter is used to express superiority over opponents.26 Humor also serves as a means to soften the seriousness of a situation and it expresses the feeling of solidarity,

26

For further details see Bergson (1911/1956), Hobbes (in Eastman 1922), Suls (1977), Allen (1987), Gruner (1978), MacHovec (1988), Freud (1905/1960), Fry (1963), Grice (1975), Raskin (1985), Spencer (in Morreall 1987), Norrick (2003).

119

a fact that is also recognized by Holmes (2003:109) when she states that "humour releases tension" and "reaffirms group solidarity". As far as stand-up comedy is concerned, most of the time we can find positive politeness strategies in the form of hedges, hesitation markers, question tags, or modal

verbs. Stand-up comedians want to connect their audience and try to regularly integrate them. They want to express solidarity with them and often work with the "we"-strategy and indirectness in order to mitigate the rudeness of the direct statements and points of view that they want to impose on their audience. Even as they work with hostility strategies opponents, to it express is their superiority that they over specific positive

obvious

choose

politeness strategies to soften the directness and thus the impoliteness. As Seinfeld we will see in the following chapters, Jerry

and

Steven

Wright

manage

rapport

differently.

Steven Wright wants to show the audience that they are able to understand his jokes because they are alike. He wants to convince them that if they understand his jokes, they have passed the test. Jerry Seinfeld, however, does not work in the same way. His stories do not require deep understanding or knowledge. He only tells real-life stories his audience is familiar with. We will see that Jerry Seinfeld obviously

120

has the potential for face-threatening acts according to Brown and Levinson(1987), but nevertheless, he is not rude in the pure sense. The audience always reacts with laughter and applause. Even people he targets might laugh at his jokes, which can even be seen in the section in which he ridicules the cab drivers' or the stewardesses' work.

Often, he then uses implications or shared ridicule to soften the aggression. In frequent conclusion, use of note that stand-up and power comedians during make their

politeness

performances. Often, power and authority do not have to be expressed through directive speech acts, but can also be revealed less explicitly through the use of humor, in

particular through sarcasm and satire. Therefore, we can consider humor to be an interesting and effective

politeness strategy, which on the one hand, can be used to express and maintain power, and on the other hand, can also serve to build solidarity with its recipients by mitigating criticism and negative speech acts.

121

11 The Use of Figurative Language in Stand-up Comedy In this section, I will give a brief overview of how joke tellers, particularly stand-up comedians, use figurative language as a basic strategy for their joking material. On the one hand, the use of figurative language often allows the joke tellers to express their real intention without using direct and offensive language. Wordplay, ambiguous terms, and implication are only some of the techniques which can be used and to express their the power joke over tellers' specific

aggressiveness

therefore

opponents. On the other hand, figurative language can also contribute to shared knowledge. Allusion, for example,

often involves extra-linguistic knowledge that allows the joke tellers to create solidarity with their audience.

Seven days without laughter make one weak.

Joel Goodman (Director of the Humor Project)

11.1. Wordplay, Puns and Ambiguity Wordplay represents one of the most common techniques of making jokes by using the different meanings of a word in an amusing or clever way. This might be the result of what Freud (1905/1960:191) has described in his work as an

"economy in expenditure."

122

Norrick (1993) described the effect of engaging in wordplay as a way to present a general self-image of someone willing to suspend the conversational business at hand for a laugh, of someone attentive to the form of talk and its potential for playful manipulation as well as for communication proper. (1993:60) Indeed, wordplay is a technique that regularly occurs in joke telling. According to Freud (1905/1960:39), the double meaning which arises from the literal and the metaphorical meanings of a word is "one of the most fertile sources for the technique of jokes." It is one of the most common techniques of making jokes by using the different meanings of a word in an amusing or clever way. Ross (1998:7) also emphasizes the importance of the double meaning of a word when he states that "an ambiguity, or double meaning, which deliberately misleads the audience" can be considered "the most obvious feature of much humour." Wordplay can be

performed in various forms, including punning,

sarcasm,

mocking, or banter. Freud (1905/1960:41) provides us with the following example: A doctor, as he came away from a lady's bedside, said to her husband with a shake of his head: 'I don't like her looks.' 'I've not liked her looks for a long time', the husband hastened to agree.'

123

This joke portrays an excellent play

on words

when we

assume that the doctor is of course referring to the lady's condition. The problem is that he expresses his worry about her condition in words the husband can use as a

confirmation of his own marital aversion. This surprise ending points to the incongruity theory in which humor is caused by the conflict between the audience's expectations and the content of what is actually revealed by the punch line of the joke. Schopenhauer also mentioned "a spurious kind of wit, the play upon words, the calembourg, the pun[...]"

(Morreall 1987:54). He goes on to add that "just as the witticism brings two very different real objects under one concept, the pun brings two different concepts, by the assistance of accident, under one word." Gruner (1997:131) differentiates three major types of puns, which are the homograph, the homophone, and the

double-sound pun. He states that the homograph "employs a word or words with two or more meanings." These different meanings are expressed by identical words: Who was the first man to bear arms? Adam. He had two. In this example (Gruner 1997:131), the noun "arms" is used as a pun because in the question it stands for "weapons",

124

whereas in the answer it stands for the "human limbs". In this example, Gruner uses a homonym (a form identical in spelling and pronunciation) of which only one meaning is appropriate to the joke's context so that the other meaning serves to express incongruity.27 Further, he states that the homophone "combines two words of different meanings and spellings but which sound alike" (1997:131). As an example, he uses the following: What is black and white and red (read) all over? A newspaper. A bloody zebra. The example (Gruner 1997:132) has already been explained in detail in section 8.2. It only provides a further possible answer. Whereas the first answer "A newspaper" refers to the meaning of the irregular past participle form of the verb "to read", the second answer "A bloody zebra" refers to the adjective "red". Humor derives here from the

phonological identity of both words. The last type Gruner mentions is the double-sound pun, which is considered to be more complicated because it "can be a word that puns on a pun" (Gruner 1997:132). He provides as an example the word "punnery", which is a pun on "nunnery". It is interesting

27

For further details on puns as an expression of incongruity see Apte (1985).

125

to see that Lederer (1988) used the same ideas in the title of his work Get thee to a punnery, which deals in detail with all sorts of puns and their differentiation.28 Eastman (1922:68) defines a pun as "a verbal

absurdity", whereas Koestler (1969:64/65) provides a more detailed definition when he states that a pun is "the

bisociation of a single phonetic form with two meanings two strings of thought tied together by an acoustic knot." According to Nilsen (2000:238), "the English meaning of pun, which comes from the Italian word puntiglio meaning 'fine point', is the humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound." So we can conclude that puns consist of an intentional confusion of similar words or phrases for a humorous rhetorical effect and have to do with misinterpretation and misunderstanding, and can often display an aggressive effect. Norrick (2003:1348) also

refers to the last-mentioned point of aggression by noting that "punning as a type of word play may function either to amuse or to verbally attack." But normally, puns should enhance rapport and make the talk enjoyable for all the speakers. Nilsen (2000:239) states that "the best puns are those that fit so well into a conversation that they

28

For further details see Lederer (1988).

126

increase the level of understanding for those who catch on without interrupting the conversation's flow for those who miss the point." Often, one pun leads to another and can relax a serious topic so that it develops amusement and enjoyment. An example in which a pun is used to interrupt serious talk, can be found in Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor (1971:160), Some years ago, New York's Third Avenue elevated railway was taken down. Visiting the city some time later to lunch with an editor, I was amazed to note the unaccustomed nakedness of the vista when I faced east. Thoughtfully, I said to my lunch companion, "Third Avenue reminds me of Christmas." Surprised, he said, "Why?" "No el," I said. In this example, the basis for the successful pun that we find in the last line is already laid in the first line when the speaker mentions the "elevated railway". At this point, nobody is conscious of the importance of this

expression. The use of the term "No el" in the last line refers to the first line. It serves as an abbreviation for "No elevated railway", but also for the French word for "Christmas", which is "Nol". This double meaning explains the other person's statement that Third Avenue reminds him of Christmas. According to Alexander (1997:25), "homophones are the source of by far the most widespread puns in English."

127

Homophonic puns are puns that describe the difference in meanings of words which sound identical or similar, but are written in different ways. I want to reiterate importance of metathesis, which I have already dealt with in section 8.2. (Characteristic Forms of Jokes). Examples are: A true adman writes the prose and cons. ( the pros and cons). This example is taken from Brandreth (1982:92), who plays here with the homophones "prose", the term for the ordinary written language and "pros", in the sense of "advantages" as it is regularly used in the expression the "pros and cons". Homophones can also occur in questions, such as When does the baker follow his trade? - Whenever he needs (kneads). This pun plays on the difference in meaning of the

homophonic verb in the third person singular "needs" or "kneads". The example is taken from Nash (1985:138). Freud (1905/1960:50) mentions puns in the section on various joke techniques and asserts that all techniques are characterized by a sort of compression or economy. In this context he mentions the perhaps [...] most numerous group of jokes [...] generally known as 'Kalauer' ('calembourgs')

128

['puns'] and which pass as the lowest form of verbal joke [...]. He continues by emphasizing that it is enough for a pun if the two words expressing the two meanings recall each other by some vague similarity, whether they have a general similarity of structure or a rhyming assonance, or whether they share the same first few letters [...}. In this context ambiguity plays a central role. Ambiguous statements are a common aspect of comedy. Suls (1972:45) points out that "linguistic ambiguity is a common way that humor provides incongruity and potential resolution." It is important not to mistake ambiguous statements for vague statements because there is a certain difference. Vague statements usually confuse the audience, whereas ambiguous statements suggest two or more distinct interpretations. Nilsen (1978:210) stresses the importance of ambiguity for language play as in satire, sarcasm, allusion, simile, and metaphor, and is convinced that they are only possible because the human mind is able to cope with ambiguity. Stand-up comedians tend to use ambiguity during their

performances in order to have their audience rethink their material and slow down their presentation. On the one hand, this method can contribute to a stronger reaction on the part of the audience and on the other hand, it also allows

129

the

performer

to

gain

time

in

order

to

prepare

his

following delivery. An example of ambiguity is: The reporter refused to attend any teachers' meetings. (Nilsen 1978:209) more dull

This sentence can either mean that the teachers are dull or that the meetings are dull. An example of a syntactically ambiguous statement is: When the gong sounded, a woman carrying a monkey and a large elephant entered the ring. (Nilsen 1978:211) Common sense tells us that the woman can only carry the monkey and that the elephant was walking beside her, in front of her or behind her. But on first reading, one could also understand a woman carrying the monkey and the

elephant. Both examples demonstrate that the clash of the two different contexts creates incongruity between them, which is responsible for the humorous effect the sentences have for the audience. To sum up, I want to stress the difference between puns and ambiguity as stated by Attardo (1994:133). He emphasizes that ambiguity alone should be considered to be an essential element for puns, but not as a sufficient condition. It is not sufficient to have two random senses involved in a pun. The importance is established by the

130

opposition of the two senses. They must be semantically incompatible in context.

11.2. Implication and Allusion Implication is crucial for the effect of parody, satire, and sarcasm. It allows us to reveal many things we would not directly say, so it gives us the possibility of

referring to socially sensitive and even taboo topics using indirect language. Allen (1998:36) states that "many jokes involve making a more or less obvious point, but managing not to state the point directly." As far as the recipient's brain is concerned, he stresses that it has to make "the slight connective jump [...] between the last statement of the joke, or exchange, as rendered, and the implicit

meaning of that line." An allusion is "an indirect or passing reference to some event, person, place, or artistic work, the nature and relevance of which is not explained by the writer but relies on the reader's familiarity 1990:6). of an with what is thus

mentioned" emphasizes

(Baldick that by

Freud allusion

(1905/1960:89) "something is

means

suggested that is not said straight out". He describes allusion as "indirect representation" (1905/1960:94) and includes "faulty reasoning", "unification", "indirect

representation", and "representation by the opposite" in

131

this category. He mentions an interesting example which does not portray the resemblance in sound between two

words, but rather between two sentences: "New spas cure well", which alludes to the proverb "New brooms sweep well" (1905/1960:89). Allusion is thus a means of linking to the reader's experience through other texts; Norrick (1989:117)

emphasizes that "in alluding, the performer challenges the audience to recognize the source text" and concludes that, therefore, "intertextual jokes are aggressive toward the audience". Nilsen (1978:213) describes it in detail,

explaining that "before a speaker makes an allusion, he or she presupposes that the listener is familiar with the idea being alluded to and that it will make the listener think of the same concept that the speaker has in mind." Ross (1998:11) emphasizes the fact that allusions "involve

extra-linguistic knowledge, in other words knowledge about the world." He goes on to say that "if the listener does not share the same awareness of this, the ambiguity cannot be recognised." Ross provides an interesting example: Cogito ergo Boom. (Susan Sontag) This example demonstrates that the recipient would have to know Descartes' statement "Cogito ergo sum" in order to

132

understand it and would have to associate "Boom" with a nuclear explosion. So we may conclude that the actual understanding of the humorous text must be preceded by the recognition of the source text so that the recipient is able to fully appreciate the allusion.

11.3. Hyperbole Cuddon (1977:310) defines hyperbole as "a figure of speech which contains an exaggeration for emphasis". As examples, he mentions everyday instances, such as "I haven't seen you for ages", "as old as the hills" and "terrible weather". As these examples demonstrate, hyperboles are not to be taken literally and are not necessarily funny as such, but are often used to increase the funniness expressed in a joke because they completely overstate the situation ridiculed. Therefore, hyperbole is a common feature in stand-up

comedy. It mainly serves to exaggerate familiar situations, to make the audience appreciate the joke telling, and to enhance its laughter. The stand-up comedian often starts relating a rather simple story and then makes it

increasingly funny by telling of overstated situations and occurrences using which always the result stand-up in hearty laughter. render By the

hyperbole,

comedians

situation funnier because they claim more than they have

133

evidence for and can objectively justify. In this context, we can refer to Norrick (1982:172/173), who asserts that overstatements should be semantically interpreted as claims that are higher (or lower) on some scale than warranted. Often the use of overstatements serves to top former punch lines in order to keep In up and steadily 7.1. increase the

audience's

laughter.

section

(Incongruity who claimed

Theories), I dealt with

various

linguists29

that incongruity is an essential condition for humor and laughter. Hyperbole also contains some sort of incongruity in that it expresses a discrepancy between the exaggerated statement and the reality it claims to describe. Norrick (2004:222) compares it with "the simultaneous perception of an object within two contrasting frames of reference or the compatibility with opposed "semantic scripts"; cf. Raskin (1985) and Attardo/Raskin (1991). Norrick (2004:1731)

further provides an illustrative example: <A> ... and Arabella poor Arabella was lame and walked [s] <b> [m] <A> you know slower than a snail so we all had to walk at Arabella's pace30

29

Freud (1905/1960), Willmann (1940), Koestler (1969), Suls (1972, 1977), Shultz (1972, 1976), Nerhardt (1977), McGhee (1979), Raskin (1985), Morreall (1987), MacHovec (1988), Attardo and Chabanne (1992), Attardo (2001). 30 This is only the first part of the example. To see the continuation see Norrick (2004:1732).

134

In this example we realize that the expression "slower than a snail" overstates the slowness of Arabella's pace and compares it to a snail's movement. In accordance to Grice (1975) and Attardo (1994), we could claim that the example above is violating maxim. What the we quantity have is maxim a rather than is the not

quality

speaker

who

violating the truthfulness of the situation, which would fall under the violation of the quality maxim, but one who is only overstating it in order to strengthen and

exaggerate the truth. This means that the speaker does not intend to lie, but rather expresses the girl's actual

slowness in an exaggerated manner. Furthermore, overstatements can also be expressed

through the use of repetition, examples of which can be found in Norrick (1993:91/92, 2004:1734): Greg: your miracle product. your miracle detergent, that was supposed to get the stain out, just ate my shirt away, and I now want the money back for my five hundred dollar silk-shirt. Sandra: five hundred dollars {laughing} Greg: okay, a hundred and fifty. Sandra: okay {laughing}. In this example, Greg completely exaggerates the price of his shirt and Sandra reacts to this overstatement by

repeating it and laughing to express her disbelief and surprise. Greg immediately interprets Sandra's laughter as

135

an objection to his former overstatement and admits that he was exaggerating when he responds with "okay" and corrects his previous statement by drastically lowering the price. In this case, I found it difficult to distinguish between the quality and the quantity maxim because the speaker could theoretically intend to lie and boast about his

expensive shirt. If this had been his real intention, we would have to classify the example as a violation of

Grice's quality maxim. Nevertheless, I dare to claim that he chooses the expression "my five hundred dollar silkshirt" just to overstate, which proves that hyperbole in this sense can be applied to a violation of the quantity maxim and, according to Norrick (1982:169/170), can be

considered to be an "amplificatio", a statement that says more than necessary or justified. In the following, I want to discuss a special case of hyperbole, that being caricature. Freud (1905/1960:258) had already dealt with the importance of caricature in his early works and defined it as the "exaggeration of traits that are not otherwise striking". By isolating and

exaggerating a certain characteristic trait, as for example in a political cartoon, a comic effect is created that makes the recipients amused; cf. Freud (1905/1960), Greig (1923), Mish (1983:208). Berger (1993:26) agrees with Freud here and states that caricature "is one of the most

136

fundamental

techniques

of

humor".

Koestler

(1969:70)

emphasizes that the "caricaturist distorts by exaggerating features which he considers characteristic of his victim's appearance or personality" and provides the example of

General de Gaulle's prominent nose. It is important to note that those caricatures can only be funny if the listener or the spectator knows the person ridiculed because "the

unknown cannot be distorted or misrepresented" (Koestler 1969:71). Berger (1993:26) emphasizes that caricature can also occur verbally, expressed through a change of

intonation on the part of the joke teller. By "capturing and grotesquely imitating his or her particular style of speaking or writing", the joke teller uses exaggeration in order to ridicule the person in question. We can therefore classify caricature as a technique belonging to the

superiority theory because, like ridicule and satire, it is used to express power and superiority over its inferior opponents. As the previous discussion has shown, caricature always contains exaggeration, which justifies treating it as a special case of hyperbole. Although this feature is not funny as such, it is essential for composing a

caricature and therefore adds to the humor expressed by the incongruity of the situation described.

137

12 Linguistic Features of Joke Telling In the following section, I will focus on numerous

linguistic features that are regularly found in stand-up comedy and allow its characterization. This section serves as a preparation for the main part of my study in which I analyze authentic joke telling sessions.

12.1. Repetition Repetition is one of the most frequent techniques we can identify when analyzing jokes. It is mainly used to

determine the rhythm of the joke performance and represents a common research topic for various linguists, such as Bergson (1911) and Freud (1905,1960), Nilsen (1978), Tannen (1989), and Norrick (1993a), who dealt with the importance and the various functions of repetition in jokes.

Repetition is a means to dramatize situations and to make people laugh, which is the reason why it is practiced in many forms of jokes. Humor mainly derives from "the tension created by some kind of a series being established" (Berger 1993:46). Repetition can help to strengthen the rhythmic pattern of a joke telling session. This can be seen in riddles (see section 8.2.) or in knock-knock jokes.31

31

For a detailed analysis of knock-knock jokes see Chiaro (1992) and Alexander (1997).

138

Freud (1905/1960:157/158, 281) also deals importance of repetition in joking and

with the that

mentions

repetition can regularly be found in children's language. Further, he considers repetition to be a standard joke technique, particularly in the situation comedy. Norrick (1993a) deals in particular with repetition in canned jokes and spontaneous conversational joking. He

stresses two important functions of repetition in joking. On the one hand, he mentions the repetition in which words and situations are mechanically reproduced. This repetition serves to poke fun at unusual characteristics and is meant to emphasize the lack of logic in the joke. On the other hand, Norrick also emphasizes the importance of repetition with variation and creativity. By creating new utterances out of the foregoing one or by varying them, the speakers are building up the basis for humor and can create puns by playing with the meaning of the foregoing utterance. Finally, the repetition of syllables as is often seen in slips of the tongue is also a further source of

laughter. The audience immediately reacts to such slips and starts mocking and poking fun at the mispronunciation of a certain word. Norrick (1993:92) mentions the words

"ratatatouille" and "syllablebles" as examples. All these examples demonstrate that repetition is a very effective means for the speaker to "produce fluent

139

speech

while

formulating

what

to

say

next"

(Tannen

1989:48). But it is not only advantageous for the speaker; the listener can also profit from it to the extent that repetition, in general, makes it easier for him to follow the talk because not every word contains new information. I will also deal with repetition in view of stand-up comedy in the analytical profit part from of the my study, because effect stand-up

comedians

humorous

repetition

establishes. They often use repetition of the same bits or even of the punch line either to enhance the audience's reaction or to make sure that the audience has recognized the incongruity expressed by the concluding part of the joke.

12.2. Formulaicity Apart from repetition, formulaicity also plays a central role in joke telling. Wray (2002:93) stresses that

"formulaic discourse markers seem able to support both the speaker's and the hearer's processing simultaneously."

Besides, "they help the speaker to remain focussed [sic], while making the content and the speaker's intentions

easier for the hearer to follow". Apart from that, Wray also emphasizes the fact that formulaicity can help the performers manipulate the audience into a direction they want them to take. For this, the performers can use

140

commands, politeness markers or hedges. They all serve to impose their own point of view on the audience. As I have already mentioned above, formulaicity is important for the joke teller's timing. It provides a means with which the humorists can gain time in order to plan their stresses further that performance. "hesitation, Norrick (2003:1356/1357) and repetition

formulaicity,

help tellers gain planning time, but they also contribute to the overall rhythm of the performance, marking the flow of information and serving as guides fixed a to listeners." of words

Formulaicity which are

describes

relatively during

units

often

repeated

performance.

Special

formulas effect the transition from a joke to a completely new topic. Jokes often start with "Remember the joke

about...", "This reminds me of a joke..." and "Did you hear about...". In this context, we have to mention numerous jokes which have become famous for their formulaic

openings. I want to call the knock-knock jokes, the "What's the difference" riddles and the jokes starting with

vocatives such as "Mummy, Mummy..., Waiter, waiter... and Doctor, doctor..." back to mind. We can also find jokes which deal with certain themes, for example, the elephant jokes or stereotypical as the jokes the

concerning

different

cultures,

such

Irish,

Scottish, the Welsh or the American. This is a form of

141

joking we also indulge in here in Germany when telling ridiculous stories and jokes about the inhabitants of our neighboring countries. I also refer to Freud (1905/1960), who mentioned the Jewish jokes within the framework of his humor study. They also represent a recurrent topic in his work.32 All in all, I want to conclude that formulaicity has a crucial function for joke telling in general. We cannot neglect the fact that a considerable amount of everyday language consists of formulaic expressions and therefore humorists also like to make use of this feature to lend a certain structure to their joke telling performances. As we will see later, Seinfeld and Wright also use formulaicity as a central means of structuring their program and

enabling their audience to follow their performance.

12.3. Disfluencies With regard to stand-up comedians who normally talk freely and have to react spontaneously when their audience

intervenes, it is obvious that they make slips from time to time, or correct with the themselves wrong after they Others have make begun a

sentence

words.

pauses,

32

I mentioned the Jewish joke in connection with self-ridicule in section 10.2. For a detailed analysis of self-ridicule in Jewish jokes see Freud (1905/1960) Part A. Analytical Part: p. 36, 55/56, 62/63, 71-73, 84, 92, 95, 133-138, 174.

142

stutters,

repeat

words,

or

correct

false

start.

Disfluencies generally encourage the audience's attention and participation and contribute to the joke teller's

timing. In the following, I want to explain the various forms of disfluencies in a more detailed manner:

12.3.1. Pauses Pauses describe a period of silence that gives the

performer the opportunity to think of what he or she is going to say next, or during which the audience has time to think about what the speaker has said before. Normally, these pauses occur in the middle of sentences and do not last longer than a second or two. Pauses can be completely silent or they can be filled within vowel sounds and

utterances such as "uh" or "um". Pauses in general can enable during the a recipients stand-up to intervene show. and start heckling Sacks

comedy

Nevertheless,

(1992,vol.II: 498) stresses that pauses do not necessarily mean losing the floor.33 Particularly in stand-up comedy, they are planned that and form one of the as we most will important see in

strategies

humorists

apply,

particular in the section on Wright. He demonstrates his

33

Sacks dealt primarily with conversational joke telling in his study. Nevertheless, I want to emphasize the importance of his studies which can also be partially applied to the study of stand-up comedy.

143

skill in the timing of a joke by using a lot of pauses during his performances in order to keep the audience's attention and amusement at a maximum.

12.3.2. False Starts False starts occur very often during joke telling sessions. The speaker begins his sentence, stops a moment, and then begins again with the same word. Also, the speakers can stop their beginning and choose another word to begin with. In this case, they correct their first beginning and start again with a new term. The following example is taken from the Saarbrcken Corpus of Spoken English (SCoSE, Part 3: Jokes, p.21):

West Virginia
1. Joyce 2. 3. [...] 11. 12. 13. [...] 28. 29. 30. 31. thiswhen people were fleeing out of the South from lynchings they went north because there weren't as many lynchings but anyway this guy washad fallen on hard times and so the voso the guy said "well Lord, I'll go South if thats what you say because I know youll be with me all the way."

In line 1 the joke teller actually wants to start the joke using the demonstrative pronoun "this", but stops and

restarts the sentence using a temporal subordinate clause

144

(l.2). In line 12 and 13 the joke teller interrupts to correct the verb form. In line 28 he cuts his beginning off and restarts in a different way in the following line.

12.4. Discourse Markers Discourse markers describe words that help to relate them to other words or utterances used before. Most researchers stress that to we discourse markers the make it easier for the In

listener general,

understand can use

speaker's

utterances. to

discourse

markers

initiate

discourse, to mark a change in topic, or to stall for some time to think about how to continue as shown in the

following example (Norrick 2000:49):

Poodle
1 Jean: 2 Louise: 3 Jean: 4 5 6 Louise: 7 Jean: 8 9 10 11 Annie: 12 Jean: 13 14 15 16 Louise: 17 Jean: [...] Annie gave me a permanent once, too. Annie did? once and only once. [General laughter] I would never allow her to touch my hair again. well remember the timeyoooh. talk about afro when afro wasn't even in style. my god. well see I started [something.] [frizz ball.] I was a frizz ball. it wasn't even afro. I was just frizz. remember [when-] [it was] terrible.

145

Schiffrin

(1987)

is

one

of

the

linguists

who

particularly focused on discourse markers in her work. The most common ones are, for example, "I mean", "look",

"okay", "oh", "well", "you know", etc. They principally function as a hesitator and a means to gain some planning time when they express the speaker's uncertainty and his search for an appropriate continuation of the preceding talk. Consider the following example (Schiffrin 1987:274):
Zelda: a. I remember when I was...young. b. And em...I'd say like in my earl-it was in my early twenties. c. I was about twenty, d. and I was working then. e. And, y'know, how some of the girls we'd go out for lunch f. and they'd have these eh...they-they read your tea leaves! g. Y'know these tea rooms?

Moreover, they can be used to correct oneself after having made a false start. "Well" and "you know" can also be considered to be positive politeness expressions when the speaker uses them to pretend shared knowledge with his audience. Apart from that, "well" and "you know" can also be used to express general agreement or reinforcement of a previous argument and sometimes serve as an introduction for further explanations or clarifications. Besides "well" and "you know", I also want to mention the discourse markers "so" and "like" even if they do not occur as frequently as the former ones. "So" is mainly used as a transition and emphasizes that an action results from

146

previous

topic.

Moreover,

it

serves

to

sum

up

description of various actions or attitudes about them and can also mark the beginning of a question. "Like" is used to provide an example which clarifies a former aspect, or it can indicate that the speakers are searching for a way to explain what they have in mind and functions thus as a hesitation marker. Among these discourse markers, we can also find

expressions of caution, so-called hedges. They signal the type of relationship the speaker has to the utterance. Examples are "as far as I know", "kind of", "sort of", "I guess", "like" etc., which are often used as a means to express politeness. There are also interjections to be

mentioned. These are small elements often consisting of two or three letters that are inserted in utterances and serve to reveal the speaker's emotions. The most common

interjections are words as "ah", "wow", "ha", etc. Besides the interjections, I just want to mention the attention signals which serve to attract the audience's attention. The most common examples are small words, such as "say", "hey", "yo", etc. As will be shown in the following parts of my study, discourse markers play a central role in joke telling and thus also in stand-up comedy and mainly function as a means to gain time for planning the effective continuation of the

147

performance audience.

or,

as

form

of

direct

address

to

the

12.5. Intonation Intonation describes the way the speaker's voice rises and falls while speaking. Various linguists emphasize the

importance of intonation. Among them, Schiffrin (1987:ix) states that "the impact that a single expression has in conversation may differ depending upon the way in which it is said." In role joke and telling, is intonation also plays for an the

important

largely

responsible

successful performance of a joke. It is important to catch the audience's attention while speaking, and this is not possible talking when the speaker On is the just sitting around of and the

monotonously.

contrary,

one

remarkable features of a good performance is a lively style of speaking that encourages the audience to follow and to participate in the talk. So the comedians have to try to take on the role of an actor when they want to tell a joke successfully. They have to imitate different voices for the various characters and have to emphasize the most

significant words so that the audience is aware of them as words they should pay attention to. A good performance can always grab the audience and is a main condition for the successful delivery of a joke or a story. Although I stress

148

in this section

that

monotonous talk cannot lead to a

successful joke telling, I am aware of exceptions, which I will show on my own when dealing with Steven Wright in the following parts of my thesis.

149

13 Analyzing Verbal Humor in Stand-up Comedy While dealing with stand-up comedy, I decided to focus in particular on Seinfeld's and Wright's performances. To me, they realize the greatest potential of the humorists in stand-up comedy, something which is proven by years of continual success. I decided to study these two comedians because they follow completely different strategies in

performing their material, but nevertheless work in the same comedy field. Seinfeld's interesting personality,

which consists of his resolute appearance on the one hand, and his self-effacing style on the other hand, builds the main foundation of his success. Therefore he manages to appeal to his audience even if the content of his jokes is trivial and actually does not provide any reason for

laughter at all. Seinfeld deals with situations everybody is familiar with so that one might assume that it is rather difficult to engage people's interest. He comes up with topics such as air travel, doctors, or supermarkets, and makes them seem ridiculous or trivial. The problem the listener is confronted with is that the content of the stories does not explicitly reveal funniness and humor in and of itself. What makes the audience appreciate his

performance is the combination of his own style of delivery (use of paralanguage, facial expressions etc.) and his way of dealing with common topics that we all know but would

150

never verbalize. This combination establishes the reason for his long-term success. Seinfeld possesses the ability to tell even long stories compellingly because he can play with intonations in order to achieve and even enhance the humorous effect. The audience always reacts to the stories when he presents the absurdities of the most different situations. Most of the time the audience is surprised when he reveals the punch line, but this moment of

unexpectedness is immediately followed by recognition of the incongruity principally predominant in his punch lines. By choosing such common and familiar situations, Seinfeld includes everybody. His jokes contain aspects of

incongruity and superiority so that pleasure mainly comes from the shared experience of the stand-up comedian and his recipients. successfully Throughout demonstrates his his whole skill performance, in he

responding

spontaneously to actual circumstances such as heckling, and he even encourages the audience to intervene. Wright generates great interest because he stands in stark contrast to Seinfeld, starting with their outer

appearances. Whereas Seinfeld always appears well-dressed like a normal New Yorker and thus stresses the similarity between his on-stage persona and his off-stage persona, Wright even looks weird on stage, and he uses his strange

151

appearance ridiculous. As I

as

another

way

to

render

his

performance

mentioned

above,

the

air

of

determination

represents a crucial aspect for a successful performance, but with Steven Wright I will present an exception which further justifies my interest in his work. Wright convinces his audience with his characteristic style of monotonous performance in which he presents himself in an apathetic manner. Most of the time he stands around passively and lowers his eyes. Sometimes he even turns away from his listeners. But this behavior reflects his stage persona exactly and he plays it in an effective and confident way, which has brought him a high reputation in the comedy

world. Wright also engages in a sort of self-deprecating humor and is able to intensify the humorous effect with his excellent sense of timing. His jokes usually consist of totally bizarre and awkward content, so the recipient will not be able to resolve the incongruity expressed in the nonsense and is therefore left with a sense of absurdity. Wright's apathetic and rather awkward behavior, as well as Seinfeld's determined yet self-effacing style, led me to concentrate on these comedians in order to present a varied picture of verbal humor in stand-up comedy. Before concentrating on various linguistic features, I want to examine the beginning of Wright's performances as

152

compared to Seinfeld's performances. In so doing, I want to explain the different characters and stage personae of both comedians. Even from the start, the recipient can observe differences in the way they perform. The following excerpts are from the introductory scenes of Wright's program I Have a Pony and Seinfeld's program I'm Telling You for the Last Time: Introduction (Wright: I Have a Pony (IHAP))
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Presenter: ladies and gentlemen. please welcome (1.0) from Boston, Massachusetts, Steven Wright. Audience: {applause} Man: okay. Audience: {applause} S.W.: thanks. I used to be a parking attendant in Boston at Logan Airport ..

Introduction (Seinfeld: I'm Telling You for the Last Time)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Presenter: ladies and gentlemen.. Jerry Seinfeld. Audience: {applause} J.S.: [okay.] Audience: [{applause}] J.S.: "good night, good night everybody," Audience: ((laughter)) J.S: <well well well.> (3.0)

Wright's performance I Have a Pony starts in the same way as Seinfeld's program. But whereas Seinfeld visibly enjoys the audience's frenetic reaction at the beginning, Wright stays calm and does not show any movement or facial

153

expression.

First

the

audience

is

confronted

with

presenter who announces the performer. Then we recognize an audience who welcomes the comedian with applause (Wright, l.6). Whereas Seinfeld starts his performance with the word "okay" (Seinfeld, l.4) in order to calm down the audience and to be able to start with the program, in Wright's performance it is a spectator who says the word "okay" (l.7) before the Wright begins for his their that actual performance (l.9). not by This

thanking reaction

audience

applause Wright is

indicates

already

seeking

direct contact with his audience nor intending to respond to any form of heckling. Instead, he starts immediately with his actual program. Whereas Seinfeld continues by

introducing his performance with a triple repetition of the discourse marker "well" (Seinfeld, l.9) and a following pause of three seconds (Seinfeld, l.10), which both serve to convey a sense of calm, Wright immediately begins his program without even the slightest pause or transition. I Still Have a Pony is the follow-up album to the album I Have a Pony and was published in 2007. As I

mentioned at the beginning of my study, it is an audio version of his Comedy Central television special When the Leaves Blow Away (2006) and lasts 42:28 minutes. When we look at the beginning of this program, we notice that it is very similar to the beginning of his first performance.

154

Introduction (Wright: I Still Have a Pony (ISHAP))

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Presenter: good evening. please welcome from Boston Steven Wright. Audience: {applause} S.W.: thanks. Audience: ((laughter)) S.W.: when I was a little kid,

We have a presenter who introduces Steven Wright (l.13) and an audience that welcomes him with applause (l.4). As in the extract analyzed before, Wright first thanks his audience motionlessly (l.5). This apathetic reaction

provokes laughter (l.6) without any real reason. He then immediately starts with a faked story of his own life (l.7 ff.). As far as my analysis is concerned, I will point out that one selected example might be found in different

sections. This is due to the fact that I will deal with the examples specific various in detail of in and will always focus on only deal one with some

aspect aspects

verbal one

humor single

rather

than

section.

Because

examples are rich with humorous strategies, they will be dealt with in different sections.

13.1. Analyzing Verbal Humor in Jerry Seinfeld's I'm Telling You for the Last Time Seinfeld strategies creates which humor he through follows the use of the certain whole

throughout

155

performance. Besides the use of everyday topics and his tendency to address his audience directly, his main

strategy for creating humor is the use of certain joke techniques, particularly ridicule and paralanguage.

Therefore, I will deal with them at the beginning of this section before having a closer look at his use of

linguistic aspects of verbal humor, such as repetition and disfluencies. At the end of this chapter, I will examine more closely Seinfeld's strategy for establishing direct contact with his audience. The final aspect of my analysis will focus on the study of transitions, because Seinfeld follows a strict plan during his performance and links one topic to the next.

13.1.1. Ridicule Seinfeld's performance is mainly characterized by his

frequent use of ridicule, primarily private ridicule and shared ridicule. to This latter the subcategory shared gives him of the his

opportunity

include

knowledge

audience. He presents sections in which his aim is not only to ridicule other people, but also to amuse his audience with self-deprecation and even self-sarcasm. As far as the structure Wilson's of this of section is concerned, private I will follow and

model

distinguishing

ridicule

shared ridicule (Wilson 1979: 189/190). As mentioned in

156

section 10.2. (Ridicule), I will speak of self-deprecation instead of self-ridicule because to me the humorist

principally wants to make himself look silly in order to create a humorous and funny story rather than badly

criticize his own behavior. In the following analysis, I will use the verb "mock" in the sense of making fun of others and thus making them look foolish.

Private Ridicule As we have seen in section 10.2.(Ridicule), private

ridicule is directed towards absent persons. This would argue for the fact that it is a joke technique that allows one to express one's hostile feelings towards people

superior to oneself. Wilson defined private ridicule by stating unlikely that to "the hear butt of of the the wit, derision or is absent and and

dead

buried"

(1979:189). The possibility of expressing hostility towards authorities might lead to the feeling of solidarity among the joke teller and the audience provided that the

recipients share the joke tellers' attitude towards the butt of their joke. As will be shown in the following, Seinfeld uses ridicule to express superiority over the

person or the group of people that are being disparaged. The audience's reaction in the form of laughter and

157

applause

attest

to

their

agreement

and

strengthens

the

power relation expressed by the punch line of the joke. As Seinfeld indicated at the makes beginning use of of this section, in his

frequently

ridicule

performances. In the following, I will focus on selected examples from my research corpus which clearly point out Seinfeld's intention of expressing hostility and

superiority. Consider the following extracts: Cab Drivers

67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 [...] 136 137 138 139 140 141 J.S.: I guess he does this all the time. he's got a license, I can see it right there." I don't even know what it takes to get a cab driver's license. I think all you need is a face. J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: so what's with the cab drivers and the B.O.? ((laughter)) how long are these shifts? ((laughter)) do they ever stop or do they just get in the cab and just drive 'till they're dead? ((laughter)) that's what it's starting to smell like in some of these cars. ((laughter)) you're in the back there and you're going "oh man" and then ((laughs)) they give you that .. they have that cherry stuff ... the cherry "pop-it" on the dash, you know, so you get the cherry B.O., ((laughter)) which is supposed to be some sort of improvement I guess, I don't know, I can't imagine even ... fruit going that long without showering. ((laughter))

Audience: J.S.:

Audience:

158

142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

((laughter)) this seems to be their big qualification. ((laughter)) "that's the law now, no blank heads are allowed to drive cabs." it also helps to have a name with like, eight consonants in a row. ((laughter)) {applause} what - what is that "o" with the line through it? [((laughter))] [what letter is that?] I don't remember that letter in school. ((laughter)) you need a chart of the elements if you wanna report the guy. ((laughter)) "yes officer, his name was Ammal, and then this symbol for boron. ((laughter)) I believe. I had the periodic chart with me at the time, ((laughter)) I'm quite certain it was not manganese."

Seinfeld's entire segment about the cab drivers in New York represents an excellent example of his skill in making fun of a specific group of people and even expressing sarcasm about the group of cab drivers. Although it is possible that some people in the audience belong to the group of cab drivers, I decided to classify this extract as private ridicule because Seinfeld speaks of them as a separate group and includes his audience while making fun of them. Although Seinfeld obviously threatens the cab drivers' face by expressing power and mean humor over them, the audience joins him with laughter and amusement, which demonstrates their solidarity with him. It is interesting to examine the beginning of this segment because Seinfeld starts in medias res without any introduction. He immediately begins with

159

three subsequent questions which already cause the audience to laugh. The audience realizes that Seinfeld is poking fun at the cab driver's work and therefore reacts with

laughter, which reveals their solidarity with him. We can see that the audience even laughs (l.68 and 70) at trivial setup lines which are not actually funny per se (l.67 and 69). Looking at when line he 67, Seinfeld the works here with an and

abbreviation

mentions

"B.O."

(l.67)

continues to use it during his entire performance without using the full words. In general "B.O." is the abbreviation for "body odor", but further examination of this segment reveals that Seinfeld never mentions the words "body" or "odor", but just sticks to the two letters assuming that everybody knows what it means. Instead of giving the full words, he makes the audience aware of the meaning by

choosing words from the field of "odor", as for example "smell" (l.75) and the fragrance of "cherry" (l.82/83, 85). At the beginning, Seinfeld strings some questions together (l.71-73) which serve to prepare his punch line in line 75 when he compares the smell in the cabs with the smell of dead bodies. With this comparison he refers to line 73 and heightens the effect of his previous statement. From line 72 onward, we realize that Seinfeld starts getting more aggressive towards the cab drivers' behavior. The

provocative question (l.72/73) serves to express power over

160

them. With reference to Plato and Aristotle as well as modern researchers such as Suls (1977) and MacHovec (1988), Seinfeld acts in this case in accordance with the hostility theories. Seinfeld points, with the last question and the following aggressive punch side line of (l.75), humor to the he negative uses in and order the to

which

disparage and to humiliate the New York cab drivers. Since the audience continuously laughs (l.68, 70, 74, 76) at Seinfeld's performance, they are apparently joining him in expressing power and superiority (Hobbes 1650/1999,

1651/1985; Gruner 1978; Allen 1987) over the cab drivers who constitute in this case a group that is inferior to the joke teller and his audience. In order to be able to make his audience join him and share his attitude, he uses the strategy of presenting a situation everybody comprehends. He tries to ridicule it even more harshly when he speaks of the "cherry stuff" (l.82) on the dashboard and when he changes variety of B.O. into "cherry B.O." (l.85). He

therefore not only ridicules the group of cab drivers as such, but also the entire situation around them. Seinfeld organizes his performance by accumulating ridiculous

descriptions that, on the one hand, serve to cause general laughter (l.86) and, on the other hand, serve to clarify his intention of expressing superiority over this specific group of people.

161

In line 90 Seinfeld evokes hostility and aggression again by referring to his previous statements from lines 73, 75 and 82 when he says: "fruit going that long without showering." It is interesting to see how Seinfeld uses linguistic features such as hedges (sort of (l.87), I guess (l.87)), and hesitating expressions (I don't know (l.88), I can't imagine (l.89)). They serve his strategy of not being too direct towards his audience but attaching importance to positive politeness and solidarity. This solidarity is

expressed in form of laughter (l.91) in which the audience admits to joining Seinfeld's mockery. In the following, Seinfeld continues with his strategy of ridiculing the cab drivers when he starts speaking of their licenses (l.136 ff.). He reveals his own opinion that ends with a hyperbolic punch line in line 141 and causes the audience to react with real laughter (l.142 and 144). Again Seinfeld displays an aggressive attitude towards the cab drivers. By claiming that "all you need is a face" (l.141), he implies that cab drivers do not have to be intelligent in order to do their job; on the contrary, this hyperbole serves to express that anybody can get the

license without any qualifications at all. In line 143 he refers to line 141 by calling their "face" (l.141) "their big qualification" and (l.143) for doing their job. Both

statements

their

implications

emphasize

Seinfeld's

162

strategy of expressing power and portraying the cab drivers as inferior to him and his audience. They could both be considered impolite and rude, but interpreting the

audience's reaction in the form of laughter, we can assert that they are expressing solidarity that with him and the his same

performance, opinion. In names, the

which

indicates

they

share

following, are

Seinfeld

mocks

the to

cab

drivers' and

which

often

difficult

pronounce

understand, saying: "it also helps to have a name with like, eight consonants in a row" (l.147/148). This

statement is meant to humiliate cab drivers and can be understood as a xenophobic attack in consideration of the fact that he stresses that for the most part foreigners drive these cabs in such an insane way. Nevertheless,

Seinfeld reaps

laughter and applause (l.149/150), which

would confirm Hobbes' point of view within the framework of the hostility theories. Hobbes' thesis is that laughter results when an audience realizes their superiority and it therefore enables them to express power. Seinfeld even

wants to keep his listener's reaction going and continues to stress the stupidity of the cab drivers in line 151. Seinfeld is making fun of the exotic letter in the cab driver's name, letter. He as well as his tops it by own ignorance introducing about the hyperbolic

even

163

statements elements" figure

claiming (l.156) what

the

necessity

of

"chart

of

the to

and the

the

"periodic could

chart" mean.

(l.163) So

out

letter

Seinfeld

completely exaggerates and mocks the drivers when speaking of "boron" (l.160) and "manganese" (l.165). Yet this style of presenting is effective because the audience feels

enthusiastic about his performance and laughs continuously (l.152, 155, 158, 161, 164). The sort of mean humor that Seinfeld presents with this example might be considered dangerous territory. He treats the cab drivers as a separate group, although he has to be prepared for the fact that there are cab drivers among his audience. Yet although he is obviously

threatening the cab drivers' face by expressing power and mean humor towards them, the audience constantly joins him with laughter and amusement, which emphasizes their

solidarity with him and softens his aggressiveness. It is obvious that Seinfeld shows potential for face-threatening acts, but he is not rude in the pure sense. Seinfeld follows the same strategies in another

example of private ridicule taken from the section about the fast food chain McDonald's. McDonald's
1559 1560 eighty jillion, billion zillion, killion tillion is anyone really impressed anymore?

164

1561 1562 1563 1564 1565 1566 1567

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

1568 1569 1570 1571 1572 1573 1574 1575 Audience: 1576 J.S.: 1577 Audience: 1578 J.S.: 1579 1580 1581 1582 1583 1584 1585 1586 1587 1588 1589 1590 Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience:

"oh, 89 billion sold alright, I'll have one. ((laughter)) I'm satisfied." ((weak laughter)) who cares? I would love to meet the chairman of the board of McDonald's, to just say to him, "look, we all get it. okay? you've sold a lot of hamburgers. whatever the hell the number is. ((laughs)) just put a sign "McDonald's - we're doing very well. ((laughter)) we are tired of hearing about every God-damn one of them." ((weak laughter)) what is their ultimate goal, to have cows just surrendering voluntarily or something? ((laughter)) showing up at the door, "we'd like to turn ourselves in, we see the sign. we realize we have very little chance out there. ((laughter)), {beginning applause} we'd like to be a Happy Meal, if that's at all possible. ((laughter)) {applause}

As in the example with the cab drivers, Seinfeld decides to introduce this excerpt by means of questions that make the audience aware of a situation they are all familiar with. In line 1559 he invents the name of numbers which do not exist in order to enhance the irritating behavior of

McDonald's when they count the number of burgers they have sold. This invention of non-existing numbers serves as a possibility to express his aggressiveness and therefore his hostility towards the fast food chain. In line 1560 he asks a question in order to get the audience's attention before

165

he reveals the punch line in the two following lines, by claiming that he will have one burger out of these 89 billion. This punch line is appreciated by the audience and excites their laughter (l.1563) because the audience has realized that Seinfeld is reacting with sarcasm by

mentioning the opposite of what he has said before. At the beginning of the segment, he condemns the silly practice of the fast food chain by making fun of the number of burgers sold, but then he sarcastically agrees to buy one and even reveals Laughter expressed that he feels in satisfied this case (l.1564) from the in the end.

results in his

incongruity completely

own

behavior.

Seinfeld

ridicules McDonald's success story and stresses this by making further gestures with his hand when speaking the words "doing very well" (l.1574), which causes laughter (l.1575). before, As we uses have the already strategy seen of in several passages or even

he

maintaining

enhancing the audience's laughter by delivering a chain of punch lines as in line 1576, when he mentions that

everybody is annoyed with their counting. It is interesting that Seinfeld refers to all people when he uses the pronoun "we" (l.1576). From line 1578 onward, he continues lining up further punch lines which provoke real laughter from audience members who overtly appreciate his performance and therefore voice their solidarity with what he is talking

166

about. This is particularly the case when he continues to mock McDonald's by revealing its goal "to have cows just surrendering voluntarily" (l.1579). Lines 1582 to 1584

serve to extend his mockery when he even personalizes cows by making them say: "we'd like to turn ourselves in, we see the sign. we realize we have very little chance out there." He lines up a series of main clauses which all start with the personal pronoun "we". This is supposed to make clear that Seinfeld intends to include all existing cows. The personalization renders the situation even more ridiculous and causes laughter and even beginning applause, which are both reinforced by his last punch line in lines 1587 and 1588 when the cows even try to choose which meal they want to become after their slaughter. The first two examples demonstrate that Seinfeld

follows the strategy of talking about familiar topics in order to include the audience and make them support his own point of view. It will be shown that he chooses situations we can all comprehend and therefore manages to include the whole audience in his work. An interesting example of private ridicule can also be found in the segment on Horses. In this segment, Seinfeld makes fun of people who bet on horses. But instead of describing their behavior, he puts himself in the horses' position and plays with intonation when imitating speaking

167

horses.

Seinfeld

personalizes

the

horses

and

aims

to

present them in the most ridiculous way possible when he imitates their behavior. During the whole segment, Seinfeld mocks the notion of horse racing and in particular the spectators who have bet on horses. Horses
2079 2080 2081 2082 2083 2084 2085 2086 2087 2088 2089 2090 2091 2092 2093 2094 2095 2096 2097 2098 2099 2100 2101 2102 2103 2104 2105 2106 2107 2108 2109 2110 2111 2112 2113 2114 2115 2116 2117 2118 2119 2120 I mean, are they walking back to the stable afterwards, going "I was third", "I was fifth", "I was ninth." ((laughter)) "you cut me off, watch that." ((laughter)) "I'll kick your ass next time." ((laughter)) I think more likely, they're thinking, ((singing)) "oat bag, [((laughter))] [I get my oat bag now.] oat bag time for me." {applause} I mean, I'm sure the horses have some idea that the jockey is in a hurry. ((laughter)) I mean, he's on him, he's urging him, he's hitting him, "come on, come on", you know, so, "this is important that I get somewhere for this guy .. quick", but they must get to the end and go ((breathing deeply)) "we were just here, ((laughter)) what was the point of that? ((laughter)) this is where we were. ((laughter)) that was the longest possible route you could take to get where you wanted to be. ((laughter)) why don't we just stay here? I would've been first." ((laughter)) {applause}

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience:

168

The fact that he personalizes these animals and imitates their movements adds to the humor. Seinfeld projects human behaviors on horses in order to vividly portray the

bettor's strong desire to see their horse win the race. In so doing, Seinfeld aims to ridicule one specific group of people. In line 2089 he even imitates a singing horse. The audience's laughter and his (l.2091/2092) and end with remarks overlap immediately the audience's applause

(l.2094). After that, Seinfeld provokes further laughter (l.2097) when imitating a jockey and claiming that he is sure that "the horses have some idea that the jockey is in a hurry" (l.2095/2096). He stresses his previous

consideration by lining up three sentences with a parallel structure (l.2098-2100). He then starts speaking from the point of view of a breathless horse and steadily provokes the audience's laughter (l.2108, 2110, 2112, 2116, 2119). Seinfeld achieves a constant build-up of humor in his

remarks. He even imitates how the horse pants (l.2106) and shows its foolishness when it says to the jockey: "we were just here, [...] what was the point of that? [...] this is where we were [...] that was the longest possible route you could take to get where you wanted to be" (l.2107-2115) and concludes with the question: "why don't we just stay here, I would've been first" their (l.2117/2118). appreciation The for audience Seinfeld's

immediately

expresses

169

great

performance

through

laughter

and

applause

(l.2119/2120). By using personalization, he creates humor out of unexpected situations. He makes horses think, speak and sing and not only just eat and run, as we normally imagine their behavior. The whole segment has proved that Seinfeld uses the strategy of projecting human thought

processes on horses in order to mock people who bet on horses and to point out the ridiculousness of such a

situation. To conclude the section on private ridicule, I decided to choose the following extract because it demonstrates that private ridicule In this can also be combined with selfhis

deprecation.

segment,

Seinfeld

expresses

mocking of doctors. I decided to classify this excerpt as private ridicule because, in my opinion, Seinfeld speaks of doctors in general and does not aim at a direct

confrontation with people in the audience who are doctors too. From this point of view, the example can be compared with his segment about the cab drivers I dealt with at the beginning of this section. He just wants to include his audience in making fun of doctors by ridiculing a common situation we can all imagine. Doctors
1244 J.S.: 1245 1246 doctor always wants you to take your pants off, "take your pants off and get in there I'll speak to you with no pants.

170

1247 1248 1249 1250 1251 1252 1253 1254 1255 1256 1257 1258 1259 1260 1261 1262 1263 1264 1265 1266 1267 1268 1269 1270 1271 1272 1273 1274 1275

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience:

((weak laughter)) you take your pants off and then I'll tell you what I think about everything. ((weak laughter)) I speak to no one wearing pants." ((weak laughter)) it's a little psychological leverage for him in any difference of opinion, "pants" always beats "no pants". ((weak laughter)) just once I'd like to say to that doctor "you know what, I'm not ready for you yet, ((weak laughter)) yeah, why don't you go back into your little office, I'll be in it in a minute. and get your pants off too." ((laughter)) {applause} what does he need that little office for? I guess he doesn't want people to see him looking stuff up. "what the hell was that? ((laughter)) Jesus Christ that was kinda gross. ((laughter)) I'm in big trouble here, that wasn't the tube or the circle. ((laughter))

This segment describes the behavior most doctors display to their patients and it ridicules their work through

exaggeration in order to make the audience laugh. Seinfeld makes use of overstatement and satire, a further

subcategory of ridicule, when he directs his attack at these specific individuals.34 Kane, Suls and Tedeschi (in Chapman & Foot 1977:15) state in their studies that "a satire may have the purpose of showing the absurdity of certain mannerisms, class privilege, In professional line 1244

pretensions,
34

institutional

rules[...]."

For further details on the use of satire see Berger (1923), Koestler (1969), Kane, Suls and Tedeschi (in Chapman & Foot 1977).

171

Seinfeld starts mocking the doctors' habit of requiring patients to take their pants off prior to consultation and he imitates a fictitious doctor's ridiculous statement

which finds its punch line in line 1252 when the doctor says: "I speak to no one wearing pants." So Seinfeld

excessively exaggerates by pretending that doctors always want their patients to take their pants off and calls it their "little psychological leverage" (l.1254). With these mocking remarks Seinfeld expresses his aggressiveness and hostility towards them, so that we can classify this joke as being mainly covered by the superiority theory. He tops it when he admits that he would like to take revenge and send a doctor back to his office in order to get his pants off too (l.1258-1264). The whole segment is characterized by the use of numerous audience's its instances interest of and through hyperbole amusement. laughter overtly which The and shows

guarantee audience applause

the shows

appreciation and

(l.1265/1266)

therefore

solidarity with the hostility Seinfeld expresses towards the group of doctors he disparages. Before changing the topic, he profits from his audience's good mood and

enhances their laughter by adding a few senseless punch lines in lines 1268/1269, 1271 and 1273/1274. Taking the whole example into consideration, we have to state that it actually represents a synthesis of private ridicule (as far

172

as the ridicule

of doctors is

concerned) and

of self-

deprecation, because Seinfeld also amuses his audience by rendering himself ridiculous. This leads us to the

following subcategory of ridicule in which I will put the focus on self-deprecation.

Self-deprecation As already mentioned refers to in section joke 10.2.(Ridicule), tellers only self-

deprecation

the

deriding

themselves and wanting their audience to laugh at their own expense. This joking technique can only rarely be found in Seinfeld's performance. At the very beginning of his

performance he provides an example of self-deprecation: Introduction

24 25 26 27 28 29 J.S.: this is the Broadhurst Theater. it's a .. uh, ((clears his throat)) legendary theater, I know .. nothing about it. ((laughter))

Audience:

He starts speaking of the "Broadhurst Theater" (l.24) and starts preparing the funny ending of his talk by speaking of a "legendary theater" (l.27). At this point the audience is not aware of the fact that the line serves as the pivot for the punch line to follow. This becomes evident in the next line when Seinfeld reveals that he knows "nothing about it" (l.28). In this case, Seinfeld provides

173

incongruity

expressed

by

ambiguity,

which

makes

the

audience laugh. On the one hand, he makes fun of the fame of the theater and plays with a contradiction; on the other hand, he mocks himself when he admits that he knows nothing about the theater although it is very famous, even

"legendary" (l.27). This ambiguity draws laughter (l.29). Laughter also results from the surprising punch line the audience further does not expect. the They probably would supposed be coming that but

details

about

theater

instead were disappointed by the abrupt ending. In the following, Seinfeld provides a further example of self-deprecation, when he speaks of his own experience with horseback riding and mocks his own clumsiness when he describes his level as "zero, nothing, whatever the system is" (l.2155). Horses
2155 2156 2157 2158 2159 2160 2161 2162 2163 2164 2165 2166 2167 2168 2169 2170 2171 2172 2173 Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: zero, nothing, whatever the system is. ((laughter)) I can't do it, is that clear enough for you? ((laughter)) I'm going where the horse wants to go, okay? ((laughter)) that's my .. level" ((laughter)) of course, they hear that, they start looking around, "all right, is Glue-Stick back yet? ((laughter)) how about Almost-Dead, why don't you saddle him up?" ((laughter)) so I get on this U-shaped .. lightning-quick steed I got here .. I had the only horse

174

2174 2175 2176 2177 2178 2179 2180 2181 2182 2183 2184 2185 2186

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience:

you could put your feet flat on the ground while you're riding him. ((laughter)) I'm riding the Hammock, here. ((laughter)) looking up at my friends, "I don't feel like we all got the same kind of horse." ((laughter)) it was kind of a secure feeling, I could just kind of walk along with them there, you know. ((laughter))

He reinforces the audience's laughter (l.2156, 2159, 2161, 2163) by continuously presenting himself in a ridiculous way and poking fun at himself (l.2157/2158, 2160, 2162). He then even continues and reveals funny remarks by imitating the guy who asks if "Glue-Stick" (l.2166) is back yet. The horse's name causes laughter (l.2167) because it expresses the possibility that he gets glued at the horse's back so that he cannot fall down any more. He then mentions the name of another horse which is called "Almost-Dead"

(l.2168), which expresses that this horse cannot run any more or at least only very slowly so that the danger of falling off is minimal. Seinfeld then makes fun of himself again when he admits that he got "the only horse you could put your feet flat on the ground while you're riding him" (l.2173-2175). This remark causes the audience's laughter (l.2176), which is increased by his following remark: "I'm riding the Hammock, here" (l.2177). He even humiliates

himself by explaining that his friends had different horses

175

(l.2180/2181). This remark is meant to contribute to the recognition of his complete inability to ride horses and therefore causes laughter again (l.2182). The next lines describe the "secure feeling" (l.2183) he had with his horse, which is an understatement and therefore provokes further laughter (l.2186). Throughout the whole segment, Seinfeld puts the main emphasis on making himself look foolish and making the audience laugh at his expense

particularly with the help of hyperbole. To conclude the section on self-deprecation, I chose the following excerpt taken from the segment Late TV,

because it provides an excellent example in which selfdeprecation tends to turn into shared ridicule. Late TV
1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 I could get into bed and go to sleep right now. ((weak laughter)) but I don't. I don't go to bed, I fight ... sleep, and continue searching for entertainment. ((laughter)) {applause} >"no, I gotta find a car blowing up, somebody naked, I don't care what it is, I gotta fight"< ((laughter)) what is this? go to bed the finger that hits the button on the remote control is the last part of the human body to fall asleep. ((weak laughter)) you're out cold, that finger's still going, it's still looking. ((laughter))

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience:

176

Seinfeld describes his own behavior and underlines that he does not go to sleep but fights and continues "searching for entertainment" (l.1952), which provokes laughter and applause (l.1953/1954) at his own expense. Humor derives in this case from the incongruity shown in the fact that he is tired and wants to go to bed and his contradictory behavior when he forcibly tries to stay awake. In the following lines, he ridicules the situation when he says: "the finger that hits the button on the remote control is the last part of the human body to fall asleep" (l.1961/1962). The

absurdity of not even being able to control his physical movements anymore makes the audience laugh (l.1963).

Seinfeld then pursues his strategy of introducing a chain of punch lines and adds further remarks about his fight when he describes that the "finger's still going, it's still looking" (l.1965/1966), which makes the audience

burst into real laughter. In this example, Seinfeld proves excellently audience that successful their self-deprecation own foibles and makes laugh the at

recognize

themselves. This is already evidence by the very early reaction of the audience in line 1948 even if they first only laugh with restraint. But the following lines make the audience recognize their own foolish behavior and make them react with laughter and applause (l.1953/1954, 1958, 1963, 1967). Seinfeld provokes the audience's recognition of

177

their own foibles by mentioning that "the finger that hits the button on the remote control is the last part of the human body to fall asleep" (l.1961/1962). He decides to speak of the "human body" in general and not just of his. This observation demonstrates the fact that self-

deprecation often tends to turn into shared ridicule, which I will have a closer look at in the following section.

Shared Ridicule According to Wilson (1979), shared ridicule occurs when the jokers deride themselves and their audience at the same time. I focus in this section on examples that ridicule situations we are all familiar with and in which Seinfeld directs his talk to the audience because he wants to

emphasize that they cannot deny that they behave similarly in the situations he is describing. As mentioned in the section before, successful self-deprecation tends to turn into shared ridicule. But the examples chosen in the

following section differ from those in the previous section in that Seinfeld himself is no longer the focus of

attention and therefore does not aim to make only himself look foolish. The first example of shared ridicule is given at the very beginning of his performance when Seinfeld speaks of

178

phones

and

the

absurd

behavior

people

demonstrate

in

dealing with them. Phones

44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 oh the phones, what we have got nuts with the phones, haven't we? we're crazy with the phones. this guy thinks he needs that phone. ((laughter)) >the thing that amuses me the most about the phone machine is the-< how often we call people now, trying to get the machine. ((laughter)) [{beginning applause}] [that's what's happened now with the machine] if it's the person that picks up, then you're ... "oh, uh .. ((laughter)) {applause} I, uh ..., oh I didn't- I didn't think you would be there. ((laughter)) I - I just wanted to leave a message saying: ((laughter)) sorry I missed you". ((laughter))

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience:

From the beginning on, he makes the audience aware of the fact that the frequent use of phones, a topic we are all familiar with, is completely unnecessary. Seinfeld stresses this by introducing his talk with the interjection "oh" (l.44) and a following question which directly addresses the audience (l.45). It is interesting that Seinfeld uses the word "machine" in this context (l.51) and even repeats it a few lines further down (l.54). By speaking of a

"machine" instead of the word "phone", he dramatizes the situation and thus earns the audience's appreciation and

179

enhances their laughter. From line 55 onward, he describes the situation and people's absurd behavior in further

detail and reveals that they are calling someone without really wanting them to respond and in case the person

really picks the phone up, callers are astonished and do not know what to say (l.55/56). Using paralanguage and imitating one such caller in the following lines, he

enhances the funniness of his story so that he may earn the audience's appreciation in form of laughter and applause (l.58/59, 62, 64). In line 65 he finally mocks the caller again when he reveals the punch line, saying: "sorry I missed you", which is a completely unnecessary sentence that is spoken out of surprise that someone has really picked up the phone. This statement causes laughter (l.66). This joke clearly always shows have that to shared ridicule does not and

necessarily

express

hostility

superiority, but may also serve to express social criticism and persuasion. We are all aware of the fact that phones have an important place in our lives and we cannot deny that we often use them without really having an immediate cause. Another example of shared ridicule can be found in the segment on supermarkets. Seinfeld makes fun of the

customer's "ritual" of buying milk. I decided to mention this excerpt in the section on shared ridicule because

180

Seinfeld

not

only

mocks

the

group

of

customers

he

explicitly talks about, but actually mocks all of us and reminds us of our foibles when making our daily purchases. Seinfeld works with hyperbole and wildly exaggerates the customers' uncertainty about whether they have milk or not, and dramatizes this dilemma. He deals with a completely unimportant topic, but because of the fact that we are all familiar with this banal uncertainty, his story becomes stupid and makes the audience join in with laughter. Supermarkets
869 870 871 872 873 874 875 876 877 878 879 880 881 882 883 884 885 886 887 888 889 890 891 892 893 894 895 896 897 898 899 900 901 902 J.S.: milk is a big problem for people on the supermarket. they're never quite sure if they have it, if they need it, they bury it way in the back, in the supermarket. you gotta find it, you gotta back your way through all the displays, "ah, there it is. there is the milk. do we have any milk?" ((weak laughter)) people are never really sure if they have milk. ((weak laughter)) "I think we have milk, we might have milk. I know there's a carton in there, I don't know how much is in it." ((weak laughter)) "well, what should we do?" because you wanna be sure. there's nothing worse than thinking you have milk and not having it. you know, you got the bowl setup, the cereal, the spoon, the napkin, the TV, the newspaper, everything is ready to go. you're gonna lift up the carton and it's too light "ah" ((laughter))

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience:

181

903 904 905 906 907 908 909 910 911 912 913 914 915 916 917

J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience:

{applause} "oh no too light" or sometimes you think you need milk, "hey, we better pick up some milk." like many of you are thinking right now. ((weak laughter)) "you know he's right, maybe we should pick up some milk." ((laughter)) so you'll pick up some milk on the way home. and then you'll discover you already had milk. ((weak laughter)) and now you got way too much milk. ((laughter))

Seinfeld describes the whole preparation for eating a bowl of cereal with milk (l.892-898) and then delivers the punch line by just giving a desperate sigh "ah" (l.901), which clarifies that he has not got any milk anymore. We see that the brief interjection is thoroughly sufficient for

conveying an understanding of the situation to the audience and it thus causes their laughter and applause (l.902/903). Seinfeld verbalizes the whole punch line in lines 904 and 905 before he starts talking about the opposite situation when people think they need milk and so pick some up to be on the safe side (l.906/907). The audience reacts with some weak laughter because they know the situation and Seinfeld continues directly addressing his listeners (l.910,

913/914) and comes to the first punch line in line 914 when he says: "and then you'll discover you already had milk." This remark causes weak laughter, but Seinfeld has not finished yet and adds "and now you got way too much milk"

182

(l.916) in order to explain the opposite problem one can be confronted with when buying milk in the supermarket. This second punch line causes real laughter and allows Seinfeld to profit from the audience's good mood when he keeps

adding even funnier punch lines in order to enhance the laughter. Again we can refer to the incongruity theories. Seinfeld first uses the strategy of making fun of the

situation when people have forgotten to buy milk before he amuses his audience by revealing what happens if they have too much milk and desperately try to cope with that

problem. Seinfeld then begins a new story by claiming that women are curious about men. This introductory line already shows that the following topic will be shared with half of the audience. The following lines (l.1363-1372) serve to introduce his new story and to build up a sort of tension before delivering the punch line. From the beginning on he starts ridiculing men's behavior towards women. Men & Women
1362 1363 1364 1365 1366 1367 1368 1369 1370 1371 1372 1373 J.S.: and I know women are curious about men. women wanna know what men are thinking. I know women are looking at me, right now. and you're wondering "I wonder what goes on in that little brain of his." ((weak laughter)) I could tell you the truth, if you would like to know what men are really thinking. would you like to know? ((laughter))

Audience: J.S.:

Audience:

183

1374 1375 1376 1377 1378 1379 1380 1381 1382 1383 1384 1385 1386 1387 1388 1389 1390 1391 1392 1393 1394 1395 1396 1397 1398 1399 1400 1401 1402 1403 1404 1405 1406 1407 1408 1409 1410 1411 1412 1413 1414 1415 1416 1417 1418 1419 1420 1421 1422 1423 1424 1425 1426 1427 1428 1429 1430 1431 1432

J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

{applause} I will tell you. nothing. ((laughter)) {applause} we're not thinking anything. we're just walking around .. looking around. ((laughter)) this is the only natural inclination of men. ((weak laughter)) we like women. we want women. but that's pretty much as far as we've thought. ((weak laughter)) that's why we're honking car horns, yelling from construction sites, these are the best ideas we've had so far. ((laughter)) we're working on some new programs, but it's not easy when your mind's a blank. ((weak laughter)) honking the car horn to me .., that's the lowest level. this is the last living brain cell, comes up with this one. what is this? he's in the car, she's on the street, "bip bip brrrrrrr." ((laughter, gets even stronger)) {applause} what- what does he think, "well, I guess I made my point." ((laughter)) what is she supposed to do, kick off the heels, start running after the car. ((laughter)) grab on to the bumper. ((weak laughter)) the car comes to a stop, "it's a good thing you honked I had no idea how you felt" ((weak laughter)) why do men do these things? why are they acting these ways? why are men rude, obnoxious, getting drunk, screaming out, peeling out rubber, making kissing noises, why? why? telling awful jokes, why do men behave so badly? I know what you ladies are thinking, "no no, not my guy, I'm working with him, he's coming along." ((laughter)) no he's not.

184

1433 Audience: 1434 J.S.: 1435 Audience:

((laughter)) he's tricking you. ((laughter))

First he tries to get the audience's interest by imitating what they are thinking in line 1367. This remark causes weak laughter (l.1368) because it approaches the audience in an indirect way. Then he makes them more and more

curious about what men are really thinking when he says: "I could tell you the truth, if you would like to know what men are really thinking. would you like to know?" (l.13691372). This final question is already the reason for

laughter and applause (l.1373/1374). We see that Seinfeld decides to use the indirect way of asking his audience and uses several modal verbs (could, would like) with which he expresses positive politeness towards his audience (Lakoff 1973 and Brown and Levinson 1978). By asking this question, Seinfeld does not expect an answer but just wants his

audience to become attentive. Everybody then waits for the answer but Seinfeld first puts another remark in between when he repeats that he will tell them the answer (l.1375). This line does not reveal any new information. But this strategy of exact timing serves, on the one hand, to gain some planning time and, on the other hand, to make the audience more curious about the ensuing punch line which consists of only one word, namely "nothing" (l.1376). This

185

punch line causes laughter and applause although it does not have any content or sense, but the disappointment the audience is feeling, makes them laugh and express their appreciation (l.1377/1378). Seinfeld then adds further

remarks which serve to keep up the audience's amusement (l.1379-1383). During this segment, he ridicules men's

behavior towards women and therefore even mocks himself, particularly when mentioning the method of "honking car horns" (l.1389) and "yelling from construction sites"

(l.1390). He tops it with his statement that "these are the best ideas we've had so far" in line 1391, which causes the audience's laughter. His following remarks serve to enhance the listeners' laughter by emphasizing men's stupidity and calling their minds even "a blank" (l.1394), which reminds us of his mockery of the cab drivers in New York (l.146). Seinfeld's strategy in the next lines (l.1396-1403) is to constantly build the audience's laughter when he describes what he thinks before he honks the car horn. The

introductory lines serve to keep up the audience's interest because they all want to know why men behave in that way. From lines 1427 onward, he puts himself in the women's position by claiming that they are thinking that their men are different because they are working with them (l.14281430). This remark causes laughter which is sustained

because Seinfeld opposes the women's attitude in line 1432

186

and even tops it by claiming that men are tricking them (l.1434). Through these aggressive remarks, he clarifies the power relations. He controls the audience which his performance and therefore expresses superiority over them. The previous examples have that successful affirmed turns the assumption shared

self-deprecation

into

ridicule. In all examples Seinfeld includes himself and indirectly includes the audience when talking about various situations we are all familiar with, as shown in the

example of the phones, the supermarket, and men's behavior towards women. In delivering his material, Seinfeld manages to make us laugh at our own expense because he makes us aware of our own behavior in certain situations. His skill in visualizing it makes us react with laughter.

13.1.2. Intonation and Paralanguage In section 10.1. (Paralanguage), I have referred to Apte (1985), who deals with the verbal performance as the basis for humor and stresses the importance of paralinguistic elements expressive in his research. He considers gestures" "nonverbal to be "an

movements,

especially

important element of the key of verbal humor" (1985:205). As will be shown in the following sections, paralanguage also plays a crucial role in stand-up comedy; Apte states that "gestures are important in humor that depends heavily

187

on

performance

and

acting"

(1985:205).

Throughout

his

entire performance Seinfeld often uses various forms of intonation shifts and body language. The use of

paralanguage helps his audience to visualize aspects of what he is talking about and thus supports the humorous effect of his performance. The following examples display a selection of passages in which Seinfeld employs the

technique of making use of intonation and paralanguage in order to present a lively and varied performance. When talking about phones at the very beginning of his performance, Seinfeld starts making use of intonation

shifts, which can be seen in the following extract: Phones

40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 J.S.: I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often though, because it's hard to ((whispering)) "oh wait, put it on the vibrate only." oh the phones, what we have got nuts with the phones, haven't we? we're crazy with the phones. this guy thinks he needs that phone. ((laughter)) >the thing that amuses me the most about the phone machine is the-< how often we call people now, trying to get the machine. ((laughter)) [{beginning applause}]

Audience: J.S.:

Audience:

Seinfeld holds the audience's attention by shifting his voice in lines 42 and 43 in order not to give a monotonous performance and risk losing the listeners' interest. By whispering, he forces the audience to listen carefully and

188

to

focus

their

attention

on

his

performance.

In

the

following, Seinfeld changes the rhythm of his voice. First he speaks very distinctly when he reveals the information in line 47, before he starts speaking more quickly than the surrounding discourse (l.49) in order to keep his audience interested. He speaks so quickly that it is rather

difficult to get all the constituent words he mentions. But it is precisely this strategy of changing the intonation from a slow delivery to a rapid delivery that provides entertainment. Moreover, this change helps him to emphasize and reveal the content of his joke which serves to attempt social criticism by pointing on the stupidity of the

frequent use of phones. This altering rhythm in combination with a topic we are all aware of is rewarded with laughter (l.52) and applause (l.53). In this case, humor not only derives from Seinfeld's description of the absurdity of the people's behavior, but also from the technique Seinfeld uses in order to enhance the funniness of the joke. When Seinfeld mocks the high security levels at the airport, he also uses a shift of intonation in order to enhance the laughter. One example can be found at the

beginning when he imitates an x-ray machine in lines 199 and 200 in order to keep his audience's interest and

amusement.

189

Air Travel
199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 ((imitates x-ray machine)) rrrr rrrr rrrr. he's looking in the TV set. I I always look in the TV set, I - I cannot make out one object. ((weak laughter)) I don't know what this guy is doing. ((laughter)) it's my own bags, I can't understand one thing: ((laughter)) "what was that?" he's going "what is that, a hairdryer with a scope on it? that looks okay, keep it moving." ((laughter)) "some sort of bowling ball candle? that's fine, just we don't want you to hold up the line, ((laughter)) don't hold up the line." ((laughter))

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience:

Seinfeld describes the security staff's behavior (l.201203) and uses these introductory lines to simulate a

dialogue between the security personnel (l.210-214) when they look at a hairdryer and are surprised at the scope on it (l.212). Nevertheless, they don't check it and let it pass without asking the traveler any questions (l.213/214). His intonation expressing boredom serves to stress the

indifference on the part of the airport staff. Seinfeld exaggerates this attitude in lines 216 to 220 by showing that they actually allow the strangest things, such as a "bowling ball candle" (l.216) to pass without opening the bag. The punch line "we don't want you to hold up the line" (l.218) is repeated in line 220: "don't hold up the line",

190

which allows him to reinforce audience laughing. The last

the effect and is spoken

keep the a very

line

in

monotonous way which stresses the regularity and the sheer force of habit with which the personnel do their work. With regard to the whole segment, I can conclude that Seinfeld regularly modulates his voice in order to enhance the

audience's reaction. Nevertheless, he preserves his serious manner of talking about the topic and does not let the audience influence him with their mood. Through using

hyperbole, Seinfeld expresses his hostile thoughts towards the personnel and therefore constantly reveals power and superiority over them. The audience joins his attitude by showing its appreciation. In line 237 we have an example in which Seinfeld

combines the use of voice shift with body language when he wants to know if the audience is aware of the kinds of faucets he is talking about. He first changes his voice and speaks more quickly than in the surrounding area. As in the example above (Phones), this change of rhythm on the one hand, and the absurdity of his statements ("hey, I got a little water there" (l.239) and "oh, oh, another couple drops" (l.242)) on the other hand, enhance the humor. Air Travel
237 238 J.S.: do you know the ones I mean, when you gotta go

191

239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience:

>"hey, I got a little water there< ((laughter)) {applause} >oh, oh, another couple of drops"< ((laughter)) what- what is it that they think we would do if we could have the faucet? just turn them all on full, run out into the parking lot, laughing, pushing each other >into the bushes?< ((laughter)) "COME ON, THE WATER'S ON, let's go. ((laughter)) {applause} I turned it on full blast" ((laughter)) "you idiot, we're businessmen, we're gonna miss our plane WHO CARES? WATER" ((laughter))

On the DVD we can see that Seinfeld makes use of various facial expressions, even grimaces, in simulating the

travelers' surprising reaction. These forms of nonverbal communication are the reason that the audience appreciates his performance. In the following, he lines up

exaggerations and hypothesis (l.244-248) before switching to a further punch line in line 250: "COME ON, THE WATER'S ON, let's go [...] I turned it on full blast" (l.250, 253). He really cries it out and bombards his listeners with a chain of punch lines (l.255-257): "you idiot, we're

businessmen, we're gonna miss our plane" and "WHO CARES? WATER". During the whole segment, the audience has no

opportunity to calm down and keeps laughing because of Seinfeld's extremely extroverted style. Seinfeld runs over the whole scene making crazy movements and therefore

192

manages

to

keep

them

laughing

through

his

excellent

performance in which he repeatedly changes the rhythm of speaking and the tone of his voice. At the end of this segment, he provides a further example when he talks about the unnecessary equipment in the bathrooms. Air Travel
409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 Audience: J.S.: I mean, is the Wolfman flying [((laughter))] [in there or who'd ..?] on the full moon, just goes ((imitates Wolfman)) "aaarrrrr click click click aaarrrr click click click".

When

Seinfeld

provides

possible

reason

for

the

installation of the used razor blades slots and mentions "the Wolfman by flying" (l.409), the sounds 417) and he emphasizes the the funny the

effect Wolfman

imitating

and

expression the razor

makes,

(l.415,

those

makes

(l.416, 418). The whole passage is an excellent example of Seinfeld's skill in performing and combining verbal humor with non-verbal humor. He knows exactly how to use body language and intonation in order to make the audience

appreciate the show. As a final example of Seinfeld's use of intonation shift and paralanguage, I have chosen an extract from the

193

segment Scuba Diving, in which Seinfeld uses a kind of a song to enhance the laughter. Scuba Diving
1748 1749 1750 1751 1752 1753 1754 1755 1756 1757 1758 1759 1760 1761 1762 1763 1764 1765 I consider myself something of a sportsman... been scuba diving.. another great activity where your main goal is to .. not die. ((laughter)) that's pretty much all I thought about that day, just: ((singing)) "don't die, don't die, don't die, don't die" ((laughter)) >"there's a fish, there's a rock who cares, don't die.< ((singing)) I don't wanna die, don't let me die, let's swim and breathe and live. because living is good and dying ... not as good." ((laughter)) {applause}

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience:

Seinfeld continues, changing the rhythm of his voice and singing more quickly: >"there's a fish, there's a rock who cares, don't die.< [...] I don't wanna die, don't let me die, let's swim and breathe and live. because living is good and dying ... not as good" (l.1757-1763). Seinfeld causes laughter and applause with his presentation. To conclude the whole section, we can sum up that intonation frequent and paralanguage represent makes shift two use of of of the in most his is

techniques As far

Seinfeld as the

performance.

intonation

concerned, this can be proved by listening to the tape. Watching the DVD provides numerous examples showing the point at which Seinfeld uses gestures to reinforce the

194

effect of his story and, particularly, to keep his audience interested. He always endeavors to make eye contact with the audience and to use his hands to support what he is talking about. The combination of intonation change and the use of gestures keeps the performance lively and maintains the audience's proves and attentiveness important acting. and interest. humor are that many The use of on of

gestures

for There

depends examples

performance

Seinfeld's stories that are not funny because of their content but rather his style of performance. Gestures serve to make certain situations more graphic and can therefore render numerous jokes successful.

13.1.3. Repetition Repetition is considered to be one of the most frequent techniques used in joke-telling sessions. Its main aim is to determine the rhythm of the joke performance (cf.

Bergson (1911), Freud (1905/1960), Nilsen (1978), Tannen (1989), Norrick (1993, 1993a)). Repetition serves to

dramatize situations and to cause humor because of "the tension created by some kind of a series being established" (Berger 1983:46). Repetition serves to strengthen the

rhythmic pattern of a joke telling session. Throughout his whole performance, Seinfeld regularly works with the

feature of repetition as a means to keep up the audience's

195

attention and thus their understanding of his jokes. This repetitive structure enhances the humorous effect of his jokes. In the following, Seinfeld uses repetition in form of alliteration and anaphora in order to give his joke a sort of rhythmic pattern. Air Travel
268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: "tuna sandwich, 13 dollars, ((laughter)) that's what we ... tuna's very rare, here. ((laughter)) it's all a tiny world in the airplane, isn't it? there's always that tiny table there, tiny computer, everyone's in a little cramped seat, tiny food, tiny utensils, tiny liquor bottles, tiny bathroom, tiny sink, tiny mirror, tiny faucets. so it's a small problem, gonna be a slight delay, we're gonna be a little late. ((laughter))

Audience:

It is obvious that Seinfeld plays with the repetition of the sound 't' during the whole excerpt. Lines 268, 270, 271 and 274 start with terms that begin with the letter 't'. The following fifteen and lines are pronounced with the without word any

interruption

Seinfeld

plays

"tiny",

repeating it ten times throughout the whole section (l.273, 275, 276, 278-284). This repetitive structure provides a

196

rhythmic pattern for his joke and serves to put all the attention and stress on the small size, to highlight the absurdity and to heighten the ridiculousness of his story. In the last lines, we realize that Seinfeld has stopped repeating the adjective "tiny" and makes use of

semantically related adjectives when he speaks of a "small problem" (l.285), a "slight delay" (l.286) and being a "little late" (l.287). A further example of anaphoric use of repetition can be found in the section about the differences between men and women. I found it an interesting example because it also clarifies Seinfeld's use of parallelism. He not only uses the same beginnings but even uses the same sentence structure for all his remarks. Men & Women
1379 1380 1381 1382 1383 1384 1385 1386 J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: we're not thinking anything. we're just walking around .. looking around. ((laughter)) this is the only natural inclination of men. ((weak laughter)) we like women. we want women.

First he uses a parallel structure "we're not thinking anything. we're just walking around .. looking around"

(l.1379-1381) and takes it up again in lines 1385 and 1386 by saying: "we like women. we want women".

197

After

having

analyzed

selected

data

in

which

repetition is used as a strategy to gain planning time and to give the joke a rhythmic pattern, I want to focus in the last part of this section on repetition used as a means to stress the humorous effect of the joking material. An Seinfeld example can be found the in the segment second in which in

complains

about

thankless

place

sport events. Olympics

1652 J.S.: 1653 1654 1655 1656 1657 1658 1659 1660 1661 1662 1663 1664 1665 1666 1667 1668 1669 1670 1671 1672 1673 1674 "it's a hundredth of a second, what was the difference in the - in the marching, there? what was it?" "well, it was like from now ... from now, n-now, now, n-now, ((laughter)) n-n-now, n, n, eh. ((laughter)) that was it. it's was it, eh, oh" ((laughter)) "I trained, I worked out, I exercised my entire life, I never had a date, I never had a drink, I never had a beer, I was doing push-ups since I was a fetus .. I flew half way around the world, everybody I knew in my whole life was there, the guy shot off the gun and then .. oh" ((laughter)) {applause}

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience:

From line 1652 onward, he continues imitating one of the people who is trying to figure out the reasons why he or she could not win the gold medal but only got the silver medal instead. He cuts off his sentence in line 1653 before

198

he

restarts

by

repeating

his

previous

remark.

He

even

repeats the question in line 1654 before imitating the athlete who is trying to respond beginning with the

discourse marker "well" in line 1655. In lines 1656 and 1658, Seinfeld reveals the punch line in which he makes the athlete stutter and say: "from now, n-now, now, n-now, [...] n-n-now, n, n, eh.". This stuttering shows the

athlete's hesitation when he speaks and makes the audience conclude that he had reacted in a similar way when he had started to run. In line 1658 Seinfeld picks the stuttering up to keep up the audience's laughter (l.1659). Lines 1660 and 1661 confirm the audience's assumption when Seinfeld makes the athlete admit that "that was it" and "it's was it, eh, oh". Both remarks earn the audience's appreciation (l.1662). From line 1663 onward, Seinfeld lines up the athlete's preparation for the competition and falls back upon formulaic structure. Each and every sentence starts with the pronoun "I" (l.1663-1670) and Seinfeld follows a parallel structure, particularly in the sentences from

lines 1666 to 1668, by repeating the word "never" three times in order to increase the dramatic effect of the story he tells us. The audience is impressed by the length of the list of what the athlete has done and not done and this tying structure prompts the audience's appreciation

(l.1673/1674).

199

In conclusion, consider the importance of repetition for humor in general, but in particular for verbal humor as we encounter it in stand-up comedy. The examples have

proved that the comedian can use repetition in order to pursue various the aims. The first of examples I as have a chosen of

emphasize

importance

repetition

means

stalling for planning time. The comedian uses this strategy to protect himself, gaining additional time that allows him to pretend a spontaneous reaction in the following. Apart from this use, the comedian can also repeat words he has used himself when he gives his joke a rhythmic pattern as displayed by the example cited in the second paragraph of this segment. The last example chosen stresses the use of repetition in order to strengthen the humorous effect of the joking material and therefore to enhance the audience's reaction. In the following, I will have a look at a further example in connection with hyperbole.

13.1.4. Hyperbole Throughout his routine, Seinfeld makes use of hyperbole to strengthen the humorous effect of his funny stories, not only through the content but also his performance

techniques. This technique helps him to make sure that most of the audience will get the punch line of his joke. Most of the time he uses hyperbole to overstate a situation all

200

Americans

are

familiar

with.

One

excellent

example

of

hyperbole in connection with repetition used as a means to stress but also to ridicule a situation is taken from the segment in which Seinfeld tells us about his addiction to candy when he was a little child. The use of hyperbole expressed with the help of repetition helps Seinfeld to place the focus on the aspect through which he is trying to get attention and to create humor. In this example,

Seinfeld not only makes the audience laugh by talking about his own childhood, but intends for the audience to remember a similar situation from their childhood. Therefore,

Seinfeld's focus in this example is actually not to present himself as the butt of the joke but to include the audience and to make them aware of this ridiculous behavior shared by all American children at Halloween by using hyperbolic and repetitive structures throughout the whole extract. Halloween
472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 J.S.: one thing I do like of being down there with the old people is that it makes me feel like I'm little again, like a little kid. and when you're a kid, you can eat amazing amounts of food. and that all just candy, that's all I ate when I was a kid. the only thought I had, growing up, was "get (1.0) candy." ((laughter)) that was my only thought in my brain, for the 10 years of human life. just >get candy, get candy, get candy, get candy, get

Audience: J.S.:

201

489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

candy, get candy.< family, friends, school, these were just obstacles in the way of getting more candy. ((laughter)) that's why you had to teach kids not to take candy from strangers if they're playing in a playground. and they can barely understand it. "don't ..." "no candy? from .. strangers? ((weak laughter)) alright. candy, strangers, no candy. alright, because otherwise I'm taking the candy, anywhere I can get it." ((laughter)) there's such candy moron, idiot brains, "if this man has candy >I'm going with him, goodbye, don't care what happens to me. ((laughter)) [get candy, get candy, get candy."]< [((laughter))] "no, don't go, they'll torture you, they'll kidnap you!" "it doesn't matter, he has an 'oh Henry', I have to take that chance. ((laughter)) get candy, get candy, get candy." so the first time you hear the concept of Halloween, when you're a kid, remember the first time you even heard about it, it's like .. your brain can't even ... "what is this? ((laughter)) who's giving out candy, someone's giving out candy? ((laughter)) who - who is giving out this candy? everyone that we know is [((laughter))] [just giving out candy?]

From the beginning on, Seinfeld overstates the situation in pointing out his strong desire to "get candy" (l.482, 484), which makes the audience laugh "the" (l.485). or my By "only and by constantly thought" calling

repeating (l.481,

the

expressions and "get

486)

candy"

(l.488),

202

"family,

friends,

school"

(l.489)

"obstacles"

(l.490),

Seinfeld totally exaggerates and adds to the humor of his description. Up to that point, Seinfeld makes the audience profit from his own silly behavior. In the following lines (l.492-503), he laughs at the fear all parents have, which is that their children might be approached by strangers and he mocks this situation by giving the advice "that's why you had to teach kids not to take candy from strangers if they are playing in the playground" (l.492-494). These

lines now serve to direct ridicule at the parents, which expresses hostility and superiority over them. The

following lines serve to emphasize his mocking when he describes how he had decided not to listen to his parents by saying "if this man has candy >I'm going with him, goodbye, don't care what happens to me [...] get candy, get candy, get candy"< (l.506-510). This remark brings laughter from the audience and stresses Seinfeld's absurd desire to get candy at all costs, no matter how dangerous it might be to accompany strangers. In lines 512 and 513, Seinfeld shifts from his own point of view to that of the parents and overstates the situation by imitating a desperate

mother or father who is trying to prevent their child from going with a stranger. But when he starts imitating the child in lines 514 to 516, he ridicules the situation and makes the audience laugh (l.517). Throughout the whole

203

segment, Seinfeld uses hyperbole to vastly overstate the situation and go beyond the anticipated exaggeration. Thus he uses himself as an example of a situation every American is familiar with. By exaggerating a child's strong will to get candy, he ridicules the compulsion to have a big bag full of candy at all costs. Seinfeld uses the sentence "to get candy" to generalize a situation familiar to all

Americans and uses hyperbole to shed light on a well-known fact. During the whole excerpt, Seinfeld demonstrates that repetition can be used to exaggerate a situation. In almost every line, he repeats the word candy (l.479, 484, 488, 490, 493, 497, 501/502, 505/506, 510, 518, 525/526, 528, 531). The frequent use of the term emphasizes the funniness and the absurdity of his story in which he incessantly stresses that he is addicted to it and tries to get it at all costs. Sometimes he uses the term even twice in one line, as in line 501. Moreover, he pronounces the term "get candy" very quickly in order to express the nervousness of the child and repeats it six times in line 488, and three times in lines 510 and 518. In lines 525 to 531 we see that Seinfeld not only repeats the term "candy", but whole

structures, such as "who is giving out candy" or "giving out candy" (l.525/526, 528, 531). In the following lines, Seinfeld speaks of

embarrassing situations, for example when the rubber band

204

breaks and snaps away; he imitates the child as he or she is desperately trying to fix it so that he can continue collecting candy.
570 571 572 573 574 575 576 you go to your first house "trick or -snap- it broke, ((laughter)) I don't believe it". "wait up, I gotta fix it, you guys. come on. wait up".

Audience: J.S.:

Seinfeld changes his voice and expresses, on the one hand, the child's panic and, on the other hand, the fear that the mask will not be repaired by the time the door is opened. By exaggerating the child's hectic behavior, he ridicules a common lines:
644 645 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 653 654 655 656 657 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 665 666 667 668 you're trying to breathe through that, remember that little hole, it gets all sweaty in there, ((laughter)) ((imitates very deep breath)) ((laughter)) and the mask starts slicing into your eyeballs, "I can't see, I can't breathe, but you gotta get the candy, let's keep going." ((laughter)) about a half-hour into it, you take that mask, "oh, the HELL with it" ((laughter)) ((imitates doorbell)) "bing bong", "it's me, gimme the candy" ((laughter)) {applause} "I'm Superman, look at the pant legs, ((laughter)) whatta hell is the difference"

phenomenon,

which

he

enhances

in

the

following

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

205

669 670 671 672 673 674 675 676 677 678 679 680

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience:

((laughter)) {applause} remember those last few Halloweens, getting a little too old for it. ((laughter)) just kind of going through the motions. ((laughter)) "bing bong", "come on lady, let's go. Halloween, doorbells, candy, let's pick up the pace in there." ((laughter))

Seinfeld reveals his skill in performing by imitating deep breathing (l.648), running over the whole stage, and adding the final touch by imitating a child who says: "I can't see, I can't breathe, but you gotta get the candy, let's keep going" (l.651-654). In the next lines, he expresses the disgusted behavior of a child who cannot bear the mask any more and decides to throw it off with the words: "oh, the HELL with it" (l.658). Seinfeld pronounces the word 'hell' with heavy stress to emphasize the child's disgust and describes the child's further attempt to get candy even without wearing a mask (l.661-680). The audience seems to be enthusiastic with his performance and keeps laughing and applauding all the time (l.659, 664/665, 667, 669/670, 673, 675, 680). By imitating deep breath (l.648) and the sound of a doorbell (l.660/661), Seinfeld gets the audience to visualize the situation and therefore strengthens the

funniness. During the whole segment, Seinfeld profits again from his audience's shared knowledge. Everybody is familiar with the situation as such, so that Seinfeld can fully

206

concentrate on his ridiculous performance of his material. In analyzing this segment, we can recognize that Seinfeld not only invents material to make the audience laugh. I am convinced that he is remembering a real situation he has perhaps experienced himself when he talks about the child who cannot bear his mask any more. The creates following humor when by he example making speaks proves use of of again shared that Seinfeld and about

knowledge

hyperbole

people's

uncertainty

whether they have milk or not. He totally exaggerates the situation when people buy milk although they still have some at home, and ridicules it by describing the way they try to make use of the milk afterwards before its

expiration date. Supermarkets

913 914 915 916 917 918 919 920 921 922 923 924 925 926 927 928 929 930 931 932 933 J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: so you'll pick up some milk on the way home. and then you'll discover you already had milk. ((weak laughter)) and now you got way too much milk. ((laughter)) that's no good either, now it's a race against the clock with the expiration date. ((laughter)) that freaky thing. now you're eating giant punch bowls of cereal, three meals a day. ((laughter)) you're washing your face with milk. ((laughter)) bringing cats in from all over the neighborhood, ["hurry up and drink it] [((laughter))] come on, it's almost time" ((laughter)) how do they know that that is the definite exact day?

207

934 935 936 937 938 939 940 941 942 943 944 945 946 947 948 949 950 951 952 953 954 955 956 957 958 959 960 961 962 963 964 965 966 967 968 969 970

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience:

you know, they don't say "it's in the vicinity", "give or take", "roughly" (1.0) they brand it right into the side of the carton ((imitates hot-branding)) -sssss((laughter)) "that's your God-damn day right there, ((laughter)) oh don't screw with us. ((laughter)) we know what day is the FINAL day and then it is so over ..." ((laughter)) ever had milk the day after the day? scares the hell outta you, doesn't it? ((laughter)) {applause} the spoon is trembling as it comes out of the bowl, "it's after the day, ((laughter)) I don't know what the hell I'm doing here, I don't know why I'm doing this, ((laughter)) I smelled it, you smell it, what is it supposed to smell like? I never smelled milk" ((laughter)) maybe the cows tip them off when they're milking them "July 3rd." ((laughter)) {applause}

In line 919 he dramatizes the circumstances by speaking of "a race against the clock with the expiration date." Such an absurd remark causes laughter and Seinfeld tries to put himself in the customer's position and repeatedly

exaggerates when he looks for various options for consuming the milk as quickly as possible. He proposes eating "giant punch bowls of cereal, three meals a day" (l.922/923) or says that "you're washing your face with milk" (l.925) or

208

that

you

try

to

bring

"cats

in

from

all

over

the

neighborhood" (l.927) and beg them in panic: "hurry up and drink it [...] come on, it's almost time" (l.928,930). Seinfeld knows exactly that this bombarding of punch lines, which serves to express totally absurd ways of dealing with a trivial problem, will enhance the audience's reaction. Before he goes on to a new topic, Seinfeld adds a

discussion of how suppliers determine the expiration day and tries to explain the difficulty of doing this with absurd remarks (l.935-939). His strategy in the next lines is to let loose a chain of one-liners that make the

audience laugh continuously. In line 950 Seinfeld asks a question but immediately delivers the answer himself by exaggerating so extremely that the audience reacts with laughter and applause (l.952/953). In order to keep up the audience's amusement, he invents a story and finally mocks customers again when he speaks from the point of view of a spoon in a bowl of cereals which comes out frightened and says: "it's after the day, [...] I don't know what the hell I'm doing here, I don't know why I'm doing this, [...], I smelled it, you smell it, what is it supposed to smell like? I never smelled milk" (l.956, 958/959, 961-964). The audience continuously reacts with laughter, and when

Seinfeld finally suggests that perhaps the cows determine

209

the date when they give the milk (l.966-968), it culminates in a burst of even more laughter and applause (l.969/970). As mentioned in section 11.3. (Hyperbole), I treat caricature as a special case of hyperbole and want to

present an example in which Seinfeld uses hyperbole in order to caricature various people. He mainly follows the strategy of playing with his voice and of using different intonation patterns in order to exaggerate specific

characteristics of people. A few examples show Seinfeld's use of paralanguage when overstating the people's behavior. In these cases, he uses specific gestures or facial

expressions in order to stress the grotesque and ludicrous behavior of the people who are the butt of the joke. The exaggeration of certain gestures serves to substantiate the content of his story and to make the audience aware of what he is talking about. Therefore, it serves to increase their laughter. Whenever the joke teller is imitating another person, I put these parts in quotation marks in order to stress that he has changed his voice. The following example demonstrates Seinfeld's use of hyperbole in order to express power and superiority over the persons in question. Air Travel
324 325 J.S.: then the stewardess has to come out, put on her little show ..

210

326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience:

with the emergency equipment, this whole performance ((weak laughter)) that they go through. you know, one of them is behind the curtain, reading the script, and the other one comes out front and acts it out, ((weak laughter)) you know. ((singing)) "we have seat-belts, oxygen masks and things for you to use." ((laughter)) they show you how to use a seat-belt, in case you haven't been in a car since 1965. ((laughter))

Continue to mock the tiresome tasks on board, Seinfeld makes fun of the stewardesses' work and overstates it

ironically as "her little show" (l.325) and "this whole performance" (l.327). He mocks their behavior when he

describes that "one of them is behind the curtain, reading the script" (l.330/331), whereas "the other one comes out front and acts it out" (l.332/333). His strategy is to present them as ridiculous by interpreting their work as a sort of theater or entertainment. Seinfeld decides here to introduce a part in which he sings. This decision might result from the audience's hesitant reaction, which is

proved by the weak laughter in line 334. So his recognition of the weak laughter may have caused him to change his program in order not to bore his listeners. That is why he starts performing which in a different up the style mood when he starts the

singing,

brightens

and

enhances

ridiculous effect of his presentation. Watching the DVD, we 211

can

see

that

Seinfeld

enhances

the

audience's

reaction

through his strategy of using paralanguage. He even dances while imitating what the stewardess says. By singing, he makes fun of the stewardess's meticulous way of explaining the security measures on board (l.337/338), which causes real laughter in the audience (l.339). Seinfeld immediately reacts to their behavior by making a funny explanation about why they show their passengers how to use a seat-belt (l.340/341). This explanation is meant to keep the audience attentive and consequently laughing (l.342) and serves to mock the stewardesses as well as the passengers at the same time. As the previous examples have shown, hyperbole is one of the most essential joking techniques because it allows the humorist to convey a message and to render familiar stories ridiculous. It must to be stressed that hyperbole in itself is not funny. For example, Seinfeld's hyperbolic phrase "now it's a race against is not the funny clock in with the but

expiration

date."

(l.919)

itself,

becomes amusing in its context which overstates the truth. It is more the humorist's clever performance in connection with figurative language that reminds listeners of their own experience and therefore allows them to see the humor in numerous situations. In caricature, hyperbole does not necessarily express hostile and aggressive thoughts about a

212

specific group of people but can also be used to enhance the humorous content of a story by overstating certain specific traits of the persons in question. An important observation is that imitation has the greatest success if the situation ridiculed is familiar to the audience.

Whenever Seinfeld speaks about persons or situations which are very familiar to the audience and represent a sort of collective humor, he gets the strongest reactions resulting from the shared experience.

13.1.5. Wordplay and Punning Wordplay and punning represent two techniques of verbal humor that have attracted the interest of many researchers over the several decades (cf. Freud (1905/1960), Eastman (1922), Koestler (1969), Asimov (1971), Nilsen (1978,

2000), Brandreth (1982), Nash (1985), Norrick (1993, 2003), Alexander (1997), Gruner (1997), Ross (1998)). Wordplay and punning are two techniques Seinfeld repeatedly makes use of. Freud asserted stems that the the double and meaning the in these

techniques

from

literal

metaphorical

meanings of a word and represents "one of the most fertile sources for the technique of jokes" (1905/1960:39). The two meanings mainly serve to heighten the ridiculous effect of the situation and therefore earn the audience's

appreciation in the form of laughter and applause.

213

In the following, I first want to mention wordplay in the sense that Seinfeld feigns misunderstanding or

misinterpretation of certain words. After that, I want to focus on punning in the sense of playing on the meaning of a certain word. In my opinion, the most excellent example of wordplay is represented in the segment in which Seinfeld tells the audience that one of his friends will have a nose job next week. Because I consider it the best example of wordplay in his entire performance, I want to cite the whole segment in detail. Doctors
1276 1277 1278 1279 1280 1281 1282 1283 1284 1285 1286 1287 1288 1289 1290 1291 1292 1293 1294 1295 1296 1297 1298 1299 1300 1301 1302 1303 J.S.: Audience: J.S.: a friend of mine is going in for a nose job ... next week. guy. ((laughter)) rhinoplasty, that's what they call it. you've heard that term. rhinoplasty. rhino. ((laughter)) is that necessary? ((weak laughter)) the person, obviously, is aware there's a problem. ((laughter)) they made the appointment. ((laughter)) do we really need to compare them to a God-damn rhinoceros, ((laughter)) for Christ's sake? when you go in for a hair transplant, they don't say "we're going to perform a cueball-ectomy [((laughter))] [on you, Mr. Johnson.] we feel that the chrome-domia has advanced, ((weak laughter)) to a point that we call skin-headia. ((laughter))

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience:

214

1304 J.S.: 1305 1306 Audience:

these are technical terms, you don't really need to bother yourself with. ((laughter))

The audience is in such a good mood they even laugh before Seinfeld has said anything further, but they can imagine that his following story will be funny, so they have to laugh even before they get the actual joke (l.1279). In line 1280 Seinfeld uses the term "rhinoplasty" and starts playing with this word, or more precisely with the parts of the word. He wants to make the audience aware of the fact that he is thinking of a "rhino" in the sense of a

"rhinoceros" when he repeats it twice in line 1283 and 1284. This allusion makes the audience laugh (l.1285) and Seinfeld even tops it by asking seriously: "is that

necessary? [...] the person, obviously, is aware there's a problem. [...] they made an appointment" (l.1286-1290). In this situation, Seinfeld controls the audience's reaction and constantly gets them to laugh by feigning complete misinterpretation. He wants to enhance it with each and every following line and is successful because the audience reacts with continuously building laughter (l.1287, 1289, 1291). Lines 1292 and 1294 serve to give the whole story the final touch when he is beside himself with rage and says: "do we really need to compare them to a God-damn rhinoceros [...] for Christ's sake?" Although it is the

215

first time that Seinfeld explicitly mentions the comparison with a rhinoceros, the audience has known before what he intended to express. But nevertheless, they react with

laughter again (l.1293). In the following, he continues to express indignation over the situation by using the example of a hair transplant. He thoroughly exaggerates the issues he has just addressed by asking his audience to imagine the hair transplant professional referring to his procedure as "cueball-ectomy" (l.1297) and to the patient's condition as "chrome-domia" (l.1300) and "skin-headia" (l.1302). With these creatively invented terms, Seinfeld wants to allude to the fact that the patient has to have a hair transplant done because he is bald and thus resembles a skinhead, and that his head looks like a cueball, that his scalp is as shiny as chromes. These allusions and the serious tone with which he speaks prompt the audience's laughter (l.1303). Another example of wordplay in which Seinfeld pretends to misunderstand and misinterpret a term is taken from the segment about Horses. Horses
2216 2217 2218 2219 2220 2221 2222 2223 2224 2225 J.S.: Audience: J.S.: get out of a car that has 300 horsepower to sit on an animal that has one. ((laughter)) why why do we use the term horsepower? is that also to insult the horse? the space-shuttle rocket boosters, each one ... has 20 million horsepower. why are we still comparing it with the horse? ((weak laughter)) any chance we're gonna get back to using horses,

Audience: J.S.:

216

2226 2227 2228 2229 2230 2231 2232 2233 2234 2235

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience:

((weak laughter)) for rockets, trying to keep track of how many we're going to need? ((weak laughter)) "hey horse, the rocket engine just broke down, can you get 20 million friends together really fast?" ((laughter)) "20 million, that's a lot." ((laughs)) ((laughter))

Seinfeld (l.2216).

starts He

playing "why

with why

the do

term we

"horsepower" use the term

asks:

horsepower?" (l.2219) after having cut off the question word first and restarted the question. What follows is Seinfeld's strategy of enhancing the audience's laughter through his pretense of misunderstanding and his subsequent stupid comments. This example demonstrates that Seinfeld uses the same strategies throughout his entire performance. In the first example mentioned in this section, Seinfeld uses the same strategy. He asks if this term is used "to insult the horse?" (l.2220) and mentions the "space-shuttle rocket boosters" (l.2221) and their horsepower. All these comments only result in weak laughter (l.2224, 2226, 2229) except the one in lines 2230/2231 when he talks directly to a horse saying: "hey horse, the rocket engine just broke down, can you get 20 million friends together really fast?" and then even imitates the horse responding: "20 million, that's a lot" (l.2233). Seinfeld starts laughing at himself (l.2234) before the audience joins in (l.2235). Humor in this joke derives from Seinfeld's 217 strategy of feigning

misunderstanding as well as from the absurdity that is responsible for the incongruity expressed in the content of this joke. The incongruity lies in his suggestion that real horses be used to replace a damaged rocket engine. The following extracts provide examples of punning and play on the different meanings of a word. The first example is taken from the section Men & Women, in which Seinfeld mocks marriages. Men & Women
1307 1308 1309 1310 1311 1312 1313 1314 1315 J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: I, uh, I'm not married, I am a single guy, there's .. no other guys attached to me. ((laughter)) I've always been just the one guy. ((laughter)) I was best man at a wedding, one time, that was pretty good. I thought it was a little .. too much in the title, there. "best man". I think we ought to have the groom, and a pretty good man. ((laughter)) I mean, if I'm the best man, why is she marrying him? ((laughter)) {beginning applause}

1316 1317 1318 1319 Audience: 1320 J.S.: 1321 1322 Audience: 1323

At the beginning of his joke Seinfeld gives his audience information about his private life and tells them that he is a single guy. Up to that point, nothing funny has

happened. Nevertheless, his following line serves as the first punch line. He starts feigning misunderstanding and justifying what he has said before, adding "there's .. no other guys attached to me" (l.1309) and "I've always been

218

just the one guy" (l.1311). By revealing these punch lines, the audience becomes aware of the fact that Seinfeld is playing on the word "single" (l.1308). Seinfeld makes use of two different meanings of this adjective: "unmarried" on the one hand, and "unitary" on the other. In line 1311, it is obvious that he wants to refer to the meaning of

"single" by explaining that he is just "the one guy". In the following, he continues revealing more personal information when he tells the audience that he "was best man at a wedding, one time" (l.1313). This remark is

already the build-up for his following punch line and it even contains the pivot term, which is in this case the term "best man". He plays with the expression by

emphasizing that "it was a little .. too much in the title, there" (l.1315) and by repeating the term in line 1316. The audience immediately realizes that Seinfeld is taking the adjective 'best' literally, ignoring the usual meaning of the compound noun "best man" who, at the wedding, is the man who acts as an attendant to the bridegroom. This

pretense of misunderstanding is proved by the following punch line in which he mentions that it would have been sufficient "to have the groom, and a pretty good man"

(l.1317/1318). In order to enhance the audience's laughter, he adds a further punch line by asking the "obvious"

question: "I mean, if I'm the best man, why is she marrying

219

him?" (l.1320/1321), which ends in laughter and beginning applause (l.1322/1323) because he further feigns his

complete misunderstanding of the term. To conclude this section, I want to emphasize that Seinfeld varies the use of wordplay and punning throughout the whole performance. Some examples provide classical use of punning, as shown in the previous example. There, he makes use of terms which have different meanings and

creates humor out of playing with them. In other examples, however, he not only plays on the meaning of the terms as such, but combines the effect of wordplay with self-

deprecation. In the first examples in this section (Doctors and Horses), he proves his skill in feigning

misunderstanding of certain terms such as 'rhinoplasty' and 'horsepower'. The combination of misunderstanding while

playing on words and self-deprecation intensifies the humor of the joke and therefore the audience's appreciation. It is often easier for them to understand wordplay than

punning because the misunderstanding is overtly displayed and emphasized by the joke teller, whereas punning has to be discovered by the audience themselves.

13.1.6. Disfluencies This section illustrates a number of interesting aspects of timing. I want to note here that pauses play a very

220

important

role

for

Seinfeld

throughout

the

whole

performance even if he does not use them as often and as explicitly as Wright does (see section 13.2.6.). Seinfeld uses pauses either to gain some planning time, to increase the tension before revealing the punch line, or to give the audience time to react to his joke and calm down in order to concentrate on the next joke. At the beginning he

provides the following example: Introduction

9 10 11 12 13 J.S: Audience: J.S.: Audience: <well well well> (3.0) ((laughter)) I can't believe you made it. ((laughter))

The pause he introduces in line 10 is about three seconds long and allows him to gain time to continue and to

encourage his audience to react with laughter (l.11). In the following lines we may observe further examples of pauses that help him to gain time to plan the structure of his continuation.
24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 J.S.: this is the Broadhurst Theater. it's a .. uh, ((clears his throat)) legendary theater, I know .. nothing about it. ((laughter)) uh, I picked it because .. uh, {phone rings in the audience}

Audience: J.S.: Audience:

He tries to talk as casually as possible, as can be seen in line 25 when he stops with a pause filler after having 221

paused before for about half a second. Then he even clears his throat (l.26) before continuing with his performance. In addition, before revealing the last part of his

statement, he even makes a brief pause in order to build up a certain tension that increases the reaction of the

audience who is waiting for him to continue. This statement causes laughter (l.29). In the following line, Seinfeld uses a pause-filler at the beginning and repeats a further one at the end just before he gets interrupted by a phone ringing in the audience. In the following, I mainly want to concentrate on the longer pauses Seinfeld uses. In general, it is obvious that Seinfeld does not use many long pauses during his

performance. Rather, we find short interruptions of about half a second which mainly serve to find some extra time in order to continue effectively. Apart from that, he uses several longer pauses as, for example, in line 458.

Seinfeld introduces a pause of about two seconds in order to give the audience the opportunity to calm down and to concentrate on what he will talk about in the following. The same is true for line 483 when he introduces a pause of about one second in order to stress the humor in the mantra "get candy" (l.482, 484) that he has already repeated

several times before. It is interesting that Seinfeld does not introduce the pause before revealing the phrase, but

222

instead puts it in between (l.483). He wants to build up a certain tension and therefore provokes anticipation in the audience as to how he will continue. Seinfeld follows the same strategy in line 612. We realize that he pauses for about two seconds in order to build up tension and to make his audience laugh prior to actually giving any further explanation. In line 625, Seinfeld uses a pause of about a second in order to enhance the audience's curiosity about how he will continue and also to give them the opportunity to visualize what he is talking about. It is the segment in which he mocks the Halloween costumes and the pause mainly serves to increase the humorous effect of his description of what the costumes look like and to make the audience aware of a situation they can all easily relate to. In the segment in which he talks about the thankless second place and the silver medal, he also uses pauses to enhance the audience's reaction to the ensuing punch line. Olympics
1618 1619 1620 1621 1622 1623 I have a problem with that silver medal. I think if I was an Olympic athlete I would rather come in last (1.0) than win the silver, if you think about it.

The pause serves in this case to accentuate the content of the following line, which means that Seinfeld wants to clearly express his disdain of the second place and even

223

his

preference

for

coming

in

last

over

getting

the

thankless silver medal. As we have already seen in the section about

repetition, it is important for the stand-up comedian to have different strategies at his disposal allowing him to gain some additional time in order to think of the

continuation of his program. This is the reason for the overall importance of timing. As demonstrated in some of the examples, comedians use pauses to stall for planning time. Other examples displayed the function of building up tension before the delivery of the punch line. This is a further crucial strategy which allows the comedian to keep up the audience's interest and attention. In addition, the extracts have proved that it is essential to allow the audience to calm down after their reaction to the end of a joke so that they have enough time to concentrate on the next joke.

13.1.7. Direct Address to the Audience In general, I can confirm and want to stress that Seinfeld is a stand-up comedian who regularly establishes contact with his audience and integrates them in his performance. I want to mention an example found at the beginning of his performance. This extract provides a situation in which Seinfeld has to stop his own performance and demonstrates

224

spontaneity. Stand-up comedians always have to be able to respond to actual circumstances, as shown in this example in which he is interrupted by the unexpected noise of a mobile phone (l.31). Phones
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: {phone rings in the audience} oh, let me get that, [((laughter))] [let me get that] that's for me, I asked them to hold my phone. ((laughter)) that is so embarrassing, isn't it? ((laughter)) I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often though, because it's hard to ((whispering)) "oh wait, put it on the vibrate only." oh the phones, what we have gone nuts with the phones, haven't we? we're crazy with the phones. this guy thinks he needs that phone. ((laughter))

Audience:

Seinfeld immediately reacts to it, speaks even more quickly than before and wants to get the phone (l.32 and 34). He even repeats his remark, overlapping it with the audience's laughter and thus enhancing the mood. In the following, he starts creating an amusing atmosphere by pretending that the phone call is for him and that he wants the guy to hold the phone for him (l.35/36). With that bald on record

strategy he creates a direct possibility for the audience to be shocked or embarrassed even if all the comments

Seinfeld decides to make keep his audience laughing. In line 38, he even begins to laugh at them by considering the

225

fact

that

the

phone

has

rung

as

embarrassing.

It

is

interesting that he chooses an attribute perfectly fitting to the strategy he has planned to apply. The question tag with which Seinfeld finishes his remark gives his audience a new reason to stay attentive and feel a part of his performance. At the same time, Seinfeld expresses positive politeness because he moderates his former direct statement by introducing a question tag. It transforms his previous statement into an indirect remark and therefore softens his former brusque tone in order to minimize the threat to the hearers' face. In the following, he includes his audience by generalizing the situation with cell phones in public. He directly addresses the audience by using familiar

language and the pronoun "we" when he says: "what we have got nuts with the phones, haven't we?" (l.45). In this sentence he uses not only the pronoun "we", but also a question tag with which he manages to involve the audience and express positive politeness through this rather

indirect form of interrogative, as I have already mentioned for line 38. The use of the "we"-strategy strengthens the expression of solidarity through the revelation of their shared experience. He wants them to see that problems with phones are issues that concern everyone and that everyone is aware of them. This observation is the reason why I analyzed this joke in detail in section 13.1.1. and

226

classified it as shared ridicule. In line 46, he uses the pronoun "we" again in order to include everybody in his talk. In line 47, he refers to the man in the audience whose phone the had been ringing and ridicules I might him, which the

provokes

audience's

laughter.

venture

following remark that after having dealt with this segment, I began to doubt if the phone ringing in the audience (l.31) was really accidental and wondered if it had not been planned before and was therefore part of his

performance. I do not want to question Seinfeld's skill in reacting spontaneously, but in this case, it was amazing how quickly he was able to manage the situation and

continue effectively. I decided to choose the following example in order to emphasize that Seinfeld is not always able to address his audience effectively. Air Travel
324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 J.S.: then the stewardess has to come out, put on her little show .. with the emergency equipment, this whole performance ((weak laughter)) that they go through. you know, one of them is behind the curtain, reading the script, and the other one comes out front and acts it out, ((weak laughter)) you know.

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

227

In

analyzing

this

segment,

realized

that

although

Seinfeld directly communicates to his audience by using the discourse marker "you know" twice (l.330,335), the audience only reacts is with a weak laughter the (l.334). The hesitant really react

reaction

sign

that

audience

does

not to

appreciate

his

performance,

thus

Seinfeld

has

quickly by changing his routine so as not to bore his listeners and lose their attention. As far as the discourse markers are concerned, it is interesting to observe that they have different functions even if they are the same. In the first case (l.330), it serves to introduce a further explanation of what Seinfeld has mentioned before and is meant to make the audience aware of a situation they all know. He uses the discourse marker at the beginning of his remark and continues with detailed information about what the stewardess does. In that case he makes use of the discourse marker to establish common ground and express solidarity in a gesture of positive politeness. The second discourse marker (l.335) only serves as a concluding remark which expresses that Seinfeld is sure that the audience shares the knowledge with him. Another excellent example of direct address can be found in the segment in which Seinfeld makes fun of the relationship between men and women.

228

Men & Women

1436 1437 1438 1439 1440 1441 1442 1443 1444 1445 1446 1447 1448 1449 1450 J.S.: Audience: J.S.: men are not developing. ((weak laughter)) we're not improving. we men know, no matter how poorly we behave, it seems we somehow end up with women anyway. look around this room, look at all the men you see, beautiful women, men are with them, do you think these are special men? ((weak laughter)) gifted, highly unusual, one-of-a-kind men? these are the same jerks and idiots that I'm talking about. ((laughter)) {applause}

Audience: J.S.: Audience:

From line 1438 Seinfeld starts directly speaking to his audience. First he begins criticizing men's behavior

(l.1438), but a line further down he makes the observation that men end up with women anyway (l.1440) and proves his statement by making the audience aware of all the men in the room who accompany beautiful women while using bald on record strategies (l.1441/1442: "look around this room,

look at all the men you see"). It is interesting that Seinfeld does not criticize the men as a separate group but includes himself in order to express solidarity towards them when saying "we're not improving" (l.1438) and "we men know, no matter how poorly we behave, it seems we somehow end up with women anyway" (l.1439/1440). Seinfeld shifts his voice to a softer tone and directly addresses the

audience when he asks: "do you think these are special men?" (l.1444). In that case Seinfeld uses a rather

indirect strategy in order to convince the audience of his 229

point of view, which is that, of course, these men are not special. But by making use of indirectness he can express his conviction without being impolite. Although he

obviously addresses these two questions to the women in his audience, it is purely rhetorical and he does not give them an opportunity to answer. Instead, he immediately answers for them and expresses power and directness when he tops it by calling men "the same jerks and idiots" (l.1447) he had been talking about before. The use of shared ridicule and self-deprecation makes the audience laugh and show their appreciation and solidarity for what he is talking about (l.1449/1450). Humor derives again from the free release of Seinfeld's aggression expressed by the insult "jerks and idiots" (l.1447). In terms of Freudian interpretations

(1905/1960)35, Seinfeld can only use these labels for men to release his aggressive attitude towards men because he is telling a joke. In a normal conversation he would not have the right to express such informal and disrespectful remarks about men. The section on direct address to the audience has shown that Seinfeld regularly includes his audience in his performance and is willing to express positive politeness strategies toward them. Even if he builds up mean humor

35

For further details see section 7.3.

230

towards

certain

groups

of

people,

he

primarily

uses

strategies such as hedges, hesitators, question tags, or modal verbs to mitigate the directness and rudeness of his point of view. Instead of presenting a humorous monologue he is determined to include his audience either actively or passively, as observed in segments in which he introduces rhetorical questions or discourse markers whose aim is to make the audience aware of their crucial role throughout the performance. Including the audience in his performance can be a delicate business because the performer must then be prepared has to respond to his in audience spontaneously. how he

Seinfeld

demonstrated

numerous

examples

manages to reach this aim and has shown various strategies, such as the use of repetition, discourse markers, and

pauses that allow him to prepare his following lines and pretend spontaneity. Besides, it might also be a delicate situation if a group of persons he ridicules is among the audience. An example can be found in his section about the cab drivers (cf. section 13.1.1. Private ridicule). On the one hand, Seinfeld obviously threatens the cab drivers' face by expressing power and mean humor towards them; on the other hand, the audience joins him with laughter and amusement, which reveals their solidarity with him.

231

13.1.8. Transitions In the final section of the analytical part on Seinfeld, I want to emphasize Seinfeld's use of transitions for

switching from one topic to the next without making an abrupt change. It is a very interesting strategy that can be observed throughout his entire performance. I do not want to deny that Seinfeld sometimes completely and

abruptly changes the topic without having prepared the new one by introducing a transition. Such abrupt changes can be found from line 67 onward, when Seinfeld switches from the topic about phones to the topic about cab drivers in New York. The same is true for his abrupt change of topic at line 1554, when he starts talking about the fast food chain McDonald's between men instead and of continuing I noticed with that the relationship always

women.

Seinfeld

decides to make an abrupt change when he realizes that his audience is bored or is not reacting with laughter to his performance any longer. A change of topic is therefore a means to keep the audience attentive and interested in case the previous one finds little appeal. Other abrupt changes can be found from line 1611 onward when Seinfeld talks about his last stay in London during the World Cup, whereas he had been talking about Chinese people before, or from line 1934 onward, when he suddenly starts talking about his weird behavior of watching TV late at night even when he is

232

really tired and prefers to sleep. Also, he completely changes the topic in line 2066 when he starts talking about horse betting, and from line 2286 onward, when he informs the audience about his preference for living in hotels. Nevertheless, most of the time I observed his ability to find an opportunity to link his topics or to switch from one topic to the next through the use of a brief transition section. A first concise example can be found from line 31 onward, when an audience member's phone is ringing. After having mocked the person, Seinfeld uses this incident as a transition to his next story in which he criticizes phones in general and subsequently, people's behavior while using them (l.44 ff.). This is a good way to maintain the flow of his performance and prepare the audience for the next

story. Seinfeld also switches from the topic of taking a cab to traveling at the airport. We can see that he wants to move from the first topic to the second one because at the end of his section about cab drivers (l.165), he links it using the conjunction "but" in line 166. This

conjunction allows him to reveal his own attitude and to stress that he loves traveling in spite of his previous segment on cabs. He even gives more detailed information when he informs the audience about his plans to go to Florida (l.167). This statement leads him to his talk about the situation at airports, which he deals with from line

233

172 onward. Within this segment, Seinfeld moves from the general situation at the airport to the exaggerated

security measures in line 174. In line 222, he switches to the strange design of airport bathrooms before generalizing that "it's all a tiny world in the airport" (l.273). In line 289, Seinfeld gives notice using the adverb "then" that he will continue with topics about airports and

airplanes and deals in detail with the pilots' (l.290 ff.) and the stewardesses' behavior (l.324 ff.). In line 419 he starts a new topic and deals with the state of Florida. But nevertheless, Seinfeld refers to the place he wished to travel to in line 167. In order to switch to a new topic, Seinfeld makes a transition from the story of the old

people he had talked about before (l.426-470) to their behavior towards him, which reminds him of his childhood and brings him to a new story (l.472 ff.). In the segment in which he talks about his addiction to candy, he switches to the topic of Halloween in line 519. After having of the dealt with one Halloween wears just and "to the get

ridiculousness

costumes

candy", as he repeatedly admits, he comes to a more general topic in which he addresses food and people's behavior in the supermarket (l.729 ff.). In line 869, Seinfeld changes the topic and concentrates on the customers' behavior when buying milk. At the end of this segment (l.971 ff.), he

234

starts talking about situations that happen when one has finished the purchase and stands at the checkout. So we realize that Seinfeld has an elaborate routine in mind which allows him to link most of the topics he deals with. This is a crucial means of making the audience follow his routine and keeping them interested in what he is talking about. A further example of a successful transition is taken from the end of the segment about supermarkets and Seinfeld's immediate transition to drugstores and their

great range of products (l.1068 ff.). From there, he moves on to commercials about the most different drugs (l.1101 ff.), to doctors and the time we pass in the waiting room (l.1197 ff.). Again Seinfeld pays attention to deal with trivial topics as in the previous case when he represents a tiresome situation that is known to everyone. After having ridiculed the doctor's behavior toward their patients

(l.1244-1275), he uses this story to tell the audience about one of his friends who is going to have a nose job the following week (l.1276 ff.). The next example of a transition is taken from the segment about marriages (l.1307 ff.), the end of which he uses to segue into one of the most debated topics in our society, the relationship between men and women (l.1343 ff.).

235

A further example can be found just after the segment in which Seinfeld talks about the success of McDonald's (l.1554 ff.) and uses this topic to move on to a new one in which he speaks about Chinese people. Seinfeld tries to link this topic to the last one, which becomes obvious in line 1593 when he says: "as long as we're on the subject." In the segment in which Seinfeld informs us about the various sports disciplines which he finds quite bizarre, Seinfeld realizes at the end that the audience is not

reacting to his last remarks (l.1747) and uses his previous topic about sports to move on to a new topic in which he describes his favorite sport, "scuba diving" (l.1749). At the end of this segment, he talks about the uselessness of helmets (l.1806-1842) and uses this topic to introduce a new one. He moves on from helmets as a part of clothing to the topic of clothing in general (l.1843 ff.). He again describes an everyday situation in this segment, when he speaks of the habit of clothing and verbalizes a situation which would not be funny as such; but by overstating it, the topic becomes funny. In the next segment, Seinfeld directly speaks to the audience and even points to it with his finger in order to get their full attention. In the following lines, he builds up a new joke story by using his previous discussion about dry cleaning. He talks about a suede jacket which has spots

236

on it because he wore it in the rain and imitates the cleaner's reaction by saying: "there's nothing we can do. water ruins leather" (l.1896/1897). This funny story leads him to his absurd discussion about cows which have to be outside whether it rains or not (l.1898-1907). He then starts talking about warning labels and uses this

information as a transition to his next segment when he starts talking about the warning labels on cigarettes

(l.1912 ff.). When dealing with Seinfeld's material, I considered the use of transitions to be one of the most interesting strategies throughout his work. They play a central role in the performance and therefore the creation of humor in Seinfeld's work. This should justify the fact that I dealt in detail with the transitions used and provided numerous examples in the previous section.

13.1.9. Summary The preceding analytical section on verbal humor in

Seinfeld's I'm Telling You for the Last Time represents an attempt to gain stand-up insight into As the the creation of preceding humor in have

comedy.

examples

illustrated, the creation of humor results from a varied interaction of numerous techniques and strategies.

Seinfeld's performance demonstrates that stand-up comedy is

237

not only a string of different jokes for entertaining the audience; rather, it is a complex piece of art which starts with a carefully elaborated script. Nearly everything the speaker intends to say is scripted and therefore well

thought out. The art is to perform and deliver the material in a way which exudes spontaneity and conviction. With Seinfeld I decided to choose an exceptional stand-up

comedian whose stage persona is very close to his actual off-stage persona, which is further stressed by his outer appearance. Seinfeld always appears well-dressed and wellgroomed during all his performances, indicating that he wants to convey a formal politeness. This way of performing allows him to make the audience feel enthusiastic about his natural delivery which is supported by the fact that he mainly deals with everyday topics all of us are familiar with. Throughout his whole performance, he is not afraid of directly contacting his audience even if this might be very risky for the performer. The stand-up comedian always has to be aware of the fact that the audience could intervene and always has to be able to continue his routine by taking note of heckling and incorporating it in his show. As a result, Seinfeld of proves planned his skill in combining the

presentation throughout his

material

with

spontaneity of his work

whole

performance.

Analysis

shows that he makes use of repetition and timing in order

238

to

gain

planning

time

in

which

he

can

reorganize

his

material and find his way back to his actual performance. As a selection of examples shows, Seinfeld's performance is mainly characterized by his use of ridicule. Most of his jokes serve to mock a specific group of opponents; he even uses himself as the butt of some of the jokes. The creation of solidarity with the audience seems to be one of his crucial aims when making use of ridicule. The deeper

analysis of these jokes has shown that self-deprecation and shared ridicule often tend to go together in view of the fact that successful self-deprecation turns into shared

ridicule, which presents an interesting topic for future research. As for the humor theories (cf. section 7), I investigated which of them cover Seinfeld's stand-up comedy material and came to the conclusion that most of Seinfeld's material is not explicitly covered by one specific theory, but falls under a combination of criteria taken from the incongruity and superiority theories. Concerning the

audience's reaction to these jokes, I observed that it is mainly provoked by the recognition of incongruities and the feeling of superiority over certain others. Nevertheless, I have to stress that the audience's laughter does not

necessarily depend on the punch line of the joke, but is often evoked by the comedian's style of performance. He uses and combines various rhetorical devices and specific

239

joke

techniques

to

develop

strategies

that

lead

the

audience to laughter without the punch line being of prime importance. Seinfeld responds to his embodies a comedian who reaction frequently engages

audience's

and

interactively when continuing his performance. Whenever he realizes that a specific topic does not find much interest and appreciation, the he either effect introduces of the paralanguage material or to he

strengthen

comic

completely changes the topic. Future research might focus on the extent to which the audience's reactions influence the comedian's performance. It would be interesting to

compare different performances

of one stand-up

comedian

over a period of time, which could help to give further information about that topic.

13.2. Analyzing Verbal Humor in Steven Wright's I Have a Pony and I Still Have a Pony Wright is a comedian whose great success has developed due to his monotonous style of performing. It is impressive how he succeeds in making his audience appreciate everything he says although he seems to be a real "deadpan" comedian (Double 2005:286). Throughout his entire performance Wright remains a cold, expressionless comedian who does not convey any warmth or connection to his audience. His delivery is calm, quiet, and monotonous. Apart from a few examples in

240

which Wright remotely approaches a smile,36 he generally retains his apathetic style of performing. Because he

reduces his expressions and body language to a minimum, we realize by contrast how very much these techniques are used by other comedians In such as Jerry Seinfeld in their mainly

performances.

addition,

Wright's

performances

consist of very short jokes which are often made up of just one line or "a chain of punch lines" (Attardo and Chabanne 1992:171). In contrast to Seinfeld, whose performances

principally consist of longer joke stories that are funny because of their content, his technique, and his style of performing, derision Wright often and makes thus himself earns the the centre of

and

mockery

audience's

appreciation at his expense. As I have demonstrated in the previous chapter, Seinfeld's performance consists of

telling about real-life situations. His joking

material

generally does not prove to be humorous due to its content. Seinfeld renders his material funny by presenting his own character and his he own experience. his Throughout the whole

performance,

presents

off-stage

persona

without

creating a specific on-stage persona. Wright, however, has a different strategy in that he tells of fake life

situations he has never really experienced. In the course

36

I will deal with these examples in the section 13.2.4. (Intonation and paralanguage).

241

of his performance, he only pretends to speak about his off-stage persona; in reality, he invents situations and presents difference them is as real experiences. I want to As far as to this Freud

concerned,

refer

(1905/1960), who distinguishes between innocent jokes and tendentious jokes.37 According to Wilson (1979:160),

innocent jokes might occur in two different ways. Either they occur without intention or design, or they result from the humorist's imagination. Wilson uses the terms "natural" and "contrived" jokes to describe them. Natural humor is said to present "things as they really are" and, therefore, reveals surprising aspects of reality. By contrast,

contrived jokes present "things as they may be imagined to be". This is the case for Wright. He makes the audience appreciate his performance by describing impossible events and thus absurdities about a faked experience. Furthermore, he uses his appearance in support of a performance of

absurd stories and jokes. In contrast to Seinfeld, who presents himself as a well-dressed New Yorker, Wright

dispenses with

formal politeness and expresses

in-group

thinking by establishing common ground. Wright's intent is to appear weird and strange on stage and he thus links his absurd material with his weird outer appearance and wants

37

For a detailed analysis see Freud (1905/1960) and section 7.3.

242

to make the audience aware of the fact that they are alike and understand each other and, therefore, also share

appreciation for his humorous stories. As far as my analysis is concerned, I will follow the tracks on Wright's compact disc. In order to analyze his body language in further detail, I also consulted the

television special When the Leaves Blow Away (2006) on DVD. When I cite sections from Wright's first performance I Have a Pony, I will indicate them by the acronym (IHAP). When I cite sections from I Still Have a Pony, they will be

indicated by the acronym (ISHAP). In the following sections, I will concentrate on

various linguistic aspects of Wright's performance. I have to stress that Wright's programs are always characterized by his telling of completely absurd jokes in which he

presents the situation from his own point of view. In some joking stories, Wright pretends to be the butt of the joke himself and reveals his overall he stupidity towards the

audience.

Nevertheless,

rarely

represents

self-

deprecatory humor but rather playing with popular notions. Most of the time, he creates humor by disappointing the audience's expectation and therefore achieves their

appreciation of his jokes. Because of Wright's apathetic style of performing, intonation and paralanguage are

reduced to a minimum in comparison to Seinfeld. The same is

243

true

for

the

linguistic is

feature

of

repetition. to

Also, his

whereas

Seinfeld

frequently

inclined

address

audience in a direct manner, Wright is determined not to get into direct contact with his audience and presents a classical one-man show where all eyes are fixed on him. He entertains interaction the is audience reduced to with an a monologue in which and is

absolute

minimum

restricted to the use of few discourse markers throughout the whole performance. In Wright's performances, pauses

play a central role and serve as a means with which he controls his audience's reaction. Since that I have

discussed the specific techniques and aspects of verbal humor in separate sections38, I will not explicitly give detailed information about research on the various

techniques in the following, but will refer to the previous sections of my study.

13.2.1. Ridicule From the beginning, we may observe that Wright starts

telling hilarious stories in the form of personal anecdotes and pretends to have experienced the absurdities of his stories himself. Nevertheless, self-deprecating humor can

38

See section 10: "Joke Techniques", section 11: "The Use of Figurative Language in Stand-up Comedy" and section 12: "Linguistic Features of Joke Telling".

244

only rarely be found in his performances. Most of the time he makes the audience laugh because of the incongruity delivered by the punch line. In contrast to Seinfeld, who actually speaks of his real ego and performs in exactly the way he really behaves, Wright has invented a stage persona when he pretends to be speaking about himself. In the

following, I will first deal with selected extracts that represent a few examples of the use of self-deprecation. As in the previous section about Seinfeld, I will follow

Wilson's model (1979: 189/190), but replace the expression "self-ridicule" by "self-deprecation" for reasons mentioned in section 10.2. (Ridicule).

Self-deprecation In the segment Twin, Wright begins with a series of very short jokes in which he uses self-deprecating humor. Twin (ISHAP)
586 587 588 589 590 591 592 593 594 595 596 S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: I bought one walkie-talkie, ((laughter)) I didn't want anyone to hear what I was saying. ((laughter)) I'm addicted to placebos. ((laughter)) I could quit, but it wouldn't matter. ((laughter)) {applause}

In the first story, he presents an excellent example of self-deprecation when he puts himself in a bad light by

245

claiming that he "bought one walkie-talkie" (l.586), which does not make any sense at all and already causes laughter (l.587) because the fact as such proves his complete

stupidity. Lines 588 and 589 serve to confirm his stupidity when he reveals that he "didn't want anyone to hear what [he] was saying." This confirmation of his lack of wisdom makes the audience burst into laughter (l.590). He adds a further stupid story by revealing that he is "addicted to placebos" (l.591), but admits that he "could quit, but it wouldn't matter" (l.593/594). A placebo is only an inactive and fake medication or treatment so that it does not change anything whether you take such pills or not. This punch line makes the audience laugh and applaud (l.595/596) again because stupidity of in the fact that such Wright highlights Already his own first

making

comments.

this

example makes us recognize that Wright has a completely different style in comparison with Seinfeld. Whereas

Seinfeld talks about real-life experiences, Wright fakes such situations and pretends that he has experienced them. But actually he just tells faked stories that are seldom longer than a few lines. In provides the a segment further about example Shopping of Carts (ISHAP), when he he

self-deprecation

tells the audience about his experience at the grocery store.

246

Shopping Carts (ISHAP)

965 966 967 968 969 970 971 S.W.: when I go to the grocery store and I see a guy pushing 30 shopping carts across the parking lot, sometimes I say: "you know, somebody else might wanna use one of those." ((laughter)) {applause}

Audience:

He first tells his audience that he sees a man "pushing 30 shopping carts across the parking lot" (l.966), which is nothing special because we all have seen them when we do our shopping. But Wright provides a funny punch line by expressing aggressiveness and therefore superiority when he comments that "somebody else might wanna use one of those" (l.969) carts too. This statement serves again to call attention to a feigned ignorance and thus makes the

audience react with laughter and applause (l.970/971). In analyzing Wright's material I could not easily

detect much pure self-deprecation. Most of the extracts provide examples of the and for creation move this of humor from out of

incongruous deprecation.

situations One reason

away

pure

selfbe

observation

might

Wright's strategy of relating fake life situations he had never experienced in his real life. So incongruity

necessarily assumes a crucial role in Wright's material. Before turning to private ridicule, I want to present some of the extracts in which Wright pretends to being the butt of the joke, but actually creates humor by playing with 247

popular

notions

and

disappointing

the

audience's

expectation. Introduction (IHAP)

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: I used to be a parking attendant in Boston at Logan Airport .. I parked jets. ((laughter)) {weak applause} they let me go though because I kept locking the keys in them. ((laughter)) one day I was on an 86ft step ladder trying to get in a window with a coat hanger. ((laughter))

In line 10 he starts a monotonous talk about what he did in the past and informs his audience that he "used to be a parking attendant in Boston at Logan Airport .." (IHAP, l.10) before revealing the punch line in line 11 by saying: "I parked jets." These introductory lines do not present self-deprecation as such and only cause laughter (l.12) and even weak applause (l.13) because of the surprise effect they have for the audience. The introduction and the main part of the joke have evoked a certain expectation that is not fulfilled first by the revelation of "cars", and, of but the punch line. not

Everybody fulfill

thinks

Wright

does

their

expectations

consequently,

surprises

them by mentioning "jets". This justifies the information he gave in line 10, when he adds that he worked at "Logan Airport". The surprise effect has provoked a sort of

248

discrepancy

which

is

responsible

for

the

audience's

laughter and applause (l.12/13). As for the discrepancy predominant in the joke, we can classify it as belonging to the incongruity theory.39 Wright pursues the same aim in the following lines when he continues talking about his job at the airport and emphasizes his complete stupidity by revealing in a monotone way: "they let me go though because I kept locking the keys in them" (l.14/15). This remark provides a further punch line and makes the audience laugh (l.16) more strongly than before. In this remark, Wright makes fun of the fact that people sometimes inadvertently lock their keys in cars but projects this idea onto his joke by pretending to have kept locking the keys in jets. So Wright uses a well-known aspect to create a funny story. In the following, Wright pretends not to understand the company's reaction and, therefore, makes his audience laugh further. Lines 17 to 19 refer to the content of line 15 when he describes that he tried "to get in a window with a coat hanger" (l.18/19). Again, Wright projects the wellknown method by which people try to get their keys out of their cars onto his joke. Not only does the image of this

39

For further reference see Shultz (1972,1976), Freud (1905/1960), Wilson (1979), McGhee (1979), Kant and Schopenhauer in Morreall (1987), in Eastman (1922), Raskin (1985), Attardo (2001), Attardo and Chabanne (1992), Willmann (1940), Koestler (1969), Suls (1972,1977), Pepicello (1983).

249

absurd situation makes the audience laugh (l.20), but he also stresses the fact that he "kept locking the keys" (l.15) in the jets and does not find it a strange

circumstance. Instead of concealing this absurd behavior, he reveals it in an overt manner in order to amuse his audience. In the following, often he we may of an observe that Wright's of joking

performance chunks when

consists immediately

enumeration telling

continues

personal

anecdotes that make the people aware of certain situations they are all familiar with.40 In the segment Ants, he

starts talking about his childhood and reveals his madness with further personal anecdotes in which he uses further popular notions to create funny stories. Ants (IHAP)
89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 S.W.: Audience: S.W.: when I was a baby I kept a diary. ((laughter)) recently I was rereading it it said: "day one: still tired from the move. ((laughter)) {applause} day two: everybody talks to me like I'm an idiot." ((laughter)

Audience: S.W. Audience:

40

The strategy of enumerating several joking chunks has already been explored by Attardo and Chabanne (1992) and was described as presenting "a chain of punch lines" (171).

250

From the beginning, Wright presents further discrepancies by offering impossible and therefore completely invented and imagined stories that cannot be reconciled with the audience's real-life experience. In the first line, he

conjures the image of himself as a baby and immediately follows up with the punch line: "I kept a diary" (l.90). Everybody has to laugh because of the impossibility of Wright's description. No baby can keep a diary, but Wright tells it with such conviction that one could really believe it. This pretended reality makes the audience laugh (l.91). He even continues by claiming that recently he "was

rereading it" (l.92) and thus implies that he had even been able to write at that age. Again this remark is built by incongruity, which is even emphasized by the next lines when he quotes "day one: still tired from the move"

(l.94/95). He tells it as if it was real, although it is complete nonsense. This absurdity causes humor and elicits laughter and applause (l.96/97). Instead of stopping there, he even tops it by adding: "day two: everybody talks to me like I'm an idiot" (l.98/99). This last line not only

builds on the absurd proposition of a baby writing a diary, but also makes fun of all the people who speak "baby talk" to little babies although these babies cannot really

understand anything at that age. We can state that Wright uses this second punch line to express a certain kind of

251

aggressiveness towards other people. This means that the joke is not fully covered by the incongruity theory alone but rather fits a combination of criteria taken from both the incongruity theory and the hostility theory. The two previous examples have shown that Wright

mainly uses incongruity to create humor. Although he speaks in the first person singular and pretends to have

experienced the situation he is talking about, we cannot classify these jokes as being self-deprecation because the main focus is on the disappointment his own of the audience's In the

expectation

rather

than

ignorance.

analytical part on Seinfeld, I emphasized that successful self-deprecation tends to turn into shared ridicule. This cannot be confirmed by a study of Wright's material, which again results from the fact that he mainly deals with unreal and invented situations. The only story which shows a slight tendency towards shared ridicule is the last part of the extract in which he talks about the diary he kept when he was a baby (see analysis of line 99). Apart from this example we cannot find any shared ridicule in Wright's work.

Private Ridicule In the following, I want to deal with extracts that display the use of private ridicule. Wright does not primarily

252

target expense. In

himself,

but

rather

creates

humor

at

others'

his

second

album

Still

Have

Pony,

Wright

provides some examples of private ridicule. In the segment Camera, he implicitly makes fun of his mother, which can be seen in the following extract: Camera (ISHAP)
438 439 440 441 442 S.W.: Audience: I bought an iPod that can either hold 5000 songs or one telephone message from my mother. ((laughter)) {applause}

Wright

starts

by

informing

the

audience

of

his

iPod

purchase and emphasizes its huge memory capacity so that it "can either hold 5000 songs or one telephone message from [his] mother" (l.439/440). Whereas lines 438 and 439 do not contain any hints for the joke to follow, line 440 serves as the immediate punch line and makes fun of his mother who apparently never stops talking as it is implied in Wright's statement. The audience reacts with laughter and applause (l.441/442). In the segment Hitchhiker (ISHAP), Wright starts a new story about the "seventy-year-old teacher" he had in 3rd grade and whom he ridicules from the beginning on. Hitchhiker (ISHAP)
770 S.W.: when I was in 3rd grade

253

771 772 773 774 775 776

Audience:

I had a seventy-year-old teacher, and she could barely hear anything so she would turn the thermostat down to sixteen degrees so in case anyone talked she could see your breath coming out of your mouth. ((laughter))

Wright starts ridiculing her in line 772 when he claims that she "could barely hear anything", which was the reason that "she would turn the thermostat down to sixteen degrees so in case anyone talked she could see your breath coming out of your mouth" (l.773-775). The audience rewards this stupid story with laughter (l.776). The last example of private ridicule is taken from the segment My Grandfather (ISHAP) in which Wright tells the audience about his grandfather by ridiculing him from the start. My Grandfather (ISHAP)
891 892 893 894 895 896 897 898 899 900 901 S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: my grandfather had a special rocking chair built that would lean forward rather than backwards so he could fake interest in any conversation. ((laughter)) when I was little one Christmas he gave me a box of broken glass. he gave my brother a box of band-aids. ((laughter)) then he said: "now you two share." ((laughter))

Wright

begins

by

claiming

that

his

grandfather

"had

special rocking chair built that would lean forward rather than backwards" (l.891/892). We can already recognize at this point in the text that Wright will use this invention

254

to build up the punch line that comes in line 893 when he reveals the reason for this invention is: "so he could fake interest in any conversation" (l.893). This punch line

makes the audience laugh (l.894). Wright continues speaking of his grandfather and tells the story that one Christmas when he was a little boy his grandfather gave him "a box of broken glass" (l.896) and his brother "a box of band-aids" (l.897). In line 900 he imitates his grandfather saying: "now you two share". This nonsensical fiction makes the audience laugh again (l.901). As far as private ridicule is concerned, the

expression of superiority clearly dominates. By ridiculing other persons, Wright both achieves a feeling of

superiority over them and expresses hostility towards them, so the selected examples are principally covered by the superiority and the release theory. In conclusion, note that Wright only indulges in selfdeprecation and private ridicule. In contrast to Seinfeld, we cannot find examples of shared ridicule. As I mentioned at the very beginning of section 13, it is not Wright's intention to establish contact with his audience. Whereas Seinfeld is always prone to directly address his audience, Wright avoids direct contact and uses his own persona as the basis for his stand-up comedy performances. His

performance consists only of one long monologue, whereas

255

with

Seinfeld

we

can

even

find

segments

in

which

the

performance is similar to brief dialogues.

13.2.2. Hyperbole As the analysis of Wright's material has shown, he mainly creates humor out of incongruous elements stemming from fictitious situations presented as his real life. Most of them make the audience laugh because of the absurdity and unreality involved. Wright strengthens the humorous effect of his jokes by making use of hyperbole to overstate the ridiculousness and the absurdity of his stories. This

technique helps him to ensure that most of the audience will get the joke. An example of exaggeration can be found in the segment in which he talks about his friend Winny. Winny (IHAP)
981 982 983 984 985 S.W.: all Winny did ... all day was practice limbo. he got pretty good. he could go under a rug. ((laughter))

Audience:

Wright starts the two introductory lines with the pronoun "all" (l.981/982). It is obvious that Wright makes use of exaggeration in order to stress Winnie's monotonous daily routine. He stimulates laughter (l.985) by revealing

Winnie's only absurd hobby, which is to practice limbo. In the following line Wright stops overstating for a moment

256

and uses an understatement when he adds "he got pretty good" (l.983). His intention is to make the audience keen to see how he continues. In line 984 he reveals a

surprising punch line by overstating Winnie's skill when he stresses that he is so good at limbo that "he could go under a rug". This absurd and incongruent remark provokes the audience's laughter. Wright uses hyperbole not only to heighten the

humorous effect of his jokes, but also in order to build up tension and therefore to keep up the audience's interest in what will follow. An interesting example in which Wright pursues this intention is taken from his segment about Rachel. Rachel (IHAP)
443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: it took me a year and a half to write that. ((laughter)) I didn't know how to word it. ((laughter)) {plays guitar} I don't know how to play this. ((laughter)) I'd like to play everything the Beatles ever recorded. ((laughter)) I won't do all of "Hey Jude" ((laughter)) what are these strings for? ((laughter))

In the introductory line of his song, Wright informs the audience about the length of time he needed to compose the song (l.443). Up to that point we do not have any concrete

257

indication that he did not need that much time. Wright wants to build up tension by throwing in various punch lines in which he steadily overstates the situation. The audience is well aware of the fact that he never took "a year and a half to write that" (l.443). This is the reason why they constantly react with laughter (l.444, 446, 449). Wright's strategy in this extract is to keep exaggerating (l.450/451, 453, 455) in order to make the audience curious about the song he wants to play. This is an important use of hyperbole in Wright's material. By overstating this

situation, Wright maintains the audience's interest in his following performance. To sum up, hyperbole plays a crucial role in Wright's performance. Because of the fact that he does not get into direct contact with his audience and thus does not directly involve them in his performance, it is important to have a technique that contributes to the maintenance of the

audience's interest and appreciation in his show.

13.2.3. Wordplay and Punning As already shown in the preceding section, Wright makes use of figurative language in order to enhance the humorous effect of his material. In this section, I analyze various extracts in which Wright makes use of wordplay and punning in order to create humorous contexts which provoke the

258

audience's appreciation. In analyzing the various examples, I was able to observe that Wright uses wordplay and punning to pursue different aims. The first two examples display the use of wordplay in order to disappoint the audience's expectations. One of the most excellent examples can be found in Wright's story about the Stones. Cross Country (IHAP)
846 847 848 849 850 851 852 853 854 855 S.W.: the Stones. I love the Stones. I can't believe they are still doing it after all these years. I watch them whenever I can. (1.0) Fred and Barney. ((laughter)) {applause}

Audience:

When Wright mentions the Stones in lines 846 and 847, we assume he is talking about the Rolling Stones. Even his remark in lines 848 to 851 does not reveal that he is thinking of someone different but merely makes us all the more determined to believe that he is talking about the Rolling Stones. So Wright plays both with language and with the audience's expectation and delays the surprise effect until the revelation of his punch line in line 853 when he says: "Fred and Barney". This remark makes the audience therefore burst into laughter and applause (l.854/855) when he pretends not to have been referring to the Rolling

Stones but rather to the Flintstones.

259

Besides

using

wordplay

in

order

to

disappoint

the

audience's expectation, Wright also uses this strategy in order to feign misunderstanding and thus emphasizes his own stupidity. An excellent example can be found in the segment in which he informs his audience about the fact that he wants to buy a plasma television. Camera (ISHAP)
466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W:: Audience: I'm thinking of buying a plasma television in case I need a blood transfusion, ((laughter)) that way I can mainline 150 channels right into my arm. ((laughter)) that way they can do my autopsy via satellite. ((laughter)) I have a CD burner: my fireplace. ((laughter))

Wright starts his short story in line 466 and tells the audience that he is considering "buying a plasma television in case [he] the need[s] first a blood does transfusion" not reveal (l.466/467). any abnormal

Whereas

line

content, Wright creates humor with his following remark by playing on the different meanings of the word "plasma" as a flat panel display on the one hand, and a liquid component of the blood on the other hand. In lines 469 and 471, he even continues with further punch lines which both serve to top the preceding one and continuously enhance the

audience's laughter (l.470, 472). In lines 473 and 474, he throws in a one-liner by saying that he has a CD burner,

260

which is his fireplace. Again he plays on the word "burner" in its low-tech and its high-tech meanings, which provokes the audience's laughter (l.475). Wright provides a further example of misunderstanding in the segment in which he talks about the game "Monopoly". Monopoly (ISHAP)
602 603 604 605 S.W.: Audience: I think it's wrong that only one company makes the game Monopoly. ((laughter)) {applause}

He uses the game "Monopoly" (l.603) in order to set up his punch line. He plays with the Greek prefix "mono" which forms the first part of the composite noun by claiming that he thinks "it's wrong that only one company makes the game Monopoly" (l.602/603). Wright misinterprets the name of the game in that he thinks it expresses the fact that the company Parker Brothers has exclusive rights to market the game. This misinterpretation makes the audience laugh and applaud (l.604/605). Before concluding the section as a whole, note that Wright also uses wordplay and punning to render his joking stories just more ridiculous. Sometimes he plays with

opposite terms as in the following one-liner. Ants (IHAP)

123 124 S.W.: right now I'm having amnesia

261

125 126

Audience:

and dj vu at the same time. ((laughter))

In this case, he begins to play with two mutually exclusive terms when he pretends to be "having amnesia and dj vu at the same time" (l.124/125). This combination of incongruent terms causes the audience's reaction with laughter (l.126). Wright's monotone delivery stresses the ridiculous effect of his statements and reinforces the success of this absurd remark. As a final example, let's consider the following

extract which shows that Wright also deals with serious topics. In line 490 he tells the audience that he was in a restaurant named "Bulimia's". Camera (ISHAP)
489 490 491 492 493 494 S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: last night, I was in a restaurant called Bulimia's. ((laughter)) the line for the bathroom was incredible. ((laughter)) {applause}

The

name

already

makes

us

aware

that

he

is

about

to

ridicule a serious problem in his following statements. This is immediately proved by his punch line (l.492) when he says that "the line for the bathroom was incredible". Although it is a sensitive and delicate topic that he is making fun of, the audience joins in with laughter and

262

applause (l.493/494) and demonstrates their solidarity with his hostile attitude towards people suffering from bulimia. The analysis of the previous examples has shown that Wright uses wordplay and punning in order to pursue

different intentions which all lead to the aim of keeping up the audience's interest and appreciation. We have seen that the use of wordplay and punning enables him to create humor from different perspectives. In some examples, he pretends misunderstanding and thus creates humor by

ridiculing himself, whereas in other examples, he plays with the audience's expectation and disappoints it by

delivering surprising punch lines.

13.2.4. Intonation and Paralanguage Even though Wright's by his are performances monotonous examples in and are almost always of his

characterized speaking,

apathetic he

style

there

which

changes

intonation and body language. First of all, I want to focus on extracts in which Wright uses gestures to enhance the humorous effect of what he is talking about. The technique allows his audience to visualize certain aspects of his stories and therefore

serves to render his performance more dynamic even as he keeps his face expressionless. In the segment Hitchhiking (IHAP), he tells of some of his experience with the police

263

and

uses

gestures

for

the

first

time

during

his

performance. Hitchhiking (IHAP)

278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 S.W.: I had the photograph on my license taken out of focus on purpose so when the police do stop me they go ((imitates a policeman squinting uncertainly at the license, then handing it back to the driver)) ((laughter)) "here, you can go." ((laughter)) {weak applause}

Audience: S.W. Audience:

These lines reveal Wright's miming skill when he imitates a policeman who squints uncertainly at his license before he hands it back to the driver and allows him to go on. Wright not only provokes laughter (l.283, 286/287) with the fact that he had a photograph that was "taken out of focus on purpose" (l.279), but also with the policeman's reaction who even accepts this photo and allows him to go

(l.284/285). In his second album, I found a further example when he ridicules his friend who is a pilot. Wright makes fun of him by revealing that his friend needs 45 minutes to back out his car and provides a further example of excellent gesticulation on stage (Camera (ISHAP)). In his television special, it can be seen that he even turns his head to imitate his friend looking right and left in order to leave his parking lot. This pantomiming enhances the humorous

264

effect of the story and therefore the audience's reaction to it (l.481). In the segment in which he informs the audience that he once "got off the plane" (My Grandfather (ISHAP), l.945) but "forgot to undo [his] seatbelt" (l.946), he can enhance the audience's appreciation, which can be seen in the DVD performance. He not only tells them about his own absurd behavior, but even renders it somewhat graphic with his pantomime of running and dragging the plane behind him. With regard to the previous examples, note that they only became interesting when watching the DVD performance. While listening to them it often proved to be difficult to comprehend the audience's reaction because the content does not seem to be extraordinarily funny; but in combination with his gestures the humorous effect is greater. This observation justifies the conclusion that the use of

gestures proves to be of overall importance in successful stand-up comedy. Before concluding the section, I want to offer an interesting observation DVD. Although his concerning are his body language on by an

performances and

characterized style, and

extremely

monotonous

apathetic

although

Wright generally does not change his facial expression even when he uses gestures and intonation changes, I found an exception in line 414 while watching the DVD performance.

265

For the first time in both performances, Wright smiles a bit after the audience has reacted with laughter to his punch line in line 414 (Camera (ISHAP)). Another example in which Wright has to laugh himself can be found in the segment Twin (ISHAP) when he mentions his teacher having a nervous breakdown because of his stupidity (l.541-556). In the television special, we notice for the first time that Wright bends his head and hides his face in order to

suppress his own laughter and to regain his concentration. In conclusion, consider the importance of intonation and paralanguage for Wright's performance because they

allow him to change the monotony of his style at least at regular intervals. This guarantees that the audience reacts with appreciation because he gives them the opportunity to visualize some situations he is talking about. This is a phenomenon that could also be observed in Seinfeld's

performance.

13.2.5. Repetition When analyzing Wright's performance, it is obvious that he does not use does. repetition Whereas as often and as regularly words as or

Seinfeld

Seinfeld

often

repeats

whole phrases in order to enhance the laughing response, Wright reduces this strategy to a minimum. He does not often explicitly repeat the same word, but works either

266

with parallel structures or with the adverb "again", which also has the function of injecting humor into his stories and thus raising the level of laughter. An example in which Wright makes use of a repetitive structure in the form of parallelism can be found in his program I Still Have a Pony. Quote (ISHAP)
15 16 17 18 19 S.W.: lots of my friends have babies, but I don't have any babies, but I have lots of friends. babies don't have any friends. ((weak laughter))

Audience:

He tells this story in a sort

of a rhyme and with a

parallel structure and delivers the punch line in line 18 by saying: "babies don't have any friends." Wright uses the same structure for the end of the first two lines and the end of the last two lines. In both cases, the lines end with the same word. Lines 15 and 16 end with the word "babies" and lines 17 and 18 end with the word "friends". Wright uses the same strategy from line 292 onward when he starts counting and resumes a few lines further down (l.297-301). So we can see that the parallel structure serves to enhance the funniness and therefore the laughter (l.302). The Store (ISHAP)
289 I looked at a can of peas

267

290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302

Audience: S.W.:

Audience:

and I started counting the peas that were on the label of the can forty-four, forty-five, forty-six I'm wondering if they had a meeting on how many peas should be on the label of the can. ((weak laughter)) forty-seven is too many, forty-five is not enough, all in favor of forty-six, okay, it's forty-six. ((laughter))

The next example shows that Wright also uses anaphora as a repetitive structure at the beginning of several

sentences. The Store (ISHAP)

334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 S.W.: then I'm driving around and I'm thinking: "alright I'm still alive, now what am I gonna do. ((laughter)) so I figured I'd go down and rent a movie so I go out to the video store and I can't remember the title of the movie I want so I'm describing the movie to the guy. I say:

Audience: S.W.:

[...] It is interesting to see the accumulation of the personal pronoun "I" and the parallel structure of the sentences. They almost always start with a conjunction (so or and) or an adverb (then or now) and continue with the personal pronoun "I" and a verb form (l.334-344). Another example of the accumulation of the personal pronoun "I" (l.931, 933937) can be found at the end of his performance.

268

My Grandfather (ISHAP)
931 932 933 934 935 936 937 938 939 940 941 942 943 944 S.W.: I remember when he died I was a little boy and I went to the wake with my aunt and I was kneeling down at the casket and I was looking at him inside the casket and I started thinking about my flashlight. ((laughter)) I started thinking about the batteries inside my flashlight. and I said to my aunt: "maybe he's not dead, maybe he's just in the wrong way." ((laughter)) {applause)

Audience: S.W.:

Audience:

We

discover

that the

Wright

uses

parallelism which can

and be

anaphora seen in

throughout

whole

segment,

particular from line 934 to line 937 and in lines 941 and 942. The first repetitive structure (l.934-937) serves to enhance the audience's interest in what will happen and thus increases their reaction to the first punch line in line 937. The anaphoric use of the adverb "maybe" serves to increase the funniness of his second punch line (l.942). As a final example, let's consider an extract that can be found in his story about what kind of presents he got from his grandfather. My Grandfather (ISHAP)
895 896 897 898 899 900 901 S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: when I was little one Christmas he gave me a box of broken glass. he gave my brother a box of band-aids. ((laughter)) then he said: "now you two share." ((laughter))

269

Wright works again with parallelism that serves in this case to make the audience aware of the fact that the punch line has to follow immediately because both kinds of

presents are totally absurd and remote from reality. Having dealt with repetition in Wright's performance, I observed that he uses it in a different way than Seinfeld does. Whereas Seinfeld uses repetition to realize different intentions, such as providing a rhythmic pattern in his jokes, or as a means to gain planning time, or to pretend spontaneity, these strategies cannot be observed to that extent in Wright's performance. Wright only uses repetition to lend his jokes a rhythmic pattern and in some extracts to enhance the audience's reaction. In neither performance does he use repetition to gain some additional time. This emphasizes the differences in the way these two comedians organize their material. Whereas Seinfeld has to rely on repetition to establish contact with his audience and

pretend to be reacting spontaneously, Wright does not need repetition as a technique to gain planning time because he is not interrupted by his audience and does not directly interact with them. So we can consider repetition to be a linguistic aspect of joke telling that emphasizes the

difference between the two comedians' approaches, as far as the organization of their performances is concerned.

270

13.2.6. Disfluencies As I have already mentioned in the introduction of section 13., pauses play a central role in Wright's performance and therefore represent a central joking technique in his

performance. Seinfeld also uses pauses as a strategy to make his audience calm down, to make them wait in curious anticipation planning of the The Wright following same is punch line, true use and for of to gain

time.

generally makes

Wright. pauses,

Nevertheless,

permanently

whether short ones or longer ones. The main function of pauses in Wright's performance is to raise the tension and make the audience wait for what he will say next. I decided to pay particular attention to these pauses and to indicate the exact period of time in brackets because of their

overall importance in Wright's performance. They allow him to control his audience and the continuation of his program without Pauses establishing of one-half direct second contact or less with are the audience. by a

indicated

truncated ellipsis. Pauses of just over a half second up to one second are indicated by an ellipsis. First, I will concentrate on Wright's use of longer pauses whose exact length is indicated in brackets. Wright provides an example in the moment following the segment about his birthday presents.

271

Ants (IHAP)
112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: it was my birthday recently. for my birthday I got a humidifier and a dehumidifier. ((laughter)) put them in the same room and let them fight it out. ((laughter)) then I filled my humidifier with wax now my room's all shiny. ((laughter)) (10.0) right now I'm having amnesia and dj vu at the same time. ((laughter))

In this case, Wright decides to make a long pause of about ten seconds in order to give the audience time to recognize and to understand the joke's punch line. Furthermore, it serves to calm down the audience after their reaction and to concentrate everyone on the beginning of the following program. Wright uses the pause as a hint that a new story will begin. He follows the same strategy after the

following extract: Ants (IHAP)

210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W. it's kind of an insane case 6000 ants dressed up as rice and robbed a Chinese restaurant. ((laughter)) {weak applause} I don't think they did it. ((laughter)) I know a few of them and they wouldn't do anything like that. (6.0) years ago, I worked in a natural organic health food store in Seattle, Washington

272

Wright uses a long pause of about six seconds (l.219) that allows the audience to recognize the conclusion of the joke, calm down, and then concentrate on the continuation of his performance. Wright uses long pauses not only to prepare his

audience to switch from one topic to the next. He also makes use of shorter pauses in order to enhance the tension before revealing the punch line. Pauses before the punch line make the audience curious about what will follow and encourage them to think of possibilities so that they build up expectations that are usually not fulfilled. This

disappointment effect, caused by the surprise punch line, is the reason for humor in numerous jokes. But I also want to stress that the longer the pause lasts between the

delivery of the build-up section and the conclusion, the more likely the recipient is able to predict the punch line and therefore to lessen the joke's incongruous effect. It is obvious that the audience's amusement is reduced when they have correctly predicted the punch line.41 This is also stressed by Goldstein (Goldstein and McGhee 1972:134) who found that "jokes rated as more humorous had shorter

41

Wilson (1979) deals with the mechanisms by which jokes evoke amusement and provides a model of the various processes by which the form and the content of jokes evoke amusement.

273

latencies of response. [...]. A riddle or joke that drags on too long is not considered funny." Wright presents this strategy in his introductory

segment when he talks about what happened when he walked once in the forest. In this extract, Wright plays on a riddle, even a sort of Zen koan, all Americans know. He bases his joke on a specific joking structure so that the audience can make the association to the familiar

expression he implies in his joke. Introduction (IHAP)

27 28 29 30 31 S.W.: Audience: I was once walking through the forest alone and a tree fell right in front of me .. and I didn't hear it. ((laughter)) {applause}

In line 28 he delivers the information that "a tree fell right in front of" him and makes a short pause before providing the punch line. Wright bases his joke on the old logical question "If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?" The audience can therefore realize the allusion he wants to make with his joke and can build up a certain expectation about the following punch line during the short pause. At the same time, the pause enables him to build up the tension while they are waiting for the delivery. When he says: "and I didn't hear it" (l.29), the audience bursts into laughter and applause

274

(l.30/31) because he plays with the actual former joke and ridicules it by inventing his own punch line. In another story, he informs his audience that he worked in a pet store during his high school years. This extract fillers. Monopoly (ISHAP)
641 642 643 644 645 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 653 654 655 656 S.W.: when I was in high school I worked in a pet store and they fired me because, uh.. what happened was, uh.. ((weak laughter)) they had three snakes in there and, uh, one day I braided them. ((laughter)) I tried to pass it off as one snake with three heads. ((laughter)) oh, yes, it's very rare it's from Connecticut. ((laughter))

not

only

contains

short

pauses

but

also

pause

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience:

Wright

uses

three

pause

fillers

and

two

short

pauses

(l.644/645, 648) in this section in order to enhance the audience's mood. The audience immediately starts to laugh (l.646) because they know that the pauses serve to prepare the revelation of the punch line. Wright provides the punch line in line 648 when he reveals that he "braided" (l.648) the "three snakes" (l.647) one time in order to try "to pass it off as one snake with three heads" (l.650/651). The audience laughs heartily at both punch lines (l.649, 652) and their laughter is even reinforced in line 656 when 275

Wright tops it once more by claiming that "it's very rare it's from Connecticut" (l.654/655). Throughout the whole performance, Wright repeatedly makes use of short pauses whose function is always to build up tension and to make the audience wait for the revelation of the punch line. In contrast to Seinfeld, Wright does not seem to use pauses in order to gain planning time. Since he does not address the audience and is not interrupted by heckling, we can assume that the pauses he uses are part of the planning stage of his program. In the following

examples, Wright makes use of pauses in order to enhance the tension and therefore the audience's curiosity before the revelation of the punch line. In contrast to the

selection of excerpts above, Wright decides to make longer pauses in the following extracts: Ants (IHAP)
164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 S.W.: I'm saving money though because I'm planning a trip to Spain. so I bought an album that teaches you the language you put the album on you put headphones on you learn the language while you're sleeping (3.0) during the night the record skipped. ((laughter)) I got up the next day and could only stutter in Spanish. ((laughter)) {weak applause}

Audience: S.W.: Audience:

276

Wright

provides

again

long

introduction

in

which

he

informs his listeners that he is saving money in order to go to Spain. He tells the audience that he bought an album with which you can learn Spanish "while you're sleeping" (l.171). Wright introduces a pause of three seconds (l.172) which is meant to enhance the audience's interest in what will follow. One can imagine that his last remark will be the basis for the following punch line, but without knowing the joke, the audience cannot come up with the correct follow-up. Wright then continues by saying that "during the night the record skipped" (l.173). This statement makes the audience laugh (l.174) because they can imagine that the following lines will be funny even if Wright holds back the punch line. Lines 175 and 176 provide a surprising punch line that nobody had anticipated: he "got up the next day and could only stutter in Spanish." The following extract provides a further example when he talks about a trip with his friends. Cross Country (IHAP)
856 857 858 859 860 861 862 863 864 865 S.W.: last summer I drove cross country with a friend of mine. we split the driving we switched every half mile ((laughter)) the whole way across we only had one cassette tape to listen to (1.0) I can't remember what it was. ((laughter))

Audience: S.W.:

Audience:

277

He mentions the fact that they "only had one cassette tape to listen to" (l.862) and makes a short pause (l.863). This pause makes the audience aware of the fact that Wright will provide the punch line in the following lines, and

everybody thinks that he will express his annoyance at having heard the same music over and over. So the pause puts the audience on the wrong track, which is evidenced by the audience's reaction to the punch line in line 864. Humor derives from disappointment and surprise triggered by the punch line. Before turning to a new section, I also want to

mention Wright's use of cut-offs. From time to time, he uses them to introduce a new hilarious one-liner as in the following example. Introduction (IHAP)
60 61 62 63 about four years ago I wasno, it was yesterday. ((laughter)) {applause}

Audience:

He continues with nonsense talk and corrects himself, which displays his mock stupidity and an inability to keep his facts straight. He introduces a sentence with "about four years ago I was-" (l.60), then cuts it off in order to correct himself and reveals that "it was yesterday" (l.61). This correction provokes laughter and applause (l.62/63).

278

In line 532 Wright uses the same strategy as he used in lines 60 and 61. 7's and museums (IHAP)
532 533 534 535 today I was no that wasn't me. ((laughter)) {applause}

Audience:

He starts a sentence and then abruptly cuts it off in order to correct himself and make the audience laugh and applaud because of his confusion (l.534/535). To sum up, pauses play an important role in Wright's performance. They represent one of his major joking

techniques and principally serve to raise the tension and the audience's curiosity about what is to come. In contrast to Seinfeld, Wright does not use disfluencies to gain

planning time. His performances consist of well-prepared material which is not intended to include the audience. The pauses he uses serve to control his audience and the

highly-structured course of his performance.

13.2.7. Direct Address to the Audience In this section, I examine the excerpts in which Wright establishes direct contact to his audience with the use of discourse markers and politeness strategies. In general, I have to admit that Wright keeps his use of discourse

markers to a minimum and does not often direct his comments

279

to the audience. This behavior is in stark contrast to that of Seinfeld but probably results from the fact that

Wright's material for the most part consists of absurd and unreal stories that are not based on experience and

knowledge that his audience could share with him. In his program I Have a Pony, he introduces a new remark with the discourse marker "well" in line 49. Introduction (IHAP)
49 50 51 52 53 S.W.: Audience: well, you can't have everything where would you put it? ((laughter)) {applause}

Wright uses the discourse marker in this case to create a feeling of shared knowledge when he continues with a

statement everybody can accept. Wright directly addresses the audience for the first time when he says: "you can't have everything" (l.50). What follows is the immediate

punch line in form of a question: "where would you put it?" (l.51). Wright's first remark strikes us all as absolutely correct. Everybody agrees with the fact that we cannot buy everything. He knows this and wants his audience to laugh at the surprise and absurdity of his punch line in form of a question. Instead of mentioning financial obstacles to trying to have everything, he is worried about the space it

280

would

require.

This

unexpected

punch

line

causes

the

audience's laughter. Another example of the use of a discourse marker can be found only at the end of his first program. This

justifies the observation that Wright does not frequently make use of them. Jiggs Casey (IHAP)
757 758 759 760 "you know, you're the kind of guy I'd really like to hang around with." ((laughter))

Audience:

He starts with the discourse marker "you know" (l.757). When we analyze this segment we see that he does not use it to directly address his audience but the guy he pretends to speak to. Wright introduces it in this case as a positive politeness marker that he uses to pretend having contact with the man. He then continues his talk and can even get the audience to laugh (l.760). Wright uses the discourse marker "you know" in the same sense at the end of his second program (l.968) when he directly addresses the guy at the grocery store who was "pushing 30 shopping carts across the parking lot" (l.966). Shopping Carts (ISHAP)
965 966 967 968 S.W.: when I go to the grocery store and I see a guy pushing 30 shopping carts across the parking lot, sometimes I say: "you know,

281

969 970 971

Audience:

somebody else might wanna use one of those." ((laughter)) {applause}

In the segment in which he talks about his Shetland pony Nikkie, Wright uses the discourse marker "you know" (l.1077) for the first time in order to directly address his audience before revealing that his pony "was involved in a bizarre electrolysis accident" the previous summer (l.1082). Apt. (IHAP)
1070 1071 1072 1073 1074 1075 1076 1077 1078 1079 1080 1081 1082 1083 1084 1085 S.W.: I have a Shetland pony named Nikkie. I like to ride him around the apartment, if I have to flip an album, I ride him over to the stereo, ((weak laughter)) if I wanna make a sandwich, I ride him into the kitchen, you know, but sometimes his hooves slide on the tiles and he falls down. ((weak laughter)) last summer he was involved in a bizarre electrolysis accident. ((laughter)) all the hair was removed except for the tail.

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

The

absurdity

predominating

in

this

segment

makes

the

audience react with laughter (l.1083). The discourse marker has only the function of introducing a gap filler before he finally continues with his story. In his program I Still Have a Pony, Wright addresses his audience more often than before. In lines 72 and 82

282

(Quote (ISHAP)), he uses the discourse marker "you know" and in line 79 even an imperative. Quote (ISHAP)
63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: I did Jesus and Santa Claus on a seesaw. ((laughter)) {weak applause} I had Jesus on the low end even though he weighed less. ((laughter)) because he's Jesus ((laughter)) Jesus pissed off a lot of people you know, "will you stop turning the water into wine, I'm trying to take a shower." ((laughter)) what did Jesus ever do for Santa Claus on his birthday? ((laughter)) {applause} don't think about it, it doesn't mean anything. ((laughter)) you know, the New Testament is pretty old. ((weak laughter)) I think they should call them the Old Testament and the Most Recent Testament. ((laughter)) you know, when you look at a star, it may not even be there anymore because it takes so long for the light to get from there to here. it may be gone, it just looks like it's still there. that's how I see my old girlfriends. ((laughter))

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience:

The discourse marker in line 72 only serves as a gap filler whereas the one in line 82 is supposed to express shared knowledge and make the audience aware of the fact that he is talking about some kind of world knowledge everybody can comprehend. It is rare for Wright to use the discourse

283

marker

in

that

way

because

he

usually

creates

absurd

stories that do not lead the audience to the phenomenon of shared experience. The imperative in line 79 is a means to increase the effect of his following punch line (l.80) and thus enhances the audience's reaction (l.81). In line 89 he addresses the audience again with the discourse marker "you know" in order to show that he is directly addressing them and speaking of shared knowledge. This accumulation of

discourse markers could not be observed during his first program I Have a Pony. In line 765 (Water (ISHAP)), we find another

interesting example in which he refers to the unexpected ending of his previous story (l.757-764) by directly

addressing the audience and asking: "what the hell did you think was gonna happen?". Hitchhiker (ISHAP)
765 766 767 768 769 S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: what the hell did you think was gonna happen? ((laughter)) {beginning applause} you people are crazy. ((laughter))

This direct address resulting record strategies gives rise

from the use of to further

bald on and

laughter

applause (l.766/767) because it is unusual for Wright to contact his audience so frankly. He ends his story with one further direct remark in which he claims that "you people

284

are crazy" (l.768), which makes the audience laugh once more (l.769). Before finishing with this section, I want to compare the end of Wright's programs to Seinfeld's because they yield further and information behavior about the their contrasting Seinfeld

characters

towards

audience.

feels enthusiastic and repeatedly thanks his audience (Q + A, l.2353-2363) before he even starts with a questionanswer segment in which he directly addresses his audience. At the end of this segment, he starts thanking them again (l.2527) and even calls them "a wonderful audience"

(l.2528) before finishing his thanks. Wright finishes his show I Have a Pony by thanking his audience (Babies and skiing (IHAP), it" l.1163-1166) (l.1166). and emphasizing Seinfeld that he the

"appreciated audience's

Whereas and

enjoys an

standing

ovations

even

offers

extra

question-answer segment at the end of his program, Wright rapidly leaves the stage after both programs. Wright's

behavior, compared to Seinfeld, is relatively introverted. Nevertheless, he enjoys as much success as Seinfeld, who candidly approaches his audience during his performances. Seinfeld expresses the conventional formal politeness. He comes on stage, is well dressed and cares about the

appearance he makes in front of the audience, which is an aspect of negative politeness. Besides, it is obvious that

285

Seinfeld addresses the audience with positive politeness strategies because one of his aims is to integrate the audience by building solidarity and sympathy for the topics he talks about. Even if Seinfeld expresses hostility and aggression about specific "adversaries", he uses positive politeness strategies, such as modal verbs or hedges and hesitators in order to minimize the threat to the hearers' face. With Wright, however, we find a different technique for establishing solidarity. He does not care about formal politeness. At first glance, one could have the impression that he is not interested in his audience, but that turns out to be not the case. He is ultimately less threatening, because he creates solidarity not through conventional

politeness but by establishing common ground. His main aim is to show the audience that they are alike and share the same sort of humor by expressing in-group thinking, which is a component of positive politeness. In contrast to

Seinfeld, he does not connect with the audience via the "we"-strategy or direct address and integration, for

example, but rather trough a different form of solidarity and sympathy creation.

13.2.8. Transitions Whereas Seinfeld always tries to find a link between one story and the next, Wright constantly talks about topics

286

which

are

unrelated.

Nevertheless,

we

can

find

few

examples of transitions in his work, as, for example, from line 180 (Ants (IHAP)) onward. Wright uses his previous mention of his trip to Spain (l.164 ff.) to bring up his habit of flying. This is the first real transition during his performance. However, the next segment provides a new story and Wright stops talking about his flying habits. In the segment in which Wright speaks about his

contacts (7's and museums (IHAP)), he finally introduces a sentence which serves as a transition to his next topic when he says that he keeps the contacts on his desk next to the typewriter (l.546) which becomes the central part of his next story. As for his second program, Wright does not use any transitions at all. With regard to the minimal use of

transitions in his first program and the complete absence of them in the second program, I would like to reiterate that Wright's style of performing differs enormously from that of Seinfeld, for whom transitions are among one of the most important characteristics of his performances.

13.2.9. Summary The preceding analysis of Wright's material is an attempt to gain insight into the comedian's work and the

organization of his material and his performance. As the

287

preceding chapters have demonstrated, Wright has a large and varied repertoire of techniques for creating successful verbal humor. In my analysis, I have decided to concentrate not only on one contrasting style stand-up comedian, of performance of but to present the of the most

two

important comedians in the stand-up comedy scene. Whereas Seinfeld wins his audience over not only with the content of his jokes, but also with his natural style of

performance, Wright chooses a completely different strategy to make the audience appreciate his performance by

establishing common ground and in-group thinking. Seinfeld presents himself and his experience in his performances, whereas material. Wright He presents tells invented and well-prepared while steadily

invented

stories

pretending to be speaking about his off-stage persona and, therefore, creates most of his verbal humor out of

absurdities and incongruous situations. He does not get involved in interaction with his audience. Although Wright principally presents himself as the butt of his jokes, it is rare for him to present pure selfdeprecation. Most of the time, his humor tends to be evoked by the use of incongruities and therefore moves away from pure self-deprecation. One reason for this observation

might be Wright's style of performing in presenting fake life stories which are obviously absurd as such, and thus

288

contain incongruity as a crucial characteristic. This leads us to examine our previous to observation turn into that shared successful ridicule.

self-deprecation

tends

Whereas this is certainly true for Seinfeld's work, we cannot find any example in Wright's work that confirms this observation. In his entire performance there are no

explicit examples of shared ridicule, which can further be seen as a proof that he is not prone to contacting his audience, in contrast to Seinfeld. Wright captivates with his monotonous and apathetic style of performance and uses various techniques to render his material funny and his performance dynamic. Three of Wright's most important joking techniques are the use of hyperbole and wordplay and punning. Throughout his performance, he makes use of hyperbole in order to heighten the humorous effect not only by the content of his jokes, but also by completely exaggerating and overstating the ridiculousness of his stories. The technique ensures that the audience gets the joke and is therefore a means to control create his audience's reaction. that Wordplay the and punning

humorous

contexts

provoke

audience's

appreciation either by disappointing their expectations or by pretending to misunderstand a certain expression and thus presenting his own stupidity. One further central

joking technique is the use of disfluencies in the form of

289

pauses. Seinfeld

also makes use

of pauses to

calm

his

audience down, to build up tension, and make them wait for the what is about to follow, and to gain planning time. Nevertheless, he does not use pauses to the same extent than Wright does. For him, pauses become a means to control his audience without having to contact them in a direct manner. Having dealt in detail with both comedians, I can conclude that both possess extraordinary skill in comedy performance characters. even though they are very contrastive

290

14 Development of Humor in Stand-up Comedy Having dealt in detail with two of the most important

stand-up comedians, I want to address the question as to how well the various theories I have of humor cover stand-up

comedy. In my research,

confined

myself to the

essentials of the incongruity theory, the hostility theory, and the release theory. As already pointed out in section 7.4. (The General Theory of Verbal Humor), the semantic script-based theory of humor (SSTH) and the general theory of verbal humor (GTVH) by Raskin were not at the center of my focus because they attempt to explain the mechanisms of humor found in joke text rather than joke performance as it occurs in stand-up comedy. Raskin's theory is not a general theory. It only addresses scripts based on written words and therefore does not examine the various strategies that underlie the essential features of stand-up comedy

performances. It is limited to verbal humor, but excludes "non-verbal consideration humor" in that and it does not This take is into why I

paralanguage

prosody.

considered it crucial to look at linguistic features such as disfluencies, discourse markers, pauses, and

paralinguistic elements, because research on that topic is still very scant or even entirely non-existing. In my point of view, performance in stand-up comedy means linguistic behavior. Therefore, my data has to be a live performance

291

and

not

written

text

in

which

essential

linguistic

features of an oral performance are completely omitted. Throughout the analytical part of my study, I have

emphasized that

most of the jokes create humor by the

incongruity that the punch line expresses. An essential strategy of the humorist is to build up a joke with the intention of leading the audience to a false expectation. In revealing the punch line, they provide an unexpected outcome and thus confront the audience with a surprise ending. This play with expectation and surprise, which is often born of complete absurdity, expresses incongruity and therefore causes the audience's amusement. This observation is in concurrence with the view of Koestler's (1969:91), who stated that humour depends primarily on its surprise effect: the bisociative shock. To cause surprise the humorist must have a modicum of originality the ability to break away from the stereotyped routines of thought. However, we cannot consider stand-up comedy to be

completely covered by the incongruity theory42. In the same way that Freud's theory represents a comprehensive model combining different humor theories, the mechanisms of

42

For further reference see Shultz (1972,1976), Freud (1905/1960), Nerhardt (1977), Wilson (1979), McGhee (1979), Kant and Schopenhauer in Morreall (1987), in Eastman (1922), MacHovec (1988), Raskin (1985), Attardo (2001), Attardo and Chabanne (1992), Willmann (1940), Koestler (1969), Suls (1972,1977), Pepicello (1983).

292

stand-up

comedy

can

only

adequately

be

described

by

combination of incongruity and hostility theories. In a few cases I could even refer to release theories comedian brought when the

up taboo topics.43 These examples were

very rare, though, in both comedians' work. Wright and Seinfeld prove with their performances that ridicule serves as the essential consists and technique of a of stand-up of comedy. Their

material private,

combination cf.

self-ridicule, (1979). This

shared

ridicule;

Wilson

technique allows them to express hostility, superiority and social criticism without overtly having to attack the

target of their jokes. They confine themselves to verbal attacks and win the audience's solidarity as expressed by their reaction in form of laughter and applause. Comedians use self-deprecation to focus the attention on themselves and it allows them to continue their monologue without being interrupted by the audience. This proves that the direct contact with the audience is not an essential aspect of stand-up comedy. As for Seinfeld, I have to admit that the direct address to his audience represents one of the most important strategies of his performance, but in

general it cannot be considered essential. Wright succeeds

43

See Wright's joke about a restaurant called "Bulimia" (Camera (ISHAP), l.489-494) and his joke about his grandfather's death (Grandfather (ISHAP), l.931-944).

293

without overtly contacting his audience. Private and shared ridicule44, however, offer the opportunity to passively

include the audience without having to contact them in a direct manner. With this strategy, comedians are demanding the audience this to share their of attitude. They principally by the

achieve

feeling

solidarity,

expressed

audience's laughter, through the use of shared knowledge. Further, I want to emphasize that setting up

incongruity and expressing superiority are the only means by which humor stage is created and in stand-up style comedy. of The

comedians'

persona

their

performing

(their timing, their facial expressions and body language, their voice quality) contribute to a great extent to the success of their scripted delivery. and Although their material to is

generally

rehearsed,

they

have

master and is

spontaneity, flexibility.

imagination, It is

inventiveness, that every

originality performance

obvious

different and has to be altered according to the audience's reaction. I have shown to what extent Seinfeld and Wright make use of timing in order to control their audience and to ensure their amusement. Furthermore, they must always be prepared for heckling, which I have demonstrated with

44

Whereas Wright reduces the use of self-deprecation and shared ridicule to a minimum, Seinfeld makes frequent use of all three subcategories (cf. and compare sections 13.1.1. and 13.2.1.).

294

several extracts taken from Seinfeld's performance. None of the humor theories have taken any of these features into consideration. Whereas performance in conversational joke telling proves to be important and contributes to the

success of the joke, I consider it to be essential and of utmost importance in stand-up comedy. In stand-up comedy the comedians rarely address their audience in order to build up a rapport; their presentations mainly consist of monologues. It is evident that they must be able to sustain the audience's amusement through a combination of funny material and the presentation of their own stage persona. As demonstrated with Seinfeld, much of his material does not point to the presence of humor in the text itself. In this case he has to create it through his performance and his skill in getting the audience to join him in a

consequence through the use of shared knowledge. Comedians achieve their aim mainly through the use of various joke techniques, such as paralanguage, ridicule, and power

relations and politeness strategies. To conclude this section, I want to present various schematic diagrams45 developed from the observations made in the analytical parts of both comedians' material. They

45

In the diagrams I will use different sorts of arrows to clarify the relationships focused on: " " = consists of; " " = leads to; " " = results from.

295

illustrate that stand-up comedy represents a combination of various criteria taken from the humor theories and the presentation of a certain stage persona who makes use of several linguistic features in order to create a successful performance.

Fig.1 Stand-up Comedy consists of a combination of Material Stage Persona

Figure

presents

the

basic

and

therefore

the

most

important pillars of stand-up comedy, which consists of the stand-up comedian's material as well as their stage

persona. As both analytical parts have demonstrated, the comedians have to create a certain stage persona which with they can deliver their material in order to present a

successful performance. As I have shown with Seinfeld and Wright, there is no one particular type of stage persona that will spell success. Seinfeld's and Wright's stage

personae are not similar in the least. Nevertheless, they can be considered to be two of the most successful stand-up comedians. style of Whereas Wright in concentrates which he on an apathetic fake

performing

tells

about

situations, Seinfeld tries to present his off-stage persona 296

and

captivates

his

audience

with

everyday

topics

and

stories of his real life. The importance in stand-up comedy lies in the successful performance of the material. As the analysis of Seinfeld's material has shown, he even succeeds with material that is not at all funny, presenting as he does everyday topics most of the time. But the way he ridicules himself as he performs it makes the audience aware of their own foibles and shortcomings and therefore renders it humorous. Wright, however, does not play with shared knowledge, but invents material that describes

incongruous situations so that he mainly creates humor out of the combination of absurd situations and his monotonous and completely Seinfeld apathetic displays way of performing. politeness Besides, with his

whereas

negative

attention to formal politeness (black suit, tie), Wright creates solidarity not so much through politeness but by establishing common ground and in-group thinking. In that way, Wright can even be considered more polite than

Seinfeld because he wants to express sympathy with his audience through shared humor and a feeling of being alike. The following diagrams will provide a closer look at the main pillars of stand-up comedy. Figure 2 illustrates the branch 'Material' in detail.

297

Fig.2 Material

Incongruity

Superiority

Release

Release of tension Absurdity Unexpectedness Hostility Social Criticism Liberation (e.g. taboo topics)

Disappointment Surprise Verbal attack

Power

The above diagram is a detailed analysis of what I observed when dealing with Wright's and Seinfeld's material. It

starts with the assumption that the material consists of a combination superiority of and criteria the taken from the incongruity, is

release

theories.

Incongruity

expressed either by the inherent absurdity of the stories presented by the comedians, or by the intention of the humorists to lead to something unexpected resulting from surprising expressed opponents punch by lines. and Superiority aggression is principally specific social

hostility

towards or by

(cf.

Seinfeld:

Cab

Drivers),

criticism (cf. Seinfeld: Phones). Although social criticism has to be considered less aggressive than hostility, both

298

can be classified as a verbal attack because they express the speaker's power over their specific opponents. Criteria of the release theory can hardly be found in Seinfeld's and Wright's material. The few examples found (cf. Wright:

Camera) show that the use of humor in that situation leads to a release of tension and a liberation, particularly when speaking about taboo topics such as serious illnesses, as presented in Wright's example. Of course, it is important to mention that this diagram does not equally apply to both comedians. The analytical part has demonstrated that both comedians build their ridicule jokes on the expression of incongruity and superiority. But within these subcategories I was able to determine differences. Seinfeld, for example, reduces joking stories in which humor is created out of absurdities to a minimum, whereas Wright's jokes nearly always evoke humor by the absurdity of its contents. Among the few examples in which Seinfeld makes use of absurdity, we can mention one extract in the segment Supermarkets in which he tells about the desperate customers who are not sure if they have milk at home and yet may be confronted with the opposite problem of not knowing what to do with all the milk they have (l.869-970). It is a clear example of incongruity created by the absurdity and the hyperbole of his following punch lines when he starts dramatizing the situation by speaking of "a race against the clock with the

299

expiration date" further "giant absurd punch

(l.919).

Then, in

he continues one three might

describing be a eating day"

scenarios bowls of

which

cereal,

meals

(l.922/923) or using the milk to wash one's face (l.925) or bringing "cats in from all over the neighborhood" (l.927) and begging them in panic: "hurry up and drink it [...] come on, it's almost time" (l.928,930). Another example can be found in the segment Horses when he misinterprets the expression "horsepower" (l.2216-2235). In Wright's material absurdity plays a central role, which can be explained by the fact that he does not tell real stories but fake ones he pretends to have experienced. I just want to present one example to prove his general use of absurdities.46 In the segment Ants (IHAP), he comments that "6000 ants dressed up as rice and robbed a Chinese restaurant" (l.211/212). In his next comment, he even tops the absurdity by admitting that he does not "think they did it" (l.215), making

himself the center of ridicule. Wright offers up his own foolishness and ignorance with this remark and pretends not to have realized the impossibility of what he is talking about. In line 217 he even stresses his stupidity when he pretends to have known a few of the ants and assures the audience in a serious tone that "they wouldn't do anything

46

For further examples refer to section 13.2.

300

like

that"

(l.218).

He

pretends

not

to

realize

the

absurdity of his descriptions and constantly invents new situations that elicit appreciation can be by found virtue of their his

incongruity.

This

strategy

throughout

entire performance. Wright also creates humor by delivering punch lines in which the audience's expectation is not fulfilled. Consequently, they suffer a moment of

disappointment and this elicits laughter from the surprise effect the punch lines reveal. Examples can be found in the segment Introduction (IHAP) when he claims to have parked jets while his audience is thinking he means cars (l.1020), or in the segment Cross Country (IHAP) when he aims for the surprise effect by delivering a punch line most of his audience is not expecting (l.856-865). by Instead, that he he

emphasizes

his

hopeless

stupidity

admitting

cannot remember the one music cassette he had heard over and over while crossing the country: "I can't remember what it was" (l.864). Further, he continues creating incongruity expressed by unexpectedness when he misinterprets the

policeman's question when crossing the border (l.879-886). As far as the expression of superiority is concerned, the analysis has shown that both comedians use ridicule to express power over specific opponents. But Seinfeld makes greater use of it than Wright because he uses more examples of shared and private ridicule than Wright does. Both

301

mainly express hostility in their jokes, as for example in Seinfeld's cab driver's story (l.67-165) and in his

McDonald's story (l.1554-1590). As for Wright, we should mention the overtly aggressive behavior he shows towards claustrophobic persons when he uses their illness to make fun of himself (Camera (ISHAP), l.385-388). The adoption of superiority to express social

criticism can only be found in Seinfeld's routine on the unnecessary use of phones (Phones, l.44-66) when he talks about a problem we are all aware of. Wright does not

explicitly express social criticism in his jokes, which can be mainly explained by the fact that he does not include everyday topics in his material. As far as the expression of release and the liberation of taboo topics is concerned, I can state that neither comedian offers frequent examples of these phenomena. One explicit example could be found in Wright's performance when he talks about a restaurant by the name of "Bulimia" (Camera (ISHAP), l.489-494). In this extract he signals the audience that he is about to ridicule a serious problem but continues by commenting that "the line for the bathroom was incredible" (l.492). In this case Wright presents a

sensitive and delicate topic which is normally off limits within the context of entertainment.

302

The following diagram illustrates the examination of stage personae and their performance.

Fig.3 Stage Persona

Performance

Use of Joke Techniques

Use of Figurative Language Linguistic Features

The

analytical

part

of

my

study

has

shown

that

each

comedian has created an individual stage persona. Seinfeld retains his own natural speech patterns and has developed a stage persona which is very close to his off-stage persona, and the close identity of these two personae is reflected in his very normal on-stage

appearance. This allows him to make his delivery as natural as possible. He knows exactly how to display his

personality in front of his audience, which is the reason why he can deliver humor from the most well-known everyday topics and make the audience aware of their own foibles. Wright has created an individual style which can be characterized by his deliberately slow and particularly

monotonous style of presentation, which mainly consists of hilarious one-liners and short jokes. He does not talk 303

about everyday topics as such, but fakes everyday life and invents stories during his performances. His apathetic

style is known as "deadpan delivery" (Double 2005:286) and has become unique in the stand-up comedy scene. Although these two comedians represent such

contrastive stage personae, both principally make use of the same joke techniques, figurative language as well as various linguistic features of joke telling that guarantee the success of their performances. The following diagram illustrates the theoretical relationships among various

joke techniques.

Fig.3.1. Use of Joke Techniques

Paralanguage Body language

Ridicule Self-deprecation

Power relations Superiority

Intonation shift

Shared ridicule

Private ridicule shared + private ridicule

focus on the comedian as the butt of the joke

focus on a group of people as the butt of the joke

Inferiority

self-deprecation

Address to the audience

304

As

the

analysis

of

both

comedians

has

shown,

ridicule

represents the major joking technique Seinfeld and Wright use in their performances. Seinfeld constantly presents

self-deprecation and shared ridicule, which leads to the observation that successful self-deprecation even tends to turn into shared ridicule because he makes the audience aware of their own vices and weaknesses while presenting his own ones. One excellent example is found in the segment Late TV in which Seinfeld describes his own behavior when he is tired and wants to go to bed, but forces himself to stay awake. This does example serve clearly to shows that selfbut

deprecation

not

express

superiority

rather inferiority and is a form of ridicule that helps to express stories, sympathy. Seinfeld By relating admits embarrassing to not being personal perfect

openly

himself and allows the audience to laugh at his expense; cf. Freud (1905/1960). At the same time, he makes them aware of their own odd behaviors, which enhances their reaction and serves to turn self-deprecation into shared ridicule. In that case he keeps his power over his

"adversaries" by making them laugh at their own foibles that are to be generalized for all human beings. As the analysis has shown, Wright does not use shared ridicule at all, which can be explained by the fact that he does not talk about everyday topics which could remind the

305

audience

of

their

own

foibles.

Furthermore,

he

avoids

direct contact with the audience and therefore does not bring up any topics that could serve as a link between his behavior and that of the audience. As far as self-

deprecation is concerned, I have discovered that it is rare to find pure self-deprecation. In most cases, the extracts provide examples of the and creation move of humor from out of

incongruous

situations

away

pure

self-

deprecation. I justified this observation with the fact that Wright only tells of fake life situations he never really experienced. So incongruity necessarily takes on a crucial role. Therefore the observation that successful

self-deprecation tends to turn into shared ridicule would not be valid for Wright's material. That can be put down to the fact that he only talks about unreal and invented

situations and does not intend to integrate the audience in the same way as Seinfeld does. As far as private ridicule is concerned, we can state that both comedians make use of it in order to express their hostile feelings and, therefore, superiority over the group of people that is intended to be disparaged. The audience's reaction in form of laughter and applause proves their agreement and solidarity and strengthens the power relation expressed by the punch line of the joke.

306

As far as the use of paralanguage is concerned, it is obvious that both humorists make use of body language and intonation shifts to keep their performances lively and enhance their funniness. While dealing with the comedians' material, I noticed that many jokes are not funny when they are merely heard as an audio or read as an transcript, because listeners or readers do not have access to

essential paralinguistic features. This is why I took live performances and also DVD material into consideration in order to be able to interpret the audience's reactions in the correct way. To conclude, we can state that both comedians make use of the same joking techniques even if there are

quantitative differences, as shown in the above section. These differences go back to the different identities the two comedians present. Seinfeld is constantly willing to integrate his audience and uses himself to make the

audience aware of their own foibles. His outer appearance presents him as a normal citizen who identifies himself with the audience sitting in front of him. That is why his stage persona is very close, if not even identical to his real self. Besides, the choice of exclusive everyday topics shows his connection to the audience and everyday life. Although that material is not funny as such, he is

successful because of the way he presents the material and

307

the fact that he tells stories he has probably experienced himself. Wright, however, creates a different identity by inventing fake life stories. He does not want to integrate the audience via the stories he tells. His intention is completely different, even contrary to Seinfeld's. Wright makes his outer appearance part of his humor; he does not care about formal politeness. By presenting himself weirdly with his shaggy hair and hat, he uses his identity as a means to create humor. The contrast between their

identities is also expressed through their divergent use of politeness strategies. Seinfeld expresses formal

politeness. He comes on stage and is well dressed with a black suit and a tie. He cares about his outer appearance and therefore shows negative politeness. As far as his performance is concerned, it is constantly marked by

positive politeness strategies, such as the creation of solidarity by the use of the "we"-strategy, hesitators, hedges, question tags and modal verbs. Wright, however, only rarely in applies which politeness he strategies invents within fake his life

stories,

principally

situations that do not allow the audience to recognize shared knowledge. But he builds up solidarity in a

different way. He does not care about his outer appearance and therefore rejects formal negative politeness. His aim is to create solidarity and sympathy by establishing common

308

ground. He wants to show the audience that they are alike in sharing and also appreciating his funny stories. He works more with positive politeness strategies. The following diagram lays out some categories of

figurative language.

Fig.3.2. Use of Figurative Language

Wordplay
Puns Ambiguity

Implication and Allusion

Hyperbole/ Exaggeration

Caricature

My analysis has demonstrated that both comedians make use of figurative language in order to enhance the humorous effect of their material. In most of the jokes, we can observe the use of hyperbole and exaggeration to render the humor more obvious and thus to increase the laughter

response. This can be seen when Seinfeld jokes about why he does not like using other people's showers (Bathroom,

l.2286-2314). He overstates the situation when he comments that one "can never adjust the temperature right" (l.2301) and claims that "sometimes a 16th of an inch is a thousand degrees" (l.2304). As the audience's reaction proves, the use of hyperbole has even raised the level of laughter. In

309

his segment Supermarkets, we find a further example when he muses over ways to consume the milk before the expiration date (l.869-970). As far as Wright's use of hyperbole is concerned, we can observe that it serves to completely exaggerate and overstate the ridiculousness and the

absurdity of his stories. He uses hyperbole to make sure that his audience gets the punch line of his jokes whose humor mainly results from the clash of incongruities. An example can be found in the segment Winny (IHAP, l.981985), when he tells the audience about his absurd hobby of practicing limbo. Wright exaggerates in the following

remark when he stresses Winnie's skill by commenting that he is so good at limbo that "he could go under a rug" (l.984). In the introductory line of his song Rachel (IHAP, l.443-456) he informs the audience about the length of time he needed to compose the song (l.443). Up to that point, there has not been any concrete indication that he did not need so much time. Wright wants to build up tension by throwing in various punch lines in which he completely exaggerates so that the audience is well aware of the fact that he never took "a year and a half to write that" (l.443). To conclude the discussion of hyperbole, I want to mention caricature as a special case of hyperbole that I found only in Seinfeld's material. He used it mainly to

310

express his superiority over the persons ridiculed, as I have already stressed in Fig.2. Hyperbole in the form of caricature is mainly used in combination with paralanguage and intonation shifts that serve to enhance the audience's reaction and appreciation of the joke. This can be proved by various extracts taken from his material. Examples can be found in his mocking of the pilot's behavior when he informs the passengers in detail about what he is going to do (Air Travel, l.290-301) and when he mocks cab drivers' work (Cab drivers, l.94-122). To continue his mockery of the tiresome tasks on board, Seinfeld also overstates the stewardesses' work (Air Travel l.324-364) and describes it sarcastically as their "little show" (l.325) and "this

whole performance" (l.327). His strategy is to present them as ridiculous by explaining their work as a sort of theater or entertainment. Seinfeld decides here to introduce a part in which he sings, which serves to brighten up the mood and to enhance the ridiculous effect of his presentation.

Seinfeld often enhances his audience's reaction through the strategy of using body language. Sometimes he makes

gestures and facial expressions, as, for example, when he dances while imitating what the stewardess says. The use of paralanguage helps him to exaggerate aspects of what he is talking about and thus supports the humorous effect of his performance. Wright, on the contrary, does not use any

311

caricature at all in his joking material and does not use intonation and paralanguage as frequently as Seinfeld does, which results from his rather apathetic and monotonous way of performing. Nevertheless, I was able to find some

examples in which he uses gestures to enhance the humorous effect of what he is talking about. In the section Camera (ISHAP, l.476-481), for example, he makes fun of his pilot friend by revealing that he needs 45 minutes to back out his car and he starts making gesticulations on stage. He even turns his head to imitate his friend looking right and left as he backs out. This visualization enhances the

humorous effect of the story and therefore the audience's reaction to his story (l.481). Besides the use of hyperbole, both comedians also make use of wordplay and punning throughout their performances. In analyzing their material I discovered that they use this technique to pursue different aims. Seinfeld uses wordplay in the sense of pretending misunderstanding or a

misinterpretation of words, as for example in the segment Doctors (l.1276-1306), in which he plays with the term "rhinoplasty" and wants to imply that he thinks of a

"rhino" in the sense of a "rhinoceros". The same is true for his example in the segment Horses when he pretends to misunderstand the term "horsepower" (l.2216-2235). Seinfeld uses punning in a few examples when he plays with the

312

different

meanings

of

word

within

his

joke,

as

for

example in the segment Men & Women, when he plays with the expression "best man" (l.1307-1323) and in the segment

McDonald's when he plays on the different meanings of the word "spoon" (l.1600-1610). Wright uses wordplay to

disappoint the audience's expectation and to create humor out of surprise and unexpectedness. This can be seen in the segment Cross Country (IHAP) when he first speaks of the Stones and deliberately misleads his audience to assume he is referring to the Rolling Stones, only to explicitly refer to the Flintstones later in a punch line (l.846-855). In the introductory (IHAP), segment of his first performance pretends to

(Introduction

l.80-88),

Wright

misunderstand the policeman's question in lines 82 and 83. He misinterprets the term "miles per hour" and gives it a second meaning by thinking of how many miles he has to go in one hour. In the segment Hitchhiker (ISHAP), Wright makes use of punning when he plays on the double meaning of the word "foot" and pretends not to understand the correct meaning but instead interprets the term "foot" as the unit of measure (l.740-743). As far as implication and allusion are concerned, it is obvious that both comedians repeatedly make use of these techniques because they allow them to express some points of view in an indirect way. Seinfeld, for example, uses

313

implication in his joke about the cab drivers (Cab Drivers, l.67-165) to express his aggressive attitude and his

hostile feelings towards them. When he comments that "all you need is a face" (l.141), he implies that cab drivers do not have to be intelligent in order to do their job. So anybody could do it without problems. In line 143 he even calls the "face" (l.141) "their big qualification" (l.143) for doing their job. So both statements and their

implications emphasize Seinfeld's strategy of expressing power and portraying cab drivers as inferior to him and his audience. He also uses allusion, as shown in the example in which he plays on the word "rhinoplasty" (Doctors l.12761306). Seinfeld wants to make the audience aware of the fact that he thinks of a "rhino" in the sense of a

"rhinoceros" when he repeats it twice in the text. This allusion makes the audience laugh (l.1285). Wright does not use implication and allusion as frequently as Seinfeld. Nevertheless, we can find examples as in the segment Camera (ISHAP), when he speaks of a restaurant named "Bulimia's" (l.489-494). By revealing this name, he alludes to the serious disorder and makes the audience aware of the fact that he will ridicule a serious problem in his following comments. In the following, I want to conclude the section by presenting a final diagram that should clarify the use of

314

various comedy.

linguistic

aspects

of

joke

telling

in

stand-up

Fig.3.3 Linguistic Features of Joke Telling

Repetition

Disfluencies Discourse Markers

Intonation

Formulaicity

Timing

Long pauses

Short pauses

In

analyzing

Seinfeld's they

and

Wright's use of

material,

it

is

noticeable

that

make

various

linguistic

features in order to present their jokes and to enhance their humorous effect. Seinfeld often makes use of

repetition in order to gain planning time and to prepare a spontaneous reaction. He also uses repetition to provide a rhythmic pattern in his jokes, as in the extracts Air

Travel (l.166-173) and Supermarkets (l.764-768). Apart from this purpose, repetition also serves to stress the humorous effect, as in the Halloween segment (l.477-531) when he constantly repeats the need to "get candy". Wright does not use repetition as often as Seinfeld does. Most of the time

315

Wright

uses

repetitive

structures

in

the

form

of

parallelism and the adverb "again". Nevertheless, there are also extracts in which he uses it to increase the laughter and to strengthen the rhythmic pattern. Also, examples for the use of parallelism and anaphora can be found in the segments Quote (ISHAP, l.15-19) and My Grandfather (ISHAP, l.931-944). As stress far that as disfluencies are concerned, of the we main have to

pauses

represent

one

joking

techniques in Wright's material. He often uses them to make the audience calm down as in the extract Ants (IHAP, l.112126). He also makes use of pauses to control the audience's reaction when he wants them to wait in anticipation of what is to follow. This strategy can be observed in the segments Monopoly (ISHAP, l.641-656) and Ants (IHAP, l.164-178) when he deliberately waits before delivering the punch line. In contrast planning to Wright, and Seinfeld to also to uses be pauses to gain his

time

pretend

continuing

performance spontaneously. As for the use of discourse markers, I observed that Wright uses them as a means to establish contact with the audience. Although he rarely uses them, we can find some examples in the segments Apt. (IHAP, l.1077), Quote (ISHAP, l.72, 79, 82), and Water (IHAP, l.757, 762). Generally, we can conclude that Wright uses them more often in his second

316

album. Seinfeld also makes use of discourse markers to enhance the audience's anticipation of his next remark and thus to increase the resulting laughter. This can be seen, for example, in the segment Supermarkets (l.769-777). Apart from that, he uses discourse markers to establish contact with the audience or to stall for planning his next remark. In conclusion, note that intonation proves to be an important joking technique to render a performance lively and varied. This can be demonstrated by the analysis of the segment Phones (l.40-43) in Seinfeld's performance. It also serves to enhance the humorous effect, which can be seen in the segment Air Travel (l.237-258). As for Wright, it is interesting occasion, that he his also changes style his of intonation performing on is

although

general

apathetic and monotonous.

317

15 Conclusions In this study, I have investigated linguistic aspects of verbal humor in stand-up comedy and focused primarily on the ways in which successful stand-up comedians organize and perform their material. As stand-up comedy can be

considered a very young genre of humor, I first portrayed the importance of humor for our society in general, before presenting a brief overview of the history of stand-up comedy, which mainly had its roots in the commedia

dell'arte of the 16th and 17th century. Although I focused on the American stand-up scene, I also outlined the

development of stand-up in Great Britain and in Germany in order to present a more complete overview of this genre. Next, I briefly introduced the most important stand-up comedians of my study, Jerry Seinfeld and Steven Wright. Their real and recorded material served as the main data for this study and thus formed the basis for the analytical part. I characterized their personalities and their

techniques for performing their material by examining their contrasting styles and stage personae. Having had a closer look at them has proved that both stand-up comedians have excellent skills in performing and eliciting laughter, even if they have invented completely different stage personae. Nevertheless, the analytical part has also shown that they work with similar or even the same strategies and joke

318

techniques (the use of ridicule, paralanguage, and power relations), albeit with different frequencies. The analysis of their material therefore emphasizes that stand-up comedy does not rely on standard stage personae any more than it does standard audiences. Every comedian provides an

individual stage persona and has to cope with an individual audience. Each audience reacts differently to the

humorist's performance, which is a reason why spontaneity and performance skills, such as direct address to the

audience, the use of transitions, and the use of politeness strategies, reveal themselves to be essential

characteristics of a successful stand-up comedian. Prior to the analytical part I outlined the various humor theories and started my investigation by referring to the very beginning of humor research with its roots in the classical philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. First of all, I dealt in detail with the incongruity theory and its main founders and supporters, as for example Kant, Schopenhauer, Freud, Spencer and Koestler. I also referred to Raskin, who played a crucial role in the development I of the the

incongruity-resolution hostility theories

theory. and dealt

Further, with

examined

their

founders,

particularly Plato and Aristotle, Hobbes and Bergson. As far as the release theory is concerned, I have put the main emphasis on its most influential proponent Freud, who

319

invented the psychoanalytic theory of humor. When dealing with Freud, I came to the conclusion that his theory can be considered incongruity a synthesis and of release, hostility provides a and more

theories,

therefore

comprehensive model. To conclude the discussion about humor theories, I also introduced the general theory of verbal humor. However, I emphasized the important fact that this theory was developed on the basis of humor in script form and is therefore not fully applicable to stand-up comedy because it does not deal with essential features such as body language and intonation changes. As far as stand-up comedy is concerned, I investigated the application of the various humor theories and came to the conclusion that none of them covers all the relevant characteristics of stand-up comedy. Therefore, it is impossible to form a real

synthesis of incongruity, superiority and release theories. Rather, stand-up comedy consists of an overlap of single criteria taken from these three theories. In the following chapters I presented a general

discussion of various genres of humor and characteristic forms of jokes in order to establish the basis for the analytical part of the present study. Since my study

concentrates on verbal humor in stand-up comedy, I wanted to stress the differences we encounter when comparing it to conversational joke telling. That is why I have provided a

320

short discussion in which I have revealed the differences between dialogues in conversational joke telling and

monologues in stand-up comedy and dealt with the importance of performance and the (concentration, audience's timing, role intonation, in stand-up

material)

central

comedy (heckling, laughter). I have also looked at various joke techniques that stand-up comedians use in designing and delivering their material, and focused on

paralinguistic elements (gestures, facial expressions), the use of ridicule, and the use of figurative language. I have considered the use of wordplay and puns, implication and allusion, and hyperbole as important pillars of successful stand-up comedy and brought them in connection with various linguistic aspects of joke telling, such as repetition, disfluencies, discourse markers, and intonation changes. It is obvious that research on texts played a central role over centuries; however, research on verbal humor in form of aspects of timing, intonation changes, paralinguistic elements as we are find in Gumperz' interactional

sociolinguistics theory, was not taken into account. Such features are completely omitted in written texts, which is why I concentrate on the analysis of live performances. The main part of my study has contributed to the analysis of Seinfeld's investigated and to Wright's what authentic they material employed and has

extent

linguistic

321

features

and

figurative of my

language study. In

examined particular,

in I

the have

theoretical

part

concentrated on the presentation of ridicule (private and shared ridicule, and self-deprecation), paralinguistic

choices, repetition, hyperbole, wordplay and punning and disfluencies in Wright's and Seinfeld's performances. In addition, I have examined the role of the audience and the comedian's direct address to the audience. Depending on the different stage personae these comedians represent, some features others. may Some be may more be significant absent and predominant such as than

altogether,

shared

ridicule or transitions in Wright's material. This absence might be explained by the fact that Wright principally creates humor out of absurd, surreal stories, and pretends to have experienced these fake life situations that do not allow the audience to find shared knowledge and experience in his material. Taking into consideration the overall investigation of my data, I consider stand-up comedy to be a highly

demanding comedy field in which the art of performance is of the utmost importance. As the examples of Seinfeld and Wright have confirmed, there are highly varied strategies that can be pursued to create a certain stage persona. Wright and Seinfeld demonstrate that these stage personae are individual and vary from one comedian to another.

322

Nevertheless, their organization often contains the same or at least very similar strategies and techniques even if their characters diverge wildly. I observed numerous

similarities in the use of ridicule and intonation and paralanguage. Nevertheless, I have also presented

differences, as for example the material these comedians use. The data has shown that Seinfeld principally uses situations we are all familiar with to create humor,

whereas Wright mainly provides fake life stories and causes humor through the incongruity revealed in his material. As far as ridicule is concerned, I have argued in the analysis of Seinfeld that self-deprecation has a tendency to turn into shared ridicule, a general rule that turns out not to apply to Wright's data, which is a further interesting observation that deserves mention. Having dealt in detail with these two characters and their creation of humor, I come to the conclusion that a large number of their techniques can be assigned to general categories. Although Jerry Seinfeld and Steven Wright were initially different, even contrastive, I was able to

determine similarities between them as far as their use of certain strategies and techniques is concerned. So it turns out that they nevertheless use the general techniques to create humor, which is the reason they may be applied to other stand-up comedians' performances.

323

Finally,

discussed

the

development

of

humor

in

stand-up comedy and addressed the question of the extent to which the various theories of humor cover stand-up comedy. In order to render the results of my analytical study

visually, I designed various diagrams (cf. Fig.1: Stand-up Comedy, Fig.2: Material, Fig.3: Stage Persona, Fig.3.1.: Use of Joke Techniques, Fig.3.2.: Use of Figurative

Language, Fig.3.3.: Linguistic Features of Joke Telling) that are meant to clarify the creation of humor in stand-up comedy and reveal the various elements responsible for a successful performance. I have come to the conclusion that most of the jokes analyzed create humor through the

incongruity expressed by the punch line, which indicates the comedian's and intention to confront the audience in order with to

unexpected

disappointing

situations

increase their attention and appreciation. Furthermore, these diagrams demonstrate that the

findings can be generalized because one could apply the various types of performances to other stand-up comedians. Classifying Jerry Seinfeld and Steven Wright on a scale of politeness, we observe that Jerry Seinfeld tends more

toward "negative politeness" (formal dress, real/realistic stories), whereas Steven Wright tends toward the opposite direction of "positive politeness" (shaggy hair, lack of attention to formal politeness, fake life stories).

324

Nevertheless, their different types of performances can be applied to other comedians, such as Dave Chappelle for example. As far as his material is concerned, we could classify him in between. His material is a mixture as

compared to Seinfeld's and Wright's. Dave Chappelle often starts with real stories (as does Jerry Seinfeld), but ends in unreal, even ridiculous and absurd stories (comparable to Wright's material). It must be noted that there are aspects of performances that do not fit (such as

visualizations or imitations), but I was able to observe that the techniques often stay the same. Prosody does not cover imitations, Jerry and an interesting could question Steven would be

whether

Seinfeld

present

Wright's

material and vice versa. People do imitate other people's material. Dave Chappelle, for example, is famous for

imitating white people in his shows. Nevertheless, I would consider it difficult for Jerry Seinfeld and Steven Wright to present each other's material because of their

contrastive characters. Seinfeld is the realistic New York business type who deals with familiar, everyday topics, whereas Wright does not even care about formal politeness and even uses his awkward outer appearance to strengthen the absurdity of his fake life stories. Their characters are too dissimilar and there is only overlap as far as their general techniques are concerned.

325

To conclude this study, I want to provide an outlook for future research in this comedy field. As I mentioned above, self-deprecation has a tendency to turn into shared ridicule, Seinfeld's a phenomenon which could this be observed was in not

material.

However,

observation

corroborated by Wright's data. I would consider this issue to be a basis for further research when analyzing the

material of various stand-up humorists. Also, future research could envisage examining the work of further stand-up comedians who tend to have a

similar style of performing. It might be interesting to see how much they influenced the work of Seinfeld and Wright and the extent to which their work was influenced by the verbal humor of Seinfeld and Wright. In addition, research should not neglect the

audience's reaction and could examine to what extent their appreciation depends on the comedian's direct address to them and how their reactions in turn influence the

comedian's performance. Taking into consideration the different stage personae Seinfeld and Wright represent, these developments offer a challenging research context in which to continue examining the various features with which humorists create their

identities and integrate them in their humor performances. Closely connected with the identity of the stand-up

326

comedians, it might be worth examining the different power relations humorists which display towards they their audience on and the

investigating

reactions

provoke

audience's side. In conclusion, a complete analysis of stand-up comedy requires further research within that relatively young and unexplored genre in order to provide a more comprehensive analysis. In this sense, this thesis should be considered an attempt to gain insight into the stand-up comedian's work and the organization of their material and

performance.

327

16 References

Ajaye, Franklyn. 2002. Comic insights: the art of stand-up comedy. Los Angeles: Silman-James Press.

Alexander, Richard J. 1997. Aspects of verbal humour in English. Tbingen: Narr.

Allen, Steve. How to be funny. Discovering the comic in you. 1998: Prometheus Books.

Apte, Mahadev L. 1983. Humor research, methodology, and theory in anthropology. Handbook of humor research vol.I, ed. by Paul E. McGhee; and Jeffrey H.

Goldstein, 183-212. New York: Springer.

----. 1985. Humor and laughter: an anthropological approach. London: Cornell University Press.

Aristotle. 1968. Poetics. London: Oxford University Press.

Asimov's, Isaac. 1971. Treasury of humor. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

328

Attardo,

Salvatore.

1993.

Violation

of

conversational

maxims and cooperation: The case of jokes. Journal of Pragmatics 19. 537-558.

----. 1994. Linguistic theories of humor. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

----.

2001.

Humorous

texts:

semantic

and

pragmatic

analysis. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

----; and Jean-Charles Chabanne. 1992. Jokes as a text type. Humor 5-1/2. 165-176.

----; and Victor Raskin. 1991. Script theory revis(it)ed: joke similarity and joke representation model. Humor 4-3/4. 293-347.

----

et

al.

1994.

The

linear

organization

of

jokes:

analysis of two thousand texts. Humor 7-1. 27-54.

Baldick,

Chris.

1990.

The

Concise

Oxford

Dictionary

of

Literary Terms. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Barnes,

Jonathan

et

al.

1977.

Articles

on

Aristotle.

London: Duckworth.

329

Barron, James W. 1999. Humor and psyche: psychoanalytic perspectives. Hillsdale: The Analytic Press.

Benton,

William

et

al.

1982.

The

New

Encyclopaedia V. Chicago:

Britannica.

Micropaedia

Volume

Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Berger,

Arthur

Asa.

1993.

An

anatomy

of

humor.

New

Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

Bergler, Edmund. 1956. Laughter and the sense of humor. New York: Intercontinental Medical Book Corporation.

Bergson, Henri. 1911. Laughter: an essay on the meaning of the comic. London: Dodo Press.

Boskin,

Joseph.

1979.

Humor

and

social

change

in

20th

century America. Boston, MA: Boston Public Library.

Boskin, Joeph (ed.) 1997. The humor prism in 20th-century America. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press.

Brandreth, Gyles. 1982. Wordplay. London: Severn House.

Brown, Penelope; and Stephen Levinson. 1978. Some

330

universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chafe, Wallace. 1982. Integration and involvement in speaking, writing, and oral literature. Spoken and written language: Advances in discourse processes, vol. 9, ed. by Deborah Tannen, 35-54. Norwood: Ablex.

----. 1994. Discourse, consciousness and time. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

----. 2007. The importance of not being earnest. The feeling behind laughter and humor. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: Benjamins.

Chapman, Antony J. 1983. Humor and laughter in social interaction and some implications for humor research. Handbook of humor research vol.I, ed. by Paul E. McGhee and Jeffrey H. Goldstein, 135157. New York: Springer.

----; and Hugh C. Foot. 1977. It's a funny thing, humour. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

331

----; ----. 1996. Humor and laughter: theory, research, and applications. Publishers. New Brunswick: Transaction

Charney, Maurice. 1983. Comic creativity in plays, films, and jokes. Handbook of humor research, ed. by Paul E. McGhee and Jeffrey H. Goldstein, 33-40. New

York: Springer.

Chiaro,

Delia.

1992.

The

language

of

jokes:

analyzing

verbal play. London: Routledge.

Crystal,

David.

1980.

dictionary

of

linguistics

and

phonetics, 4th edition. Oxford: Blackwell.

----. 1998. Language play. London: Penguin Books.

Cuddon, J.A. 1977. A dictionary of literary terms. London: Deutsch.

De Bono, Edward. 2007. Thinking Course. Powerful tools to transform your thinking. Harlow: BBC Active.

Deleski,

Ronnie.

2006.

Stand-up

comedy

and

linguistic

variation. LIN 515 Research Paper, Tempe, AZ: ASU.

332

Dickson, Paul. 1984. Jokes. New York: Delacorte Press.

Dilman, Ilham. 1983. Freud and human nature. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Double, Oliver. 2005. Getting the joke. The inner workings of stand-up comedy. London: Methuen.

Dressler, Richard A.; and Roger J. Kreuz. 2000. Transcribing oral discourse: A survey and model system. Discourse Processes 29. 25-36.

Eastman, Max. 1922. The sense of humor. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

----. 1936 (2008). The enjoyment of laughter. New York: Transaction Publishers.

Fine, Gary Alan. 1983. Sociological approaches to the study of humor. Handbook of humor research vol.I, ed. by Paul E. McGhee and Jeffrey H. Goldstein, 159-181. New York: Springer.

Forabosco, Giovannantonio. 1992. Cognitive aspects of the humor process: the concept of incongruity. Humor

333

5-1/2. 45-68.

Freud, Sigmund. 1905 (1960). Jokes and their relation to the unconscious, trans. by James Strachey. New York: Norton. [German original: Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewussten. Vienna]

----. 1920 (1961). Beyond the pleasure principle, trans. by James Strachey. New York: Norton. [German

original: Jenseits des Lustprinzips. Leipzig]

Fry, William F. 1963. Sweet Madness: a study of humor. Palo Alto, CA: Pacific Books.

----. 1977. The appeasement function of mirthful laughter. It's a funny thing, humour, ed. by Anthony J. Chapman; and Hugh C. Foot, 23-26. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

----; and Waleed A. Salameh (eds.) 1993. Advances in humor and psychotherapy. Sarasota, Florida: Professional Resource Press.

334

Geller, Linda Gibson. 1985. Wordplay and language learning for children. Illinois: National Council of

Teachers of English.

Giora, Rachel. 1991. On the cognitive aspects of the joke. Journal of Pragmatics 16, 465-485.

Goffman, Erving. 1986. Frame analysis. An essay on the organization of experience. New York: North Eastern University Press.

Goldstein, Jeffrey H. 1972. An annotated bibliography of published papers on humor in the research literature and an analysis of trends: 1900-1971. The psychology of humor, ed. by Jeffrey H. Goldstein; and Paul E. Ghee, 263-283. New York: Academic Press.

----; and Paul E. McGhee. 1972. The psychology of humor. New York: Academic Press.

Goody, Esther N. 1978. Questions and politeness: strategies in social interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

335

Green, T.A.; and W.J. Pepicello. 1979. The folk-riddle: a redefinition of terms. Western Folklore 38. 3-20.

Greenbaum, Andrea. 1999. Stand-up comedy as rhetorical argument: an investigation of comic culture. Humor 12.1. 33-46.

Greig, J.Y.T. 1923 (1969). The psychology of laughter and comedy. New York: Cooper Square.

Grice, H. Paul. 1975. Logic and conversation. Syntax and semantics, vol.3: Speech Acts, ed. by Peter Cole; and J.L. Morgan, 41-58. New York: Academic Press.

Grotjahn,

Martin.

1957.

Vom

Sinn

des

Lachens.

Mnchen:

Kindler.

Gruner, Charles R. 1978. Understanding laughter. Chicago: Nelson-Hall.

----. 1997. The game of humor: a comprehensive theory of why we laugh. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.

336

Gumperz, John J. 1982. Discourse Strategies. Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Hobbes, Thomas. 1650 (1999). Human nature and de corpore politico. New York: Oxford University Press.

----. 1651 (1985). Leviathan. London: Penguin Books.

----. 1843 (1962). The English works of Thomas Hobbes. London: John Bohn.

Hockett,

Charles

F.

1960

(1977).

Jokes.

The

view

from

language, ed. by C. F. Hockett, 257-289. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.

Holmes, Janet. 1992. An introduction to sociolinguistics. London: Longman.

----. 1995. Women, men and politeness. New York: Longman.

----; and Maria Stubbe. 2003. Power and politeness in the workplace. London: Longman.

----; and Miriam Meyerhoff (eds.) 2003. The

337

handbook of language and gender. Malden: Blackwell.

Kane, Thomas R.; Jerry Suls; and James T. Tedeschi. Humour as a tool of social interaction. It's a funny

thing, humour, ed. by Anthony J. Chapman; and Hugh C. Foot, 13-16. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Keith-Spiegel, Patricia. 1972. Early conceptions of humor: varieties and issues. The psychology of humor, ed. by Jeffrey H. Goldstein; and Paul E. Ghee, 339. New York: Academic Press.

Kline,

Paul.

The

psychoanalytic

theory

of

humor

and

laughter. 1977. It's a funny thing, humour, ed. by Anthony J. Chapman; and Hugh C. Foot, 7-12. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Koestler, Arthur. 1969. The act of creation. London: Hutchinson & Co.

Kraepelin, Emil. 2001. Zur Psychologie des Komischen. Schutterwald/Baden: Fischer.

La Fave, Lawrence; Jay Haddad; and William A. Maesen. 1996. Superiority, enhanced self-esteem, and perceived

338

incongruity

humour

theory.

Humor

and

laughter:

theory, research and applications, ed. by Anthony J. Chapman; and Hugh C. Foot, 63-91. New

Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.

Labov,

Williams.

1972.

Language

in

the

inner

city.

Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Lakoff, Robin. 1973. The logic of politeness; or, minding your p's and q's. Papers from the ninth regional meeting of the Chicago linguistic society. Chicago: Linguistic Society. 292-305.

----. 1990. Talking power: the politics of language. New York: Basic Books.

----. 2003. Language, gender, and politics: putting "women" and "power" in the same sentence. The handbook of language and gender, ed. by Janet Holmes; and Miriam Meyerhoff. Malden: Blackwell.

----.

2004.

Language

and

Woman's

Place.

Oxford:

Oxford

University Press.

339

Langevin, Ronald; and H.I. Day. 1972. Physiological correlates of humor. The psychology of humor, ed. by Jeffrey H. Goldstein; and Paul E. Ghee, 129-142. New York: Academic Press.

Langford, David. 1994. Analysing talk. London: Macmillan.

Leach, Edmund. 1964. Anthropological aspects of language: animal categories and verbal abuse. New directions in the study of language, ed. by Eric H. Lenneberg, 23-63. Massachusetts: The M.I.T. Press.

Lederer, Richard. 1988. Get thee to a punnery. Layton: Wyrick & Company.

Lerner,

G.H.

2004.

Conversation

analysis.

Amsterdam:

Benjamins.

Limon, John. 2000. Stand-up comedy in theory, or, abjection in America. Durham and London: Duke University

Press.

Lipps, Theodor; und Richard Maria Wagner. Komik und Humor: eine psychologisch-sthetische Untersuchung.

Hamburg: Voss.

340

MacHovec,

Frank

J.

1988.

Humor:

theory,

history,

applications. Springfield: Thomas.

Martin, Rod A. 1998. Approaches to the sense of humor: a historical overview. The sense of humor, ed. by Willibald Ruch, 15-60. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Martin, Steve. 2007. Born standing up. New York: Simon and Schuster.

McCarthy,

Michael; of

and

Ronald them:

Carter. hyperbole

2004. in

There's everyday

millions

conversation. Journal of Pragmatics 36. 149-184.

McGhee, Paul. 1977. A model of the origins and early development of incongruity-based humour. It's a funny thing, humour, ed. by Anthony J. Chapman; and Hugh C. Foot, 27-36. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

---. 1979. Humor, its origin and development. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company.

----; and Jeffrey Goldstein (eds.) 1983. Handbook of humor research. New York, NY: Springer.

341

McIlvenny,

Paul.

2006.

really

wanna

make

you

laugh:

stand-up comedy and audience response. Oahu, HI: University of Oahu.

Mills,

Sara.

2003.

Gender

and

Politeness.

Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Mintz, Lawrence E. 1977. American Humour and the spirit of the times. J. It's a funny and thing, Hugh humour, C. Foot, ed. by

Anthony

Chapman;

17-21.

Oxford: Pergamon Press.

----. 1983. Humor and popular culture. Handbook of humor research vol.II, ed. by Paul E. McGhee; and Jeffrey H. Goldstein, 129-142. New York: Springer.

Morreall, John (ed.) 1987. The philosophy of laughter and humor. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Mller, Sabine. 2005. Discourse markers in native and nonnative English discourse. Amsterdam and

Philadelphia: Benjamins.

342

Napier, Valantyne. 1996. Glossary of terms used in variety, vaudeville, revue & pantomime. Westbury, Wiltshire, England: R.N.R. Charlesworth.

Nash,

Walter. Longman.

1985.

The

language

of

humour.

London:

Nerhardt, Gran. 1977. Operationalization of incongruity in humour research: a critique and suggestions. It's a funny thing, humour, ed. by Anthony J. Chapman; and Hugh C. Foot, 47-51. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Nilsen, Alleen Pace. 1999. Living language. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

----.

2005. "Humor." The New Dictionary of the History of Ideas: vol. 3, ed. by Maryanne Cline Horowitz. New York, NY: Charles Scribners Sons. 1061-1064.

----; and Don L. F. Nilsen. 2000. Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Humor. Westport, CT: Greenwood.

Nilson, Don L.F. 1978. Language play: an introduction to linguistics. Rowley: Newbury House.

343

----.

1992.

Humor

in

American

literature:

selected

annotated bibliography. New York: Garland.

----. 1993.

Humor scholarship:

a research

bibliography.

Westport: Greenwood Press.

----. 1998.

Humor in eighteenth-

and nineteenth-century

British literature: a reference guide. Westport, CT: Greenwood.

----; and Alleen Nilsen. 1987. Humor, language, and sex roles in American culture. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, ed. by M. L. Apte; and J. A. Fishman, 67-78. Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter.

Norrick, Neal R. 1982. On the semantics of overstatement. Sprache Detering; erkennen Jrgen und verstehen, ed. and by Klaus

Schmidt-Radefeldt;

Wolfgang

Sucharowski, 168-176. Tbingen: Niemeyer.

----. 1989. Intertextuality in humor. Humor 2. 117-139.

----. 1993. Conversational joking. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

344

----. 1993a. Repetition in canned jokes and spontaneous conversational joking. Humor 6. 385-402.

----.

2000.

Conversational

narrative.

Philadelphia:

Benjamins.

----. 2001. On the conversational performance of narrative jokes: Toward an account of timing. Humor 14-3. 255-274.

----. 2003. Issues in conversational joking. Journal of Pragmatics 35. 1333-1359.

----. 2004. Non-verbal humor and joke performance. Humor 17-4. 401-409.

----. 2005. Saarbrcken Corpus of Spoken English (SCoSE): Jokes. http://www.uni-saarland.de/fak4/norrick/index2.htm. (16.04.2005)

Oring, Elliott. 2003. Engaging humor. Illinois: Board of Trustees.

345

Pepicello,

W.J.

1987.

Pragmatics

of

humorous

language.

International Journal of the Sociology of Language, ed. by M. L. Apte; and J. A. Fishman, 27-35.

Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter.

----; and Robert W. Weisberg. 1983. Linguistics

and humor.

Handbook of humor research vol.I, ed. by Paul E. McGhee; and Jeffrey H. Goldstein, 59-83. New York: Springer.

Perret, Gene. 1994. Successful stand-up comedy. Hollywood: Samuel French.

Preisendanz,

Wolfgang;

and

R.

Warning

(eds.)

1976.

Das

Komische. Mnchen: Fink.

Prevignano, Carlo L; and Paul J. Thibault (eds.) 2003. Discussing conversation analysis. The work of

Emanuel A. Schegloff. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Raskin,

Victor.

1985.

Semantic

mechanisms

of

humor.

Dordrecht: Reidel.

----. 1987. Linguistic heuristics of humor: a script-based semantic approach. International Journal of the

346

Sociology of Language, ed. by M. L. Apte; and J. A. Fishman, 11-25. Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter.

----. 1998. The sense of humor and the truth. The sense of humor, ed. by Willibald Ruch, 95-108. Berlin:

Mouton de Gruyter.

Ritchie, Graeme. 2004. The linguistic analysis of jokes. London: Routledge.

Ross,

Alison.

1998.

The

language

of

humour.

London:

Routledge.

Rothbart, Mary K.; and Diana Pien. 1977. Elephants and marshmallows: a theoretical synthesis of incongruity-resolution and arousal theories of humour. It's a funny thing, humour, ed. by Anthony J. Chapman; and Hugh C. Foot, 37-40. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Ruch, Willibald (ed.). 1998. The sense of humor. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

347

Rutter, Jason. 1997. Stand-up as interaction: performance and audience in comedy venues. Salford: University of Salford dissertation.

Sacks, Harvey. 1972. On the analyzability of stories by children. Directions in sociolinguistics, ed. by J. J. Gumperz; and D. Hymes, 325-45. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

----. 1973. On some puns with some intimations. Report of the twenty-third and annual language roundtable studies, meeting by R. in W.

linguistics

ed.

Shuy, 135-44. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

----. 1974. An analysis of the course of a joke's telling. Explorations in the ethnography of speaking, ed. by R. Bauman; and J. Sherzer, 337-53. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

----. 1992. Lectures on conversation, 2 vols., ed. by G. Jefferson. Oxford: Blackwell.

Schegloff, Emanuel A. 1968. Sequencing in conversational openings. American Anthropologist 70. 1075-95.

348

----. 1982. Discourse as an interactional achievement: some uses of 'uh huh' and other things that come between sentences. Analyzing discourse: Text and talk

(Georgetown University Roundtable on Languages and Linguistics 1981), ed. by D. Tannen, 71-93.

Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

----. 1987. Some sources of misunderstanding in talk-ininteraction. Linguistics 25. 201-18.

----. 1988. Discourse as an interactional achievement II: An exercise in conversation analysis. Linguistics in context, ed. by D. Tannen, 135-58. Norwood:

Ablex.

Schenkein, James N. 1972. Towards an analysis of natural conversation and the sense of heheh. Semiotica 6. 344-77.

Schiffrin,

Deborah.

1987.

Discourse

markers.

Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Shultz, T.R. 1996 (1976). A cognitive-developmental analysis research of and humor. Humor and laughter: by theory, J.

applications,

ed.

Anthony

349

Chapman; and Hugh C. Foot, 11-36. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.

Seinfeld,

Jerry.

1993.

Seinlanguage.

New

York:

Bantam

Books.

----. 1998. "I'm Telling You for the Last Time" - Live on Broadway. DVD. New York: Columbus 81 Productions.

----. 1998. "I'm Telling You for the Last Time" - Live on Broadway. CD. New York: Universal Records.

Simpson, J.A.; and E.S.C. Weiner. 1989. The Oxford English Dictionary, vol. XVI, 2nd edition. Oxford:

Clarendon Press.

Spencer-Oatey, Helen. 2000. Culturally Speaking. Managing Rapport Continuum. in Talk across Cultures. London:

----. 2007. Theories of identity and the analysis of face. Journal of Pragmatics 39: 639656.

----.

2009.

Face

and

identity. ed.

Face, by

Communication

and

Social

Interaction,

Francesca

Bargiela-

350

Chiappini;

and

Michael

Haugh,

137-154.

London:

Equinox Publishing.

----;

and

Skriye

Ruhi.

2007.

Identity,

face

and

(im)politeness (special issue editorial). Journal of Pragmatics 39. 635638.

Suls, Jerry M. 1972. A two-stage model for the appreciation of jokes and cartoons: an information-processing analysis. The psychology of humor, ed. by Jeffrey H. Goldstein; and Paul E. McGhee, 81-100. New

York: Academic Press.

----. 1977. Cognitive and disparagement theories of humour: a theoretical and empirical synthesis. It's a funny thing, humour, ed. by Anthony J. Chapman; and Hugh C. Foot, 41-45. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

----.

1983.

Cognitive

processes

in

humor

appreciation.

Handbook of humor research vol.I, ed. by Paul E. McGhee; and Jeffrey H. Goldstein, 39-57. New York: Springer.

Tannen, Deborah. 1984. Conversational style. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. 351

----.

1989.

Talking in

voices.

Repetition,

dialogue,

and

imagery

conversational

discourse.

Cambridge:

Cambrige University Press.

Trask, R.L. 1997. A student's dictionary of language and linguistics. London: Arnold.

Watts, Richard J. 2003. Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wellington Corpus

Willmann, J.M. 1940. An analysis of humour and laughter. American Journal of Psychology 53. 70-85.

Wilson, Christopher P. 1979. Jokes. Form, content, use and function. London: Academic Press.

Wray,

Alison.

2002.

Formulaic

Language

and

Lexicon.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wright, Steven. 1985. I Have a Pony. CD. Burbank: Warner Bros. Records.

352

----. 2006. When the Leaves Blow Away. DVD. Chatsworth: Pyramids and Ponies, MMVII Image Entertainment.

----. 2007. I Still Have a Pony. CD. New York: Comedy Central Records.

Zillmann,

Dolf.

Disparagement

humor.

Handbook

of

humor

research vol.I, ed. by Paul E. McGhee; and Jeffrey H. Goldstein, 85-107. New York: Springer.

353

17 Appendix 17.1. Transcription Conventions she's out. oh yeah? A period shows falling tone in the

preceding element, suggesting finality. A question mark shows rising tone in the preceding so, now, bu- but element(cf. yes-no question intonation). A comma indicates a level, continuing intonation, suggesting non-finality. A single dash indicates a cut-off (often with DAMN a glottal stop), including truncated intonation units. The use of capitals shows heavy stress or indicates that speech is louder than surrounding discourse. dearest Utterances spoken more softly than the surrounding degree signs. says "oh" (2.0) Double quotes mark speech set off by a shift in the speaker's voice. Numbers pauses. If the duration of the pauses is not crucial and not timed: .. ... ha:rd <no way> A truncated ellipsis is used to indicate pauses of one-half second or less. An ellipsis is used to indicate pauses of more than a half second. The colon indicates the prolonging of the prior sound or syllable. Angle brackets pointing outward denote in parentheses indicate timed discourse are framed by

354

words or phrases that are spoken more slowly than the surrounding discourse. >watch out< Angle brackets pointing inward indicate words or phrases spoken more quickly than surrounding discourse. [and so-] [WHY] her? Square brackets on successive lines mark beginning and end of overlapping talk. Multiple overlap is marked by aligning the brackets.47 and= =then Equal signs on successive turns of lines show latching between different

speakers. They can also indicate that the turn of one speaker continues e.g. backchannels of interlocutors.48 H .h Clearly audible breath sounds are indicated with a capital H. Inhalations are denoted with a period, followed by a small h. Longer H inhalations are depicted with multiple h's as in .hhhh Exhalations are denoted with a small h without .t ( ) a preceding period. A longer exhalation is denoted by multiple h's. An alveolar suction click is indicated by a small t preceded by a period. In case utterances cannot be transcribed

47

Overlapping talk principally occurs in conversational joke telling. Because of the fact that stand-up comedy mainly represents a humorous monologue, square brackets as used for indicating overlapping talk will not be found. I will use square brackets only in case the comedian's talk overlaps with the audience's laughter. 48 As in the previous remark, latching is a further characteristic of conversational joke telling and will therefore not be found in my transcript of stand-up comedy.

355

with (hard work)

certainty,

empty

parentheses

are

employed. If there is a likely interpretation, the questionable / / ((laugh)) Slashes are words will appear for within the parentheses. used phonetic transcriptions. Aspects of utterance, such as whispers, coughing, {points board} at Nonverbal and laughter, such are as indicated movements with double parentheses. behavior, and looks, are indicated with braces.

356

17.2. Transcript Jerry Seinfeld: I'm Telling You for the Last Time
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 Presenter: ladies and gentlemen.. Jerry Seinfeld. Audience: {applause} J.S.: [okay] Audience: [{applause}] J.S.: "good night, good night everybody" Audience: ((laughter)) J.S: <well well well> (3.0) Audience: ((laughter)) J.S.: I can't believe you made it. Audience: ((laughter)) I don't even know how you got tickets. Audience: ((laughter)) Man: broker. J.S.: "broker" Audience: ((laughter)) J.S.: not a very good one, I see. Audience: ((laughter)) {applause} J.S.: my guy got me right on stage. Audience: ((laughter)) J.S.: this is the Broadhurst Theater. it's a .. uh, ((clears his throat)) legendary theater, I know .. nothing about it. Audience: ((laughter)) J.S.: uh, I picked it because .. uh, Audience: {phone rings in the audience} J.S.: oh, let me get that, Audience: [((laughter))] J.S.: [let me get that] that's for me, I asked them to hold my phone. Audience: ((laughter)) J.S.: that is so embarrassing, isn't it? Audience: ((laughter)) J.S.: I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often though, because it's hard to ((whispering)) "oh wait, put it on the vibrate only." oh the phones, what we have gone nuts with the phones, haven't we? we're crazy with the phones. this guy thinks he needs that phone. Audience: ((laughter)) J.S.: >the thing that amuses me the most about the phone machine is the-< how often we call people now, trying to get the machine. Audience: ((laughter)) [{beginning applause}] J.S.: [that's what's happened now with the machine]

357

55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

if it's the person that picks up, then you're ... "oh, uh .. ((laughter)) {applause} I, uh ..., oh I didn't- I didn't think you would be there. ((laughter)) I - I just wanted to leave a message saying: ((laughter)) sorry I missed you". ((laughter)) so what's with the cab drivers and the B.O.? ((laughter)) how long are these shifts? ((laughter)) do they ever stop or do they just get in the cab and just drive 'till they're dead? ((laughter)) that's what it's starting to smell like in some of these cars. ((laughter)) you're in the back there and you're going "oh man" and then ((laughs)) they give you that .. they have that cherry stuff ... the cherry "pop-it" on the dash, you know, so you get the cherry B.O., ((laughter)) which is supposed to be some sort of improvement I guess, I don't know, I can't imagine even ... fruit going that long without showering. ((laughter)) and the way they're driving, they're so insane, you could see they're upset I don't know what it's like to drive a cab, it must be very difficult because they're very upset, these people. ((weak laughter)) >and some times you just wanna lean lean over that seat and go "what is happening in your life, in your mind, that is making you drive like this?< ((laughter)) take it easy." to me to me the really funny thing about New York cabs is that you never get that much scared when you're in the cab. I don't know why, something about being in Manhattan. no matter how dangerous it seems it's all quite amusing in the back of that cab,

358

110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

[((laughter))] [isn't it?] he's flying around the road, ((laughter)) he's .. doing 90 up a one-way, and you're going ((amused)) "I've never tried that in my car." ((laughter)) {applause} it's all a huge joke it's your life. ((laughter)) and somehow it's ALL happening on TV there, it's ALL not quite real. the dumbest thing you can think in the back of a taxi cab is "well I'm sure the man knows what he's doing." ((laughter)) have you ever thought that? "he is driving fast. and quite recklessly. on bald tires. ((weak laughter)) but after all he's a professional. ((weak laughter)) I guess he does this all the time. he's got a license, I can see it right there." I don't even know what it takes to get a cab driver's license. I think all you need is a face. ((laughter)) this seems to be their big qualification. ((laughter)) "that's the law now, no blank heads are allowed to drive cabs." it also helps to have a name with like, eight consonants in a row. ((laughter)) {applause} what - what is that "o" with the line through it? [((laughter))] [what letter is that?] I don't remember that letter in school. ((laughter)) you need a chart of the elements if you wanna report the guy. ((laughter)) "yes officer, his name was Ammal, and then this symbol for boron. ((laughter)) I believe. I had the periodic chart with me at the time, ((laughter)) I'm quite certain it was not manganese." but I love to travel, >I'm supposed to go down to Florida<.. after this. and I might.

359

169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

{claps hands} I might go, I might not. but I just love to fly, I love going in the airport. always feel safe ... in the airport. thanks to the high caliber individuals we have working at x-ray security. ((laughter)) how about this crack squad of savvy motivated personnel? feel pretty good with them at the helm. the way you wanna set up your x-ray security is: you want the short heavy set woman at the front with the skin-tight uniform. ((laughter)) that's your first line of defense. ((laughter)) you want those pants sprayed on. ((laughter)) you want them so tight the flap in front of the zipper has pulled itself open, you can see the metal [tangs] [hanging on for dear life.] [((laughter))] [{applause}] then you got that other genius down at the other end, looking in the .. TV screen. this Einstein has chosen to stand in front of x-rays 14 hours a day. ((laughter)) as his profession ... ((imitates x-ray machine)) rrrr rrrr rrrr. he's looking in the TV set. I I always look in the TV set, I - I cannot make out one object. ((weak laughter)) I don't know what this guy is doing. ((laughter)) it's my own bags, I can't understand one thing: ((laughter)) "what was that?" he's going "what is that, a hairdryer with a scope on it? that looks okay, keep it moving." ((laughter)) "some sort of bowling ball candle? that's fine, just we don't want you to hold up the line, ((laughter)) don't hold up the line." ((laughter)) when I go in the bathroom at the airport, now I don't know who designs

360

224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

and makes these decisions, but why is it that we're not allowed to have an actual "twisted-on, twisted off" human-style faucet, ((weak laughter)) in the bathroom? is it too risky for the general public to be in charge, ((laughter)) of the water flow? they have to always put in those one-handed springloaded pain-in-the-ass Alcatraz-style faucets? ((laughter)) {beginning applause} do you know the ones I mean, when you gotta go >"hey, I got a little water there< ((laughter)) {applause} >oh, oh, another couple of drops"< ((laughter)) what- what is it that they think we would do if we could have the faucet? just turn them all on full, run out into the parking lot, laughing, pushing each other >into the bushes?< ((laughter)) "COME ON, THE WATER'S ON, let's go. ((laughter)) {applause} I turned it on full blast" ((laughter)) "you idiot, we're businessmen, we're gonna miss our plane WHO CARES? WATER" ((laughter)) that's what they think we'll do. do the people that work in these little shops in the airport have any idea what the prices are every place [((laughter))] [else in the world?] what do they think, that they have their little country out there? ((laughter)) "tuna sandwich, 13 dollars, ((laughter)) that's what we ... tuna's very rare, here. ((laughter)) it's all a tiny world in the airplane, isn't it? there's always that tiny table there, tiny computer, everyone's in a little cramped seat, tiny food, tiny utensils, tiny liquor bottles,

361

281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience:

tiny bathroom, tiny sink, tiny mirror, tiny faucets. so it's a small problem, gonna be a slight delay, we're gonna be a little late. ((laughter)) then you get on the plane. the pilot's always got to come on the P.A. system. give you his whole thing of what he's gonna do. ((laughter)) "and here's how I'm gonna do it ... I'm gonna take it up to 20 000. ((laughter)) then I'm gonna make a left by Chicago. ((laughter)) then I'm gonna go south by.. and we're all back there going" "yeah, fine" ((laughter)) it's .. you know, just do whatever the hell you gotta do, ((laughter)) I don't know what the hell is going on here just ... end up where it says on the ticket, [((laughter))] [okay?] can you do that?" ((laughter)) {applause} >do I bother him, telling him what I'm doing, knocking on the cockpit door<, "I'm having the peanuts now. ((laughter)) yeah that's what we're doing back here. I'm not gonna have them all now. ((laughter)) I'm gonna have a few. ((laughter)) I don't wanna finish it because it's such a big bag." ((laughter)) then the stewardess has to come out, put on her little show .. with the emergency equipment, this whole performance ((weak laughter)) that they go through. you know, one of them is behind the curtain, reading the script, and the other one comes out front and acts it out, ((weak laughter)) you know. ((singing)) "we have seat-belts, oxygen masks and things for you to use." ((laughter))

362

340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397

J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

they show you how to use a seat-belt, in case you haven't been in a car since 1965. ((laughter)) "oh we lift up on the buckle, OH, I was trying to just break the metal apart. ((laughter)) I thought that's how it works. I was going to attempt to tear the fabric part.. [((laughter)] [of the belt.] I thought if I could just get it started." ((laughter)) then she's gotta close that first class curtain, you know. ((laughter)) before it takes off, and they they always give you that little look too.. ((laughter)) "maybe if you'd worked a little harder.. ((laughter)) {applause} I wouldn't have to do this" ((laughter)) {imitates curtain being closed} shhhhh. I'll tell you what place I like in the plane, it's that little bathroom. I go in there, even if I don't have to go. ((laughter)) I like it in there, that's like your own little apartment on the plane. ((laughter)) you go in there, you close the door, the light comes on after a second, it's always like a little surprise party. ((laughter)) I feel good in there. I feel like I look good in that mirror, too. is that me, am I crazy? I think that's a flattering mirror, in the airplane bathroom. ((weak laughter)) I don't know, it's something with the lighting or something. and they have so much equipment in that little place, with virtually everything that you would have in a normal bathroom is in that teeny weenie tiny bathroom. including some things that nobody has. like the slot for used razor blades. ((laughter)) have you seen this? I have seen this in every ... single airplane bathroom I have ever been. who is [((laughter))] [shaving on the plane?]

363

398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

first of all, and secondly, shaving so much that they're using [((laughter))] [up razor blades], I mean I I just don't know why they had to install that. "make sure that every bathroom .. has a place, because they're gonna be doing a lot of shaving." ((laughter)) ((laughs)) I mean, is the Wolfman flying [((laughter))] [in there or who'd ..?] on the full moon, just goes ((imitates Wolfman)) "aaarrrrr click click click aaarrrr click click click". yeah, so Florida, I don't know ... {weak applause} folks live down there, as you would assume. you know, they live in those minimum security prisons, that's where they put all the old people. what's with all the security there, with the guard, gay, with the arm coming down, everybody's got a uniform, guns.. are the old people trying to escape, [((laughter))] [or] are people stealing old people, what is the security problem? I get very innerved by the way they drive down there, that's why I don't like being in those communities, because they drive slow, they sit low. ((laughter)) that's their model. ((laughter)) the state flag of Florida should be just a steering wheel with a hat and two knuckles on it. ((laughter)) {applause} I mean, there is nobody in the car sometimes you just see cars going by, "why there is nobody in that car? it is a completely empty car" ((laughter)) always with the left turn signal on, from when they left the house that morning. ((laughter)) that's a legal turn in Florida,

364

456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

it's known as an "eventual left." ((laughter)) (2.0) what is the age that old people reach where they decide .. when they back out of the driveway, they're not looking any more? ((laughter)) do you know how they do that, they just go "well, I'm old ... and I'm coming back. ((laughter)) {applause} I've survived, let's see if you can." ((laughter)) one thing I do like of being down there with the old people is that it makes me feel like I'm little again, like a little kid. and when you're a kid, you can eat amazing amounts of food. and all just candy, that's all I ate when I was a kid. the only thought I had, growing up, was "get (1.0) candy." ((laughter)) that was my only thought, in my brain, for the 10 years of human life. just >get candy, get candy, get candy, get candy, get candy, get candy.< family, friends, school, these were just obstacles in the way of getting more candy. ((laughter)) that's why you had to teach kids not to take candy from strangers if they're playing in a playground. and they can barely understand it. "don't ..." "no candy? from .. strangers? ((weak laughter)) alright. candy, strangers, no candy. alright, because otherwise I'm taking the candy, anywhere I can get it." ((laughter)) there's such candy moron, idiot brains, "if this man has candy >I'm going with him, goodbye, don't care what happens to me. ((laughter)) [get candy, get candy, get candy."]< [((laughter))] "no, don't go, they'll torture you,

365

513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

they'll kidnap you!" "it doesn't matter, he has an 'oh Henry', I have to take that chance. ((laughter)) get candy, get candy, get candy." so the first time you hear the concept of Halloween, when you're a kid, remember the first time you even heard about it, it's like .. your brain can't even ... "what is this? ((laughter)) who's giving out candy, someone's giving out candy? ((laughter)) who is giving out this candy? everyone that we know is [((laughter))] [just giving out candy?] I gotta be a part of this, take me with you, I - I wanna do it, I'll do anything that they want ... I can wear that ((laughter)) {applause} I'll wear anything that I have to wear. I'll do anything I have to do. I will get the candy from these FOOLS, ((weak laughter)) that are so STUPIDLY giving it away." so the first couple of years I made my own costume. they of course, sucked. ((weak laughter)) ghost, hobo, no good. ((weak laughter)) so I'm begging the parents "you gotta get me one of the ones from the store, the cardboard box, the cellophane top. ((weak laughter)) so one year, third year, finally got a Superman costume ... not surprisingly. ((laughter)) "mask included in the SET." ((weak laughter)) >remember the rubber band, on the back of that mask, that was a quality item there, wasn't it?< ((laughter)) {applause} that was good for about 10 seconds, before it snapped out of that cheap little staple they put it in there with. ((laughter)) {applause} the thinnest grey rubber in the world. you go to your first house

366

571 572 573 574 575 576 577 578 579 580 581 582 583 584 585 586 587 588 589 590 591 592 593 594 595 596 597 598 599 600 601 602 603 604 605 606 607 608 609 610 611 612 613 614 615 616 617 618 619 620 621 622 623 624 625 626 627 628 629

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

"trick or -snap- it broke, ((laughter)) I don't believe it". "wait up, I gotta fix it, you guys. come on. wait up". that's a kid thing, "wait up". kids don't want other kids to wait, they must "wait up". ((laughter)) "would you wait UP?" ((laughter)) because when you're little, life is up, you're growing up, everything is up. "wait UP, hold UP, shut UP" ((weak laughter)) "ma, I'm all cleaned up." "let me stay up" ((laughter)) {applause} parents, of course, it's just the opposite, "just calm DOWN!" ((laughter)) "slow DOWN" ((laughter)) "come down here, sit DOWN, put that DOWN" ((laughter)) "you are grounded" ((laughter)) "keep it down in there" ((weak laughter)) so I had my Superman Halloween costume, I was physically ready, I was mentally prepared. and I assumed, when I put this costume on, I would probably look exactly (2.0) ((laughter)) like the Superman I had come to know on television and in the movies. now you remember these costumes, it's not exactly the super-fit.. ((laughter)) that you are hoping for you look more like you're wearing Superman's pajamas, [((laughter))] [it's what you look like.] it's all loose, and flowing (1.0) neck line kinda comes down to about there. ((laughter)) ((laughs)) and you got that flimsy little ribbon string

367

630 631 632 633 634 635 636 637 638 639 640 641 642 643 644 645 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 653 654 655 656 657 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 665 666 667 668 669 670 671 672 673 674 675 676 677 678 679 680 681 682 683 684 685 686 687 Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience:

holding it together in the back of course my mother makes me wear my winter coat over the costume anyway. ((laughter)) {applause} "I don't recall Superman wearing a jacket." ((laughter)) so you're going out there, you know, and the mask keeps breaking, so the rubber band keeps getting shorter, and keeps making it [((laughter))] [tighter and tighter on your face] you can't even see you're trying to breathe through that, remember that little hole, it gets all sweaty in there, ((laughter)) ((imitates very deep breath)) ((laughter)) and the mask starts slicing into your eyeballs, "I can't see, I can't breathe, but you gotta get the candy, let's keep going." ((laughter)) about a half-hour into it, you take that mask, "oh, the HELL with it" ((laughter)) ((imitates doorbell)) "bing bong", "it's me, gimme the candy" ((laughter)) {applause} "I'm Superman, look at the pant legs, ((laughter)) whatta hell is the difference" ((laughter)) {applause} remember those last few Halloweens, getting a little too old for it. ((laughter)) just kind of going through the motions. ((laughter)) "bing bong", "come on lady, let's go. Halloween, doorbells, candy, let's pick up the pace in there." ((laughter)) they come at the door, they always ask you those same stupid questions: "what are you supposed to be?" ((laughter)) "I'm supposed to be done by now, you wanna move it along, [((laughter))]

368

688 689 690 691 692 693 694 695 696 697 698 699 700 701 702 703 704 705 706 707 708 709 710 711 712 713 714 715 716 717 718 719 720 721 722 723 724 725 726 727 728 729 730 731 732 733 734 735 736 737 738 739 740 741 742 743 744 745

J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience:

[the three musketeers?] {applause} ((laughter)) I got 18 houses on this block alone. ((laughter)) you just hit the bag, we hit the road, that's the routine, ((laughter)) let's just pick it up." sometimes they gave you that little white bag, twisted on the top, you know that's gonna be some crap candy. ((laughter)) it's gotta have those official Halloween markings on it. "hold it lady, wait a second, what is this, the orange marshmallow shaped like a big peanut? do me a favor, you keep that one. ((laughter)) yeah, we got all the door-stops we need already, thank you very much. ((weak laughter)) we're going for name candy only, this year." ((weak laughter)) and I think about how I used to eat, when I was a kid. how I - I remember Halloween I would get, you know, I would have like a punch bowl, and I would fill it with candy. the top of it would be curved, ((weak laughter)) that's how much candy. I would consume that entire punch bowl, that night ((weak laughter)) next day, feel fantastic. ((laughter)) food isn't that much easier now, though. see people in the supermarket, just struggling, reading things, looking around. everyone's all upset in the supermarket. what do I eat, what am I supposed to eat? the protein, the carbohydrate... fat content ((weak laughter)) ((laughs)) people just see fat content. "fat content it's fat, there's fat in it ((weak laughter)) it's gonna be in me" ((weak laughter))

369

746 747 748 749 749 750 751 752 753 754 755 756 757 758 759 760 761 762 763 764 765 766 767 768 769 770 771 772 773 774 775 776 777 778 779 780 781 782 783 784 785 786 787 788 789 790 791 792 793 794 795 796 797 798 799 800 801

J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

people just going up to people, "you look okay, what are you eating? maybe I'll eat that." ((laughter)) the whole supermarket is designed to break down your sense of having any kind of life outside the supermarket. it's like a casino. you know, there's no windows, no clocks, no easily accessible exits. have you ever knocked by anything in the supermarket and tried to get out of there? ((weak laughter)) there's no way out. ((laughter)) you can't get out. people walk up to the supermarket, they really have a sense of purpose, don't they? they're walking down there, >"I'm gonna get this, I'm gonna get that, I'm gonna pay for it, I'm gonna get out of here and get back to my real life".< you see that same person 10 minutes later, just (2.0) ((laughter)) "why did I come up this aisle, anyway? ((laughter)) this is a different aisle than I've ever been in before." ((laughter)) always noticing something new "oh, they got them in mesquite flavor, now. ((weak laughter)) what is mesquite? wonder if it's made from mosquitoes" ((laughter)) there's so many subtle insults in a lot of these products, what the hell is "chicken-of-the-sea tuna?" ((weak laughter)) there's no chickens in the sea ((laughter)) what do they think, they're afraid to tell us it's a fish? ((laughter)) afraid we won't understand? ((weak laughter)) "just put chicken on the can. they'll think it's chicken that lives in the sea." ((laughter)) "I don't want any chickens that live in the sea chickens on the land, fish in the sea, ((weak laughter)) don't put chickens in the sea"

370

802 803 804 805 806 807 808 809 810 811 812 813 814 815 816 817 818 819 820 821 822 823 824 825 826 827 828 829 830 831 832 833 834 835 836 837 838 839 840 841 842 843 844 845 846 847 848 849 850 851 852 853 854 855 856

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

that Oscar Mayer's section is creepy too. this guy is inventing meat. ((laughter)) there's no olive-loaf animal as far as I know. ((laughter)) I've never seen a pig with little pimentos in the side. ((laughter)) and that other one, head-cheese, WOW.. ((laughter)) ho ho, I don't think so. ((laughter)) I've always felt the words "head" and "cheese" should never be that [((laughter))] [close together for any reason.] ((laughter)) {applause} produce is tricky too, I don't know what's the deal with the produce. I mean, you're supposed to know, that's why you have to just fake it. ((weak laughter)) yeah, that's a good one, ((laughter)) glad I found that one" ((laughter)) cantaloupes, they're rolling [((laughter))] [them down the aisle, you know] "see the way that's fading left, that one's not ready, I'm not gonna get that one." ((laughter)) very impressed with that seedless watermelon development. that was quite an accomplishment. seedless watermelon they did it it's done. ((laughter)) we have it now. ((laughter)) what are they planting to grow the seedless watermelon, ((weak laughter)) I wonder(...) water? I mean, it's gotta be something. ((laughter)) they haven't got the melons humping now, have they? ((laughter)) and what kinds of scientists do this kind of work, anyway? you know, other scientists working on AIDS, cancer, heart disease, these guys are going "no, I wanna focus more on ... melon.

371

857 858 859 860 861 862 863 864 865 866 867 868 869 870 871 872 873 874 875 876 877 878 879 880 881 882 883 884 885 886 887 888 889 890 891 892 893 894 895 896 897 898 899 900 901 902 903 904 905 906 907 908 909 910 911 912 913 914 915

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience:

((laughter)) I think that's the important area. sure, thousands are dying needlessly, but this ... ((makes sound)) that's gotta stop" ((laughter)) {applause} and have you ever tried and pick a wet one off the floor? it's almost impossible. ((laughter)) milk is a big problem for people on the supermarket. they're never quite sure if they have it, if they need it, they bury it way in the back, in the supermarket. you gotta find it, you gotta back your way through all the displays, "ah, there it is. there is the milk. do we have any milk?" ((weak laughter)) people are never really sure if they have milk. ((weak laughter)) "I think we have milk, we might have milk. I know there's a carton in there, I don't know how much is in it." ((weak laughter)) "well, what should we do?" because you wanna be sure. there's nothing worse than thinking you have milk and not having it. you know, you got the bowl setup, the cereal, the spoon, the napkin, the TV, the newspaper, everything is ready to go. you're gonna lift up the carton and it's too light "ah" ((laughter)) {applause} "oh no too light" or sometimes you think you need milk, "hey, we better pick up some milk." like many of you are thinking right now. ((weak laughter)) "you know he's right, maybe we should pick up some milk." ((laughter)) so you'll pick up some milk on the way home. and then you'll discover you already had milk. ((weak laughter))

372

916 917 918 919 920 921 922 923 924 925 926 927 928 929 930 931 932 933 934 935 936 937 938 939 940 941 942 943 944 945 946 947 948 949 950 951 952 953 954 955 956 957 958 959 960 961 962 963 964 965 966 967 968 969 970 971 972 973

J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

and now you got way too much milk. ((laughter)) that's no good either, now it's a race against the clock with the expiration date. ((laughter)) that freaky thing. now you're eating giant punch bowls of cereal, three meals a day. ((laughter)) you're washing your face with milk. ((laughter)) bringing cats in from all over the neighborhood, ["hurry up and drink it] [((laughter))] come on, it's almost time" ((laughter)) how do they know that that is the definite exact day? you know, they don't say "it's in the vicinity", "give or take", "roughly" (1.0) they brand it right into the side of the carton ((imitates hot-branding)) -sssss((laughter)) "that's your God-damn day right there, ((laughter)) oh don't screw with us. ((laughter)) we know what day is the FINAL day and then it is so over ..." ((laughter)) ever had milk the day after the day? scares the hell outta you, doesn't it? ((laughter)) {applause} the spoon is trembling as it comes out of the bowl, "it's after the day, ((laughter)) I don't know what the hell I'm doing here, I don't know why I'm doing this, ((laughter)) I smelled it, you smell it, what is it supposed to smell like? I never smelled milk" ((laughter)) maybe the cows tip them off when they're milking them "July 3rd." ((laughter)) {applause} so you go to that check-out line, I really appreciate the rubber divider sticks that are ... available at check-out lines,

373

974 975 976 977 978 979 980 981 982 983 984 985 986 987 988 989 990 991 992 993 994 995 996 997 998 999 1000 1001 1002 1003 1004 1005 1006 1007 1008 1009 1010 1011 1012 1013 1014 1015 1016 1017 1018 1019 1020 1021 1022 1023 1024 1025 1026 1027 1028 1029

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience:

I think this is a nice supermarket feature. because you want your items and you want a little property there, too. ((weak laughter)) I don't want other people's items fraternizing with my carefully selected items. put your sticks down. there's two ways to use a rubber divider stick, you can put them on the conveyer belt, or you can hold it there on your hand, it also works like that. just go >"excuse me, those potato chips are getting a little close to my box of doughnuts over there.< ((weak laughter)) see the corner of that bag kind of curling against the side of the box, I'm a little worried about that. ((weak laughter)) ((imitates hitting with stick)) you paying attention to me?" ((laughter)) so there was a young lady in front of me, the other day. her total was three dollars. she chose to pay by the use of the CHEQUE. ((laughter)) what is with the chicks and the checks? women are using way more checks than men. are you aware of this, guys? uh, outside, I think, bills, men write two, three checks a month. women go through, like, a book a day. ((laughter)) and you know how you are when you're on the supermarket line, anyway, you see the person in front of you pull out a check, and you're ... ((shows great boredom and blows on the microphone)) but, if it is a woman in front of you that's writing out the check, you will not be waiting long. because women write out so many checks, they're so fluent in the procedures, of checking and check writing, it takes them two seconds and they're out of there. it's the one thing in their purse they can find immediately. ((weak laughter)) it's the check book. most difficult thing for a woman to find in their purse .. is keys. they have no idea where the keys are. ((weak laughter)) sometimes they have to dump it out, rake through it. ((laughter))

374

1030 1031 1032 1033 1034 1035 1036 1037 1038 1039 1040 1041 1042 1043 1044 1045 1046 1047 1048 1049 1050 1051 1052 1053 1054 1055 1056 1057 1058 1059 1060 1061 1062 1063 1064 1065 1066 1067 1068 1069 1070 1071 1072 1073 1074 1075 1076 1077 1078 1079 1080 1081 1082 1083 1084 1085 1086 1087 1088

J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

but the check book, they got that, that comes out of a holster, "who do I make it out to? ((speaks monotonously) there's my ID. see you later." you don't see men doing that. men are totally intimidated by the check. to a man, a check is like a note from your mother, that says "I don't have any money, but if you contact these people .. they'll stick up for me. I gave my money to these people here. and then they gave me these (2.0) ((weak laughter)) is that worth anything at all? ((weak laughter)) I put my name on it. and the amount of money I wish I had." ((weak laughter)) you gotta beg this guy to trust you. and even if he does trust you, how much do you trust him in return? not very much, because when you write down the dollar amount on the check, you always put that long line, all the way there. ((laughter)) so he can't write in "and a hundred million dollars too." ((laughter)) {applause} I think if you don't finish the line you have to pay that money. ((laughter)) the drugstore is even tougher than the supermarket, because now you have no idea what the hell you're looking at. I went in a drugstore last week for a cold medicine, >I was totally overwhelmed by it.< I'm trying to break it down, I mean, "there's 6000 products here that are perfect for me". ((laughter)) it's not easy, you know, "oh, this one is quick-acting ... but this one is long-lasting. ((laughter)) when do I need to feel good? now or later?" ((laughter)) that's a hard question. ever catch yourself reading ingredients in the drugstore, "oh, 03 tetra-hydrozilin.

375

1089 1090 1091 1092 1093 1094 1095 1096 1097 1098 1099 1100 1101 1102 1103 1104 1105 1106 1107 1108 1109 1110 1111 1112 1113 1114 1115 1116 1117 1118 1119 1120 1121 1122 1123 1124 1125 1126 1127 1128 1129 1130 1131 1132 1133 1134 1135 1136 1137 1138 1139 1140 1141 1142 1143 1144

Audience: J.S.:

J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

((weak laughter)) it's a good amount of that". they know, they know we don't know they make up words, ((one woman laughs)) they always tell us on TV, "now, with an extra drop of retsin" ((laughter)) like we're all going "well, finally we're getting some more retsin." ((laughter)) they always tell you how the medicine works on TV, you know the commercials, that's my favorite part where the guy says uh, "here's the human body." so here's this guy, no face, mouth open, this is how drug companies see the public. ((laughter)) he's always got the tube coming down here, and then the circle area. these are the complex inner-workings of the human body, I assume. I'm sure when you go to medical school, they put that up on the board the first day, "okay everyone, now remember you've got your tube, coming down from the mouth ... and that goes into your circle area. ((laughter)) that's pretty much all we know. ((weak laughter)) that's it for today. don't miss tomorrow, we're gonna practice making people wait in a little room in their underwear ... ((laughter)) and then you'll all be doctors. ((weak laughter)) that's all there is to it. then they have to show you the pain, you know that part where they say "here's where you hurt." pain is usually represented by some sort of lightning, attacking the guy. glowing redness is popular, sometimes parts of the guy's body will just burst into flames, ((laughter)) sometimes the whole guy is like out of focus, ((laughter)) I never had a doctor say to me: "are you having any pain?" "yes I am" "are you having any lightning [((laughter))] [with the pain?]

376

1145 1146 Audience: 1147 J.S.: 1148 1149 1150 1151 1152 1153 1154 1155 1156 1157 1158 1159 1160 1161 1162 1163 1164 1165 1166 1167 1168 1169 1170 1171 1172 1173 1174 1175 1176 1177 1178 1179 1180 1181 1182 1183 1184 1185 1186 1187 1188 1189 1190 1191 1192 1193 1194 1195 1196 1197 1198 1199

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

have you been in a fun-house mirror at any time?" ((laughter)) then they tell you about the pain-relieving ingredient, that's my other favorite part of the commercial. it's always "extra-strength" there is no more "strength" any more. ((weak laughter)) you can't even get "strength" ((weak laughter)) "strength" is off the market. it's all "extra-strength" ((weak laughter)) "I need extra" "what's extra?" "well, it's more. ((laughter)) we're gonna give you a little, you know, send a little extra your way, ((laughter)) don't say anything about it". ((laughter)) some people aren't satisfied with "extra" they want "maximum" ((weak laughter)) "gimme the maximum strength give me the maximum allowable human dosage ((laughter)) that's the kind o' pain I'm in, ((laughter)) figure out what will kill me, and then back it off a little bit." ((laughter)) {weak applause} and why does that pharmacist have to be two and a half feet higher than everybody else? who the hell is this guy? ((weak laughter)) "clear out everybody, I'm working with pills up here. ((laughter)) I can't be down on the floor with you people I'm taking pills from this big bottle [((laughter))] [and then I'm gonna put them in a little bottle] ((laughter)) {applause} and then I gotta type out on a little piece of paper, ((weak laughter)) it's really hard." it's that little bit of arrogance in the medical community, I think we could all live without. like when you go to see the doctor, you don't see the actual doctor first ... you must wait in the waiting room. there's no chance of not waiting,

377

1200 1201 1202 1203 1204 1205 1206 1207 1208 1209 1210 1211 1212 1213 1214 1215 1216 1217 1218 1219 1220 1221 1222 1223 1224 1225 1226 1227 1228 1229 1230 1231 1232 1233 1234 1235 1236 1237 1238 1239 1240 1241 1242 1243 1244 1245 1246 1247 1248 1249 1250 1251 1252 1253 1254 1255 1256

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

that's the name of the room. ((weak laughter)) and you sit there, you pretend you're reading your little magazine, you're actually looking at the other people. "I wonder what he's got, ((laughter)) that guy is a goner." ((laughter)) then they call you, get excited when they call you, because you think now you're gonna see the doctor. but you're not. ((weak laughter)) now you're going into the next, smaller .. waiting room, ((weak laughter)) now you don't even have your magazine. now you got your pants around your ankles, you're sitting on that [((laughter))] [butcher paper they pull out over the table] {applause} sometimes I bring a pickle with me and I put it next to me right there on the table. ((laughter)) I don't know in case the doctor wants to fold the whole thing up for a "to go" order. ((laughter)) but I hate the extra waiting that I have to do. so sometimes I mess around with his stuff, "maybe I'll turn that up a little bit, ((weak laughter)) whatever the hell that does. ((weak laughter)) take all the tongue-depressors out, lick them all, put them [((laughter))] [all back in.] two can play at this waiting game" ((laughter)) doctor always wants you to take your pants off, "take your pants off and get in there I'll speak to you with no pants. ((weak laughter)) you take your pants off and then I'll tell you what I think about everything. ((weak laughter)) I speak to no one wearing pants." ((weak laughter)) it's a little psychological leverage for him in any difference of opinion, "pants" always beats "no pants"

378

1257 1258 1259 1260 1261 1262 1263 1264 1265 1266 1267 1268 1269 1270 1271 1272 1273 1274 1275 1276 1277 1278 1279 1280 1281 1282 1283 1284 1285 1286 1287 1288 1289 1290 1291 1292 1293 1294 1295 1296 1297 1298 1299 1300 1301 1302 1303 1304 1305 1306 1307 1308 1309 1310 1311 1312 1313 1314

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

((weak laughter)) just once I'd like to say to that doctor "you know what, I'm not ready for you yet, ((weak laughter)) yeah, why don't you go back into your little office, I'll be in it in a minute. and get your pants off too." ((laughter)) {applause} what does he need that little office for? I guess he doesn't people to see him looking stuff up. "what the hell was that? ((laughter)) Jesus Christ that was kinda gross. ((laughter)) I'm in big trouble here, that wasn't the tube or the circle. ((laughter)) a friend of mine is going in for a nose job ... next week. guy. ((laughter)) rhinoplasty, that's what they call it. you've heard that term. rhinoplasty. rhino. ((laughter)) is that necessary? ((weak laughter)) the person, obviously, is aware there's a problem. ((laughter)) they made the appointment. ((laughter)) do we really need to compare them to a God-damn rhinoceros, ((laughter)) for Christ's sake? when you go in for a hair transplant, they don't say "we're going to perform a cueball-ectomy [((laughter))] [on you, Mr. Johnson.] we feel that the chrome-domia has advanced, ((weak laughter)) to a point that we call skin-headia. ((laughter)) these are technical terms, you don't really need to bother yourself with. ((laughter)) I, uh, I'm not married, I am a single guy, there's .. no other guys attached to me. ((laughter)) I've always been just the one guy. ((laughter)) I was best man at a wedding, one time, that was pretty good.

379

1315 1316 1317 1318 1319 1320 1321 1322 1323 1324 1325 1326 1327 1328 1329 1330 1331 1332 1333 1334 1335 1336 1337 1338 1339 1340 1341 1342 1343 1344 1345 1346 1347 1348 1349 1350 1351 1352 1353 1354 1355 1356 1357 1358 1359 1360 1361 1362 1363 1364 1365 1366 1367 1368 1369 1370 1371

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

I thought it was a little .. too much in the title, there. "best man". I think we ought to have the groom, and a pretty good man. ((laughter)) I mean, if I'm the best man, why is she marrying him? ((laughter)) {beginning applause} had to get the tuxa design of clothing that I think was invented by women. ((weak laughter)) "well, they're all the same, we might as well dress them all the same." ((laughter)) the tuxedo also functions as a wedding safety device for the bride, in case the groom chickens out, everybody else just takes one step over, ((laughter)) and the ceremony continues. ((weak laughter)) that's why they don't say "do you take .. Dave Wilson to be your lawfully wedded husband", they say "do you take .. this man." ((laughter)) men and women will never understand each other, my advice to you is to just stop thinking about it, you're not gonna figure it out. ((weak laughter)) just forget it. I know I'm not gonna understand women. I will never understand how you can take boiling - hot wax, ((laughter)) pour it on to your upper thigh, ((laughter)) rip the hair out by the root .. and still be afraid of a spider. ((laughter)) {applause} I'm not wasting any more time thinking about that. ((weak laughter)) because I'm not getting anywhere. ((weak laughter)) and I know women are curious about men. women wanna know what men are thinking. I know women are looking at me, right now. and you're wondering "I wonder what goes on in that little brain of his." ((weak laughter)) I could tell you the truth, if you would like to know what men are really thinking.

380

1372 1373 1374 1375 1376 1377 1378 1379 1380 1381 1382 1383 1384 1385 1386 1387 1388 1389 1390 1391 1392 1393 1394 1395 1396 1397 1398 1399 1400 1401 1402 1403 1404 1405 1406 1407 1408 1409 1410 1411 1412 1413 1414 1415 1416 1417 1418 1419 1420 1421 1422 1423 1424 1425 1426 1427 1428 1429 1430

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

would you like to know? ((laughter)) {applause} I will tell you. nothing. ((laughter)) {applause} we're not thinking anything. we're just walking around .. looking around. ((laughter)) this is the only natural inclination of men. ((weak laughter)) we like women. we want women. but that's pretty much as far as we've thought. ((weak laughter)) that's why we're honking car horns, yelling from construction sites, these are the best ideas we've had so far. ((laughter)) we're working on some new programs, but it's not easy when your mind's a blank. ((weak laughter)) honking the car horn to me .., that's the lowest level. this is the last living brain cell, comes up with this one. what is this? he's in the car, she's on the street, "bip bip brrrrrrr." ((laughter, gets even stronger)) {applause} what- what does he think, "well, I guess I made my point." ((laughter)) what is she supposed to do, kick off the heels, start running after the car. ((laughter)) grab on to the bumper. ((weak laughter)) the car comes to a stop, "it's a good thing you honked I had no idea how you felt" ((weak laughter)) why do men do these things? why are they acting these ways? why are men rude, obnoxious, getting drunk, screaming out, peeling out rubber, making kissing noises, why? why? telling awful jokes, why do men behave so badly? I know what you ladies are thinking, "no no, not my guy, I'm working with him, he's coming along."

381

1431 1432 1433 1434 1435 1436 1437 1438 1439 1440 1441 1442 1443 1444 1445 1446 1447 1448 1449 1450 1451 1452 1453 1454 1455 1456 1457 1458 1459 1460 1461 1462 1463 1464 1465 1466 1467 1468 1469 1470 1471 1472 1473 1474 1475 1476 1477 1478 1479 1480 1481 1482 1483 1484 1485 1486 1487

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

((laughter)) no he's not. ((laughter)) he's tricking you. ((laughter)) men are not developing. ((weak laughter)) we're not improving. we men know, no matter how poorly we behave, it seems we somehow end up with women anyway. look around this room, look at all the men you see, beautiful women, men are with them, do you think these are special men? ((weak laughter)) gifted, highly unusual, one-of-a-kind men? these are the same jerks and idiots that I'm talking about. ((laughter)) {applause} they're doing fine. men, as an organization, are getting more women than any other group, working anywhere in the world, today. wherever women are, we have men looking into the situation, right now. we explored the Earth looking for women. even went to the Moon, just to see if there was any woman there. that's why we brought that little car, why would you bring a car, unless there's some chance of going on a date? ((weak laughter)) {applause} what the hell are you doing with the car on the Goddamn Moon? ((weak laughter)) I never was able to figure that out. you're ON THE MOON isn't that far enough? ((laughter)) there was no more male idea in the history of the universe, than "why don't we fly up to the Moon and drive around?" ((laughter)) {applause} that is the essence of male thinking right there. ((weak laughter)) here's the thing on men, I'm gonna give it to you now. all men think of themselves as kind of low-level super-heroes .. ((weak laughter)) in their own environment. when men are growing up and they're reading about Batman, Spiderman, Superman, these aren't fantasies. these are options.

382

1488 1489 1490 1491 1492 1493 1494 1495 1496 1497 1498 1499 1500 1501 1502 1503 1504 1505 1506 1507 1508 1509 1510 1511 1512 1513 1514 1515 1516 1517 1518 1519 1520 1521 1522 1523 1524

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

1525 Audience: 1526 J.S.: 1527 1528 1529 1530 1531 1532 1533 1534 1535 1536 1537 1538 1539 1540 1541 1542 1543

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience:

((laughter)) this is the way men really look at their own lives I'm not even supposed to be telling you this. ((laughter)) I'll give you a perfect example of what I'm talking about, did you ever see a guy .. moving a mattress tied to the roof of his car. he's out on the highway with this thing ((laughs)) he's - he's always got the arm [((laughter))] [out the window, holding the mattress too, right?] ((laughter)) {applause} whatever whatever he's rigged up there, he's always helping along with the arm. this is classic male idiot super-hero thinking. ((laughter)) this moron actually believes that if the wind catches this huge rectangle at 70 miles an hour, "I got it, I got it. ((laughter)) {applause} don't worry about it. I'm using my ... arm" ((laughter)) but what about the date, there's dating going on, on this room, right now. we can all feel that little bit of tension. ((weak laughter)) what is a date, really, but a job interview that lasts all night? ((laughter)) only difference between a date and a job interview is not many job interviews is there a chance you'll end up naked at the end of it. ((laughter)) >"well Bill, the boss thinks you're the man for the position, why don't you strip down and meet some of the people you'll be working with"< ((laughter)) dating is not easy, sex is not easy. women have two types of orgasms, the actual one and the ones that they make up on their own. ((weak laughter)) and I can give you the male point of view on this, which is .. we're fine with it. ((laughter)) {applause} you do whatever the hell you gotta do. ((laughter)) we will do what we have to do. ((laughter))

383

1544 1545 1546 1547 1548 1549 1550 1551 1552 1553 1554 1555 1556 1557 1558 1559 1560 1561 1562 1563 1564 1565 1566 1567

J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

1568 1569 1570 1571 1572 1573 1574 1575 Audience: 1576 J.S.: 1577 Audience: 1578 J.S.: 1579 1580 1581 1582 1583 1584 1585 1586 1587 1588 1589 1590 1591 1592 1593 1594 1595 1596 1597 1598 1599 Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience:

((laughs)) to a man, sex is like a car accident, anyway. and determining a female orgasm is like being asked "what did you see after the car went out of control?" ((laughter)) "well, I remember I heard a lot of screeching noises, I was, uh, facing the wrong way at one point, ((laughter)) and in the end my body was thrown clear." ((weak laughter)) why is McDonald's still counting? ((weak laughter)) how insecure is this company? ((weak laughter)) forty million, eighty jillion, billion zillion, killion tillion is anyone really impressed anymore? "oh, 89 billion sold alright, I'll have one. ((laughter)) I'm satisfied." ((weak laughter)) who cares? I would love to meet the chairman of the board of McDonald's, to just say to him, "look, we all get it. okay? you've sold a lot of hamburgers. whatever the hell the number is. ((laughs)) just put a sign "McDonald's - we're doing very well. ((laughter)) we are tired of hearing about every God-damn one of them." ((weak laughter)) what is their ultimate goal, to have cows just surrendering voluntarily or something? ((laughter)) showing up at the door, "we'd like to turn ourselves in, we see the sign. we realize we have very little chance out there. ((laughter)), {beginning applause} we'd like to be a Happy Meal, if that's at all possible. ((laughter)) {applause} I'll tell you what I like about Chinese people. ((weak laughter)) as long as we're on the subject. ((laughter)) they're hanging in there with those chopsticks. ((weak laughter)) still using chopsticks. you know, they've seen the fork. ((laughter))

384

1600 J.S.: 1601 Audience: 1602 J.S.: 1603 1604 1605 1606 1607 1608 1609 1610 1611 1612 1613 1614 1615 1616 1617 1618 1619 1620 1621 1622 1623 1624 1625 1626 1627 1628 1629 1630 1631 1632 1633 1634 1635 1636 1637 1638 1639 1640 1641 1642 1643 1644 1645 1646 1647 1648 1649 1650 1651 1652 1653 1654 1655 Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

oh they're well aware that we have the fork. ((weak laughter)) and the spoon. I don't know how they missed it Chinese farmer, getting up working in the field with a shovel all day ... "hello, shovel ((laughter)) there it is." ((laughter)) you're not plowing 40 acres with a couple of pool cues. ((laughter)) I was in London .. about a month ago. the World Cup was going on. I enjoy any sporting event where nations .. get involved, I find that the most exciting. the Olympics is really my favorite .. sporting event, although I think I have a problem with that silver medal. I think if I was an Olympic athlete I would rather come in last (1.0) than win the silver, if you think about it. you know, you win the gold, you feel good. you win the bronze, you think "well at least I got something." but you win that silver, that's like "congratulations, you .. almost won". ((weak laughter)) "of all the losers, you came in first of that group." ((laughter)) "you're the number one loser." ((laughter)) "no one lost ahead of you." ((laughter)) and they don't lose by much, you know, these short races, three hundreds of a second, two hundreds of a second, I don't know how they live with that the rest of their lives, because you gotta tell the story. everyone wants to hear the story: "wow, congratulations, silver medal, did you trip, >did you not hear the gun go off, tell us what happened"< ((laughter)) "it's a hundredth of a second, what was the difference in the - in the marching, there? what was it?" "well, it was like from now ...

385

1656 1657 1658 1659 1660 1661 1662 1663 1664 1665 1666 1667 1668 1669 1670 1671 1672 1673 1674 1675 1676 1677 1678 1679 1680 1681 1682 1683 1684 1685 1686 1687 1688 1689 1690 1691 1692 1693 1694 1695 1696 1697 1698 1699 1700 1701 1702 1703 1704 1705 1706 1707 1708 1709 1710 1711 1712

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

from now, n-now, now, n-now, ((laughter)) n-n-now, n, n, eh. ((laughter)) that was it. it's was it, eh, oh" ((laughter)) "I trained, I worked out, I exercised my entire life, I never had a date, I never had a drink, I never had a beer, I was doing push-ups since I was a fetus .. I flew half way around the world, everybody I knew in my whole life was there, the guy shot off the gun and then .. oh" ((laughter)) {applause} and they always have that photo-finish, you know the photo-finish is always "silver .. gold". ((laughter)) "greatest guy in the world .." never heard of him. ((laughter)) {applause} you know, the guy's gotta be thinking "if I had a pimple, I would have won." ((weak laughter)) so many events of the Olympics don't make sense to me, I don't understand their connection to any reality like, uh, like in the winter Olympics, they have that Biathlon, you know that one? that combines cross-country skiing with shooting a gun? how many alpine snipers are into this? ((laughter)) to me it's like combining swimming and strangle a guy, why don't we have that? ((laughter)) that makes absolutely as much sense to me, just put people in the pool at the end of each lane for the swimmers. ((weak laughter)) and that other one, the, uh, that I love is the luge. you know the luge, where the guy wears the slick suit. ((weak laughter)) this is on the bobsled run, but it's not even a sled. ((weak laughter)) it's just bob. ((laughter)) it's just ...

386

1713 1714 1715 1716 1717 1718 1719 1720 1721 1722 1723 1724 1725 1726 1727 1728 1729 1730 1731 1732 1733 1734 1735 1736 1737 1738 1739 1740 1741 1742 1743 1744 1745 1746 1747 1748 1749 1750 1751 1752 1753 1754 1755 1756 1757 1758 1759 1760 1761 1762 1763 1764 1765 1766 1767 1768 1769 1770

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

a human being hanging on for their life, ((laughter)) this is the whole sport. ((laughter)) just ahhhhhhhhh ((laughter)) "oh he pointed his toes .. oh, this guy is a tremendous athlete." ((laughter)) {applause} the luge is the only sport I've ever seen that you could have people competing in it against their will. ((weak laughter)) and it would be exactly the same. ((laughter)) you know, if they were just picking people off the street, "hey hey hey, what is this? ((laughter)) I don't wanna be in the luge". you know, you put the helmet on them, you wouldn't really hear them screaming, just: purrrrrr ((laughter)) "you're in the luge, buddy" "ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhh .. aaahhh" ((laughter)) "world record. ((weak laughter)) didn't even wanna do it" ((laughter)) I wanna see that event next year, the involuntary luge. I consider myself something of a sportsman. been scuba diving. another great activity where your main goal is to .. not die. ((laughter)) that's pretty much all I thought about that day, just: ((singing)) "don't die, don't die, don't die, don't die" ((laughter)) >"there's a fish, there's a rock who cares, don't die.< ((singing)) I don't wanna die, don't let me die, let's swim and breathe and live. because living is good and dying ... not as good." ((laughter)) {applause} they had me all setup with the scuba guy, that has all the .. you know, stuff for ya. made sure that I bought a nylon wallet, water-proof wallet,

387

1771 1772 1773 1774 1775 1776 1777 1778 1779 1780 1781 1782 1783 1784 1785 1786 1787 1788 1789 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800 1801 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

1816 1817 1818 Audience: 1819 J.S.: 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 Audience:

in case we run into a sea turtle that can break a fifty, ((laughter)) I guess. ((laughter)) water-proof watch, that's important, "gee, I'm completely out of oxygen, and look at the time, ((laughter)) now I'm dead and I'm late." ((laughter)) but I've also gone hang-gliding, I've gone sky diving, I like things that are a little scary, I don't know, maybe that's why I do this. ((weak laughter)) I read a thing that actually speaking in front of a crowd is considered the number one fear, of the average person. I found that amazing. number two was death number two. ((weak laughter)) that means, to the average person, if you have to be at a funeral, you would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy. that's what that means. ((laughter)) {applause} sky diving was definitely the scariest, uh, thing I've ever done. let me ask you this question, in regards to the sky diving, what is the point of the helmet, ((laughter)) in the sky diving? (2.0) I mean, can you .. kinda make it? you jump out of that plane and that .. chute doesn't open, the helmet is now wearing you for protection. ((laughter)) later on, the helmet is talking with the other helmets, going "it's a good thing he was there, or I would hit the ground directly" ((laughter)) there are many things that we can point to as proof that the human being is not smart. the helmet .. is my personal favorite. the fact that we had to invent the helmet. now why did we invent the helmet? well, because we were participating in many activities that were cracking our heads. ((weak laughter))

388

1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858

J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 Audience: 1864 J.S.: 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

1879 Audience: 1880 J.S.: 1881 1882

we looked at the situation, we chose not to avoid these activities, ((laughter)) but to just make little plastic hats, so that we can continue our head-cracking life styles. ((laughter)) the only thing dumber than the helmet is the helmet law, the point of which is to protect a brain that is functioning so poorly, ((laughter)) it's not even trying to stop the cracking of the head that it's in. ((laughter)) at least the helmet is functional clothing, I appreciate that. clothing to me, for the most part, is just a tremendous pain in the ass. if you think of the amount of time, mental effort, physical energy, that goes into your clothes .. picking them, buying them, "does that go with that", "I don't think I can wear that", "I'm missing a button", "this is dirty", "I gotta get something new", "that's up my ass", "can't wear this" ... ((laughter)) I think we should all wear the same exact clothes. because it seems to be what happens eventually, anyway. any time you see a movie or a TV show where there's people from the future, or another planet, they're all wearing the same outfit. ((laughter)) I think the decision just gets made, "all right everyone, from now on, it's just gonna be the one-piece silver suit with the V-stripe and the boots. ((laughter)) {beginning applause} that's the outfit. we're gonna be visiting other planets, we wanna look like a team, here. ((laughter)) the individuality thing is over. the dry cleaner, I can't stand. because I don't think he's doing it. ((weak laughter)) I don't know what goes on back there, but I cannot conceive of such a thing is actual dry cleaning. ((weak laughter)) we all accept it because we see the stores everywhere. but think about it, dry?

389

1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

what is dry? you can't clean something dry what do they do, tap it, shake it, blow on it, there's gotta be some kind of a liquid back there. ((laughter)) did you ever get something on your clothes and get it off with the finger nail? that's dry cleaning. ((laughter)) that is the only dry cleaning ... I brought this guy in .. a suede jacket, got spots on it because I was in the rain, says "there's nothing we can do. water ruins leather." now, .. aren't cows outdoors, a lot of the time? ((laughter)) when it rains, do the cows go up to the farm house, "hey, let us in, we're all wearing leather out here. ((laughter)) hey open up man, I'm suede" ((laughter)) "dry clean only", I - I would say though, is the only warning label that human beings do respect. ((weak laughter)) you know what I mean, cigarettes: >"this will give you cancer", "it will definitely kill you", "babies, everything ..." "screw it, I'll do whatever the hell I want" ((blows smoke)) pfffff-< "don't take this medicine and operate heavy machinery" >"ah, glug-glug-glug, that's for beginners, people who don't know what the hell is happening, I've been working on this job for 20 years" but if you have something that says "dry clean only" and someone tries to put it in the washing machine<, "don't put it in the washing machine it's dry clean only are you crazy out of your mind" ((laughter)) {applause} I'm always irritated by that (2.0) effect of, uh, watching TV late at night, I do this most nights. I'm watching TV, tell me if you have, if this happens to you, you're watching TV,

390

1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

it's getting late. you're getting tired, you're starting to fall asleep. you think to yourself, I could get into bed and go to sleep right now. ((weak laughter)) but I don't. I don't go to bed, I fight ... sleep, and continue searching for entertainment. ((laughter)) {applause} >"no, I gotta find a car blowing up, somebody naked, I don't care what it is, I gotta fight"< ((laughter)) what is this? go to bed the finger that hits the button on the remote control is the last part of the human body to fall asleep. ((weak laughter)) you're out cold, that finger's still going, it's still looking. ((laughter)) it is amazing what people will believe. I watch these infomercials late at night, I start to believe them. ((weak laughter)) I don't know what the hour is, there is an hour, ((weak laughter)) that I'm watching, and I start thinking "you know, (1.0) I don't think I could cut through a shoe with any of my knives. ((laughter)) that does look pretty good." ((laughter)) there is nothing about my life that I could tell you, that is more embarrassing than the fact that I have actually spoken the words "I would like to order the Ginsu knife." ((laughter)) I wish I was making all this up. ((weak laughter)) I actually own the Ginsu knife. ((weak laughter)) "I'm gonna get this knife and cut my shoes up." what's a rip off ... we all try and prevent ourselves from getting ripped off, we all think, uh, we all think we're very clever,

391

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Audience: 2009 J.S.: 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 2034 2035 2036 2037 2038 2039 2040 2041 2042 2043 2044 2045 2046 2047 2048 2049 2050 2051 2052 2053 2054 2055 2056 2057 Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience:

you know. we think we can out-think the crooks .. you know. go to the beach, go in the water, put your wallet in the sneaker, "who's gonna know? ((laughter)) what criminal mind could penetrate this fortress of security? ((laughter)), {beginning applause} I put it down by the toe, they never look there. ((laughter)) they check the heels, they move on." ((laughter)) so feeble, the things we come up with, to foil crooks. like the "wanted" posters at the post office you're there, you got your package, you're trying to mail something, this guy is wanted in 12 states .. "yeah, now what, okay." ((laughter)) you know, I check the guy standing in line behind me, ((laughter)) if it's not him, that's pretty much all I can do. why don't they just hold on to this guy when they're taking his picture? ((laughter)) {applause} the guy's there with you >"come out from behind the counter and grab him"< ((laughter)) "no, we don't do that, we take their picture, we let them go. ((laughter)) that's how we get the front and side shot, the front is his face, the side is him leaving" ((laughter)) why don't they put the pictures of the criminals on the postage stamps? let the postman look for him, he's out there walking around all day. ((laughter)) {beginning applause} he's got the uniform on, can't he do something? ((laughter)) "ah, we got a letter for you here, Mr. Joh((laughter)) hey, wait a second" ((laughter))

392

2058 2059 2060 2061 2062 2063 2064 2065 2066 2067 2068 2069 2070 2071 2072 2073 2074 2075 2076 2077 2078 2079 2080 2081 2082 2083 2084 2085 2086 2087 2088 2089 2090 2091 2092 2093 2094 2095 2096 2097 2098 2099 2100 2101 2102 2103 2104 2105 2106 2107 2108 2109 2110 2111 2112 2113 2114 2115

J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

when you're when you're on the road, which I'm not now, you, uh, you have to do what everybody suggests to do for that day, because (1.0) you gotta do something. a couple of weeks ago we were in Pittsburgh, we went, uh, to the track, bet on the horses. this is idiotic. ((weak laughter)) I think it's fun, but I never would think for a second that I could figure out what horse is going to win, I don't even think the horses know that they're racing. ((laughter)) do they? I mean, are they walking back to the stable afterwards, going "I was third", "I was fifth", "I was ninth." ((laughter)) "you cut me off, watch that." ((laughter)) "I'll kick your ass next time." ((laughter)) I think more likely, they're thinking, ((singing)) "oat bag, [((laughter))] [I get my oat bag now.] oat bag time for me." {applause} I mean, I'm sure the horses have some idea that the jockey is in a hurry. ((laughter)) I mean, he's on him, he's urging him, he's hitting him, "come on, come on", you know, so, "this is important that I get somewhere for this guy .. quick", but they must get to the end and go ((breathing deeply)) "we were just here, ((laughter)) what was the point of that? ((laughter)) this is where we were. ((laughter)) that was the longest possible route you could take to get where you wanted to be.

393

2116 2117 2118 2119 2120 2121 2122 2123 2124 2125 2126 2127 2128 2129 2130 2131 2132 2133 2134 2135 2136 2137 2138 2139 2140 2141 2142 2143 2144 2145 2146 2147 2148 2149 2150 2151 2152 2153 2154 2155 2156 2157 2158 2159 2160 2161 2162 2163 2164 2165 2166 2167 2168 2169 2170 2171 2172 2173

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

((laughter)) why don't we just stay here? I would've been first." ((laughter)) {applause} I'll tell you one thing the horses definitely do not know, they do not know if you should accidentally trip and break your leg, at any point during the race, we're gonna blow your brains out. ((laughter)) I think they're missing that little tidbit of information. ((laughter)) if they knew that, you'd see some mighty careful stepping coming down that home stretch. ((laughter)) "easy, fellas, easy. ((laughter)) {beginning applause} you win, I'll place, whatever it is. it's all the same oat bag, fellas. ((laughter)) the important thing is your health." ((laughter)) {applause} I've tried horseback riding, I can't really do that. and, uh, they don't really give you the good horses (1.5) when you're not good at it. I found that out. the guy says "what level of rider would you say that you are?" I go "I don't know, zero, nothing, whatever the system is. ((laughter)) I can't do it, is that clear enough for you? ((laughter)) I'm going where the horse wants to go, okay? ((laughter)) that's my .. level" ((laughter)) of course, they hear that, they start looking around, "all right, is Glue-Stick back yet? ((laughter)) how about Almost-Dead, why don't you saddle him up?" ((laughter)) so I get on this U-shaped .. lightning-quick steed I got here .. I had the only horse

394

2174 2175 2176 2177 2178 2179 2180 2181 2182 2183 2184 2185 2186 2187 2188 2189 2190 2191 2192 2193 2194 2195 2196 2197 2198 2199 2200 2201 2202 2203 2204 2205 2206 2207 2208 2209 2210 2211 2212 2213 2214 2215 2216 2217 2218 2219 2220 2221 2222 2223 2224 2225 2226 2227 2228 2229 2230 2231

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

you could put your feet flat on the ground while you're riding him. ((laughter)) I'm riding the Hammock, here. ((laughter)) looking up at my friends, "I don't feel like we all got the same kind of horse." ((laughter)) it was kind of a secure feeling, I could just kind of walk along with them there, you know. ((laughter)) and the horse isn't too thrilled with having me, either. the horse knows, they may be dumb, but they know you can't ride. and they don't like it. they just stop, you know, and they look up at you, ((weak laughter)) with that frightening horsy face, you know, ((laughter)) with those huge nostrils, and that - that big bowling ball eye. ((laughter)) "chill out, hop-along, I know the trail. ((laughter)) yeah, I'm here every God-damn day, okay? ((laughter)) {beginning applause} and I really appreciate the kicking while [((laughter))] [I'm taking a leak, too.] yeah, thanks a lot, that really improves the already wonderful life that I have. ((laughter)) people either are sitting on me or kicking me while I'm peeing. I've got a really sweet gig here at the ranch." ((laughter)) get out of a car that has 300 horsepower to sit on an animal that has one. ((laughter)) why why do we use the term horsepower? is that also to insult the horse? the space-shuttle rocket boosters, each one ... has 20 million horsepower. why are we still comparing it with the horse? ((weak laughter)) any chance we're gonna get back to using horses, ((weak laughter)) for rockets, trying to keep track of how many we're going to need? ((weak laughter)) "hey horse, the rocket engine just broke down, can you get 20 million friends together really fast?"

395

2232 2233 2234 2235 2236 2237 2238 2239 2240 2241 2242 2243 2244 2245 2246 2247 2248 2249 2250 2251 2252 2253 2254 2255 2256 2257 2258 2259 2260 2261 2262 2263 2264 2265 2266 2267 2268 2269 2270 2271 2272 2273 2274 2275 2276 2277 2278 2279 2280 2281 2282 2283 2284

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

2285 Audience: 2286 J.S.: 2287

((laughter)) "20 million, that's a lot." ((laughs)) ((laughter)) they do make glue out of horses, I have no idea how they do it (1.0) or who even saw that potential. ((laughter)) that's a brainstorm in my book. ((weak laughter)) what are you, working in a stationary store, you see a horse walk by the window. ((slight laughter)) "wait a minute. ((laughter)) I think he ... could be glue" ((laughter)) "are you sure?" "I'm positive" "how do we pick out the really sticky ones?" "you leave that to me" ((laughter)) "what about that one over there, he's weaving around, he looks like he's out of his mind" "he'll be crazy-glue" ((laughter)) {applause} to me the toughest part of the horses' life is the horse trailer. I don't know who designed that. is that the best way to move a horse out on the highway? is that what we all need to see, their huge, fat, disgusting asses? ((laughter)) right in my face? is it good for the horses? they're probably standing in the back going "do you feel a draft, Bill? ((laughter)) I can't see anything back there, but it's awfully breezy, isn't it? ((laughter)) you don't think our [((laughter))] [huge fat asses are hanging out the back of this truck, do you?] why the hell would they do that to us? ((laughter)) they already ride us around and kick us while we're peeing. ((laughter)) what's the point of sticking our ass out of the truck?" ((laughter)) I like staying in hotels, I enjoy hotels,

396

2288 2289 2290 2291 2292 2293 2294 2295 2296 2297 2298 2299 2300 2301 2302 2303 2304 2305 2306 2307 2308 2309 2310 2311 2312 2313 2314 2315 2316 2317 2318 2319 2320 2321 2322 2323 2324 2325 2326 2327 2328 2329 2330 2331 2332 2333 2334 2335 2336 2337 2338 2339 2340 2341 2342 2343 2344 2345 2346

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

I, uh, like tiny soap. ((weak laughter)) I pretend that it's normal soap and my muscles are huge. ((laughter)) can always tell when you're in a fine quality, luxury hotel, when the TV is bolted to a solid steel beam, and welded into the wall. ((laughter)) I don't like staying at people's houses, on the road. don't like other people's showers. I can never adjust the temperature right, I don't know the ratios on the dials. you know, sometimes a 16th of an inch is a thousand degrees ((laughter)) you gotta get out of the way of the water. there's always that little hair, stuck on the wall of somebody else's shower. ((weak laughter)) you wanna get rid of it, but you don't wanna touch it. I don't know how it got up that high, in the first place. ((laughter)) maybe it's got a life of its own, I don't wanna get involved. so you gotta aim the shower head at the hair (3.0) ((laughter)) that never works, you gotta get a pool of water from under the shower and over to the hair. you get it down, a foot at a time, like this. ((laughter)) the hair is hanging on. ((laughter)) but we have to fight these battles, we're all alone in the bathroom. ((laughter)) whatever goes wrong, you have to handle it. did you ever go to a big party, go in the bathroom, flush the toilet, and the water starts coming up? ((laughter)) this is the most frightening moment in the life of a human being right here. ((laughter)) {applause} you will do anything to stop this. ((laughs)) ((laughter)) you'll lose your mind, start talking to the toilet, "no please, don't do this to me, come on.

397

2347 2348 2349 2350 2351 2352 2353 2354 2355 2356 2357 2358 2359 2360 2361 2362 2363 2364 2365 2366 2367 2368 2369 2370 2371 2372 2373 2374 2375 2376 2377 2378 2379 2380 2381 2382 2383 2384 2385 2386 2387 2388 2389 2390 2391 2392 2393 2394 2395 2396 2397 2398 2399 2400 2401 2402 2403 2404 2405

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Man: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Man: J.S.:

((laughter)) you know this is not my fault I'll get you the blue thing, the man in the boat, just let me off the hook this one time" ((laughter)) thank you very much, I hope you had a good time, tonight. {applause} {standing ovations} thank you. thank you very much, thank you. {applause} thank you. I - I appreciate that very, very much, that's really, really nice, I did not want to come back. ((laughter)) you made me do it. ((weak laughter)) I don't know what it is you expect me to do at this point. I appreciate your standing up, I know that's not easy to do. ((laughter)) and I know there's always a few people that don't really wanna do it. ((laughter)) I have often been one of those people. ((weak laughter)) if you have any questions for me, I'll be more than happy to entertain your curiosity. (1.0) what do you do for fun? what do I do for fun? well, right now I'm gonna try and do this, for some fun. I don't know, I wanna I wanna get into surfing, that's what I wanna do. I think surfing is fun. I'm serious, ((laughs)) I'm gonna do that. I think surfing is cool. I like - I think it's funny all the trouble that people go to, to get into the ocean, and that really, the ocean is just constantly throwing us out of there. ((weak laughter)) that's what surfing is. the ocean throwing us out. why won't you make a movie? I don't know about a movie, I mean .. most of the movies you see aren't .. very good, these days.

398

2406 2407 2408 2409 2410 2411 2412 2413 2414 2415 2416 2417 2418 2419 2420 2421 2422 2423 2424 2425 2426 2427 2428 2429 2430 2431 2432 2433 2434 2435 2436 2437 2438 2439 2440 2441 2442 2443 2444 2445 2446 2447 2448 2449 2450 2451 2452 2453 2454 2455 2456 2457 2458 2459 2460 2461 2462 2463

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Man: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Woman: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Woman: J.S.: Woman: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

((laughter)) and they're very complicated, you know, I mean, you go see some piece of junk and it's ... you know, 100 million dollars and two years in the making I mean, you - you go to a bad movie, it's two hours, you're in a bad movie, it's two years. I'd uh I'd be afraid that I'd be in the movie, looking out at the audience, going "this sucks, doesn't it? ((laughter)) I can't get out of this thing, they got me under contract. what's your favorite cereal? what is my favorite cereal? I I like any cereal, I like the idea of just eating and drinking with one hand, without looking. ((laughter)) {applause} I find that experience very neat. what's your favorite Seinfeld episode? do I have a favorite Seinfeld episode? well, I get this question quite often, uh, I don't really have a favorite, they're all kind of my babies, I did the best I could with each one. {applause} you know, comedy ... comedy is kind of a survival industry. you know, comedians are very much into just surviving. it's like if I were to ask you what is your favorite breath of air, that you've ever taken. ((laughter)) you would say "whichever one I'm taking that gets me to the next one." ((laughter)) excuse me? it's my birthday. it's your birthday, well happy birthday. which, uh, which birthday is it? I ain't saying... oh, okay. ((laughter)) so you want attention, but not too much attention. ((laughter)) {applause} I noticed your first couple of birthdays in life and your last couple of birthdays in life are very

399

2464 2465 2466 2467 2468 2469 2470 2471 2472 2473 2474 2475 2476 2477 2478 2479 2480 2481 2482 2483 2484 2485 2486 2487 2488 2489 2490 2491 2492 2493 2494 2495 2496 2497 2498 2499 2500 2501 2502 2503 2504 2505 2506 2507 2508 2509 2510 2511 2512 2513 2514 2515 2516 2517 2518 2519 2520

Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Man: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.: Woman: J.S.: Audience: J.S.: Man: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

Audience: J.S.:

similar. in both cases, you don't really even know it's your birthday. ((laughter)) people have to tell you "these are your friends. ((laughter)) they've come to help you celebrate your birthday". and you need a little help with the cake blow .. in both cases. what else? excuse me? are you from Massapequa, Jerry? yes I am from Massapequa. Massapequa is a town on Long Island, I'm sure you may have heard of. {applause} Massapequa is an Indian name, it means "by the mall". ((laughter)) it's amazing (1.0) that even the native tribes could sense that the retail is gonna be a natural lust, ((laughter)) once we build up the suburban environment. Jerry? yes, we know who it is, ((laughter)) just go with the question. what else? hello Newman give you a "hello Newman" well, sir, there is a lot more to a "hello Newman" than meets the eye. you don't just .. you don't just say "hello Newman". first, you must open the door properly for Newman. you'll notice, whenever I open the door for Newman, is different than the way I opened it for everybody else, you wanna get the wide swing you wanna open that door all the way .. because you wanna reveal Newman ((laughter)) in all his Newman. and also, you wanna give him the opportunity to take his little (1.0) step, that he always does, right? ((laughter)) {applause} and then, when he comes in and then he looks at you and he stands there, and he waits .. he waits, for his "hello Newman".

400

2521 2522 2522 2523 2524 2525 Audience: 2526 2527 J.S.: 2528 2529 2530 Audience: 2531 2532

and he looks at you with those beady little eyes. and you must think of all the evil in the world and then you must say to him: "hello Newman". {applause} ((laughter)) thank you very much, you've been a wonderful audience. thank you for coming. {applause} ((laughter)) {standing ovations}

401

17.3. Transcript Steven Wright: I Have a Pony

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Presenter: ladies and gentlemen. please welcome (1.0) from Boston, Massachusetts, Steven Wright. Audience: {applause} Man: okay. Audience: {applause} S.W.: thanks. I used to be a parking attendant in Boston at Logan Airport .. I parked jets. Audience: ((laughter)) {weak applause} S.W.: they let me go though because I kept locking the keys in them. Audience: ((laughter)) S.W.: one day I was on an 86ft step ladder trying to get in a window with a coat hanger. Audience: ((laughter)) S.W.: I was arrested today for scalping low numbers at the deli. Audience: ((laughter)) {weak applause} S.W.: sold a number 3 for twenty-eight bucks. Audience: ((laughter)) S.W.: I was once walking through the forest alone and a tree fell right in front of me .. and I didn't hear it. Audience: ((laughter)) {applause} S.W.: I used to be a narrator for bad mimes. Audience: ((laughter)) S.W.: I live in a house that's on the median strip of a highway. Audience: ((weak laughter)) S.W.: a very nice grassy area I like it. the only thing I don't like about it is when I leave my driveway you have to be going 60mph. Audience: ((laughter)) S.W.: I have a microwave fireplace. Audience: ((laughter)) S.W.: you can lay down in front of the fire for the evening in 8 minutes. Audience: ((laughter)) {applause} S.W.: well, you can't have everything where would you put it? Audience: ((laughter)) {applause} S.W.: sometimes you can't hear me. it's because sometimes I'm in parentheses.

402

57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W. Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience:

((laughter)) are there any questions? I'm feeling kinda hyper about four years ago I was no, it was yesterday. ((laughter)) {applause} I went to the hardware store and bought some used paint. ((laughter)) it was in the shape of a house. ((laughter)) I also bought some batteries but they weren't included. ((laughter)) {weak applause} so I had to buy 'em again. ((laughter)) I had trouble going home from there because I parked my car in a tow-away zone and when I came back the entire area was gone. ((laughter)) one time the police stopped me for speeding and they said: "don't you know the speed limit is 55 miles an hour?" I said "yeah, I know. but I wasn't gonna be out that long." ((laughter)) {applause} when I was a baby I kept a diary. ((laughter)) recently I was rereading it it said: "day one: still tired from the move. ((laughter)) {applause} day two: everybody talks to me like I'm an idiot." ((laughter) I remember turning from one year(s) old to two years old. I was real upset because I figured in one year my age doubled. ((laughter)) if this keeps up by the time I'm six I'll be 90. ((laughter)) {weak applause} it was my birthday recently. for my birthday I got a humidifier and a dehumidifier. ((laughter))

403

116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174

S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience:

put them in the same room and let them fight it out. ((laughter)) then I filled my humidifier with wax now my room's all shiny. ((laughter)) (10.0) right now I'm having amnesia and dj vu at the same time. ((laughter)) a friend of mine named Dennis, his parents are midgets (3.0) but he's not a midget he's a midget dwarf. ((laughter)) he's this big. ((laughter)) he's the guy who poses for trophies. (laughter)) {applause} I used to work for the factory where they make hydrants but you couldn't park anywhere near them. ((laughter)) {applause} I used to be a proof reader for a sky-writing company. ((laughter)) I'm entering the 'strangest sweepstakes'. it's a contest. you pay 50 cents and you get a little card that has a number on it and then you go up to any stranger and you scratch a penny on his head. ((laughter)) if the number under there matches the number you have, ((laughter)) you win one hundred dollars. ((laughter)) I won twice. ((laughter)) I was beat up eleven times. ((laughter)) {applause} I'm saving money though because I'm planning a trip to Spain. so I bought an album that teaches you the language you put the album on you put headphones on you learn the language while you're sleeping (3.0) during the night the record skipped. ((laughter))

404

175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233

S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

I got up the next day and could only stutter in Spanish. ((laughter)) {weak applause} when I go, I'm flying - I'm flying Air Bizarre. it's a good airline you buy a combination one-way round-trip ticket. ((weak laughter)) they leave any Monday and they bring you back the previous Friday. ((laughter)) that way you still have the weekend. ((laughter)) {weak applause} I went to court for a parking ticket I pleaded insanity. ((laughter)) {beginning applause} I said: "your honor. why would anyone in their right mind park in the passing lane?" ((laughter)) {beginning applause} then I asked him if he knew what time it is and he told me and I said: "no further questions." ((laughter)) {weak applause} I'm going to court next week I've been selected for jury duty. ((laughter)) it's kind of an insane case 6000 ants dressed up as rice and robbed a Chinese restaurant. ((laughter)) {weak applause} I don't think they did it. ((laughter)) I know a few of them and they wouldn't do anything like that. (6.0) years ago, I worked in a natural organic health food store in Seattle, Washington one day a man walked in and he said "if I melt dry ice, can I swim without getting wet?" ((laughter)) {applause} I said: "I don't know. let me ask Tony." ((laughter)) two days later

405

234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W. Audience: S.W.: Audience:

I was fired for eating cotton candy and drinking straight Bosco on the job. ((laughter)) so I figured I'd leave the area (3.0) because I had no ties there anyway except for this girl I was seeing we had conflicting attitudes I really wasn't into meditation she wasn't really into being alive. ((laughter)) I told her I knew when I was gonna die because my birth certificate has an expiration date on it. ((laughter)) {applause} I decided to leave and go to California so I packed up my Salvador Dali print of two blindfolded dental hygienists trying to make a circle on an etch-a-sketch. ((laughter)) and I headed for the highway and began hitching within three minutes I got picked up by one of those huge trailer trucks carrying twenty brand-new cars. I climbed up the side of the cab and I opened the door and the guy said: "I don't have much room in here why don't you get into one of the cars in the back?" so I did and he was really into picking up people because he picked up nineteen more. ((laughter)) we all had our own cars. ((laughter)) {applause} then he went ninety miles an hour and we all got speeding tickets. ((laughter)) {applause} I had the photograph on my license taken out of focus on purpose so when the police do stop me they go ((mimes a policeman squinting uncertainly at the license, then handing it back to the driver)) ((laughter)) "here, you can go." ((laughter)) {weak applause} one night I stayed up all night playing poker with tarot cards. ((laughter))

406

291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349

S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience:

I got a Full House and four people died. ((laughter)) {applause} I have a telescope on the peep hole on my door so I can see who's at the door for 200 miles. ((laughter)) "who is it?" ((laughter)) "who is it gonna be when you get here?" ((laughter)) I got an answering machine for my phone now. when I'm not home and someone calls me up they hear a recording of a busy signal. ((laughter)) {applause} I lost a button hole. ((laughter)) {applause} I broke a mirror in my house and I'm supposed to get seven years bad luck, but my lawyer thinks he can get me five. ((laughter)) {applause} I like to skate on the other side of the ice. ((laughter)) I like to reminisce with people I don't know. ((laughter)) {weak applause} granted it takes longer. ((laughter)) I like to fill my tub up with water then turn the shower on and act like I'm in a submarine that's been hit. ((laughter)) {beginning applause} I hate when my foot falls asleep during the day because that means it's going to be up all night. ((laughter)) {applause} when I get real, real bored, I like to drive downtown and get a great parking spot then sit in my car and count how many people ask me if I'm leaving. ((laughter)) {applause} recently I was walking my dog around my building ... on the ledge. ((laughter))

407

350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408

S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

a lot of people are afraid of heights, not me, I'm afraid of widths ((laughter)) {applause} I have a three-year-old dog. I named him Stay. ((laughter)) he was a lot of fun when he was a puppy because when I called him I would say "c'mere, Stay c'mere, Stay." ((laughter)) then he would go. ((laughter)) he's a lot smarter than that now .. now when I call him he'll just ignore me and keep on typing. ((laughter)) he's an East German shepherd. ((laughter)) very, very disciplined. ((weak laughter)) last night I was in a bar and I walked up to this beautiful woman and I said: "do you live around here often?" ((laughter)) she said: "you're wearing two different colored socks." I said: "yes, but to me they're the same because I go by thickness." ((laughter)) {applause} then she said: "how do you feel?" and I said: "well, you know, when you're sitting on a chair and you lean back so you're just on two legs and then you lean too far and you almost fall over but just at the last second you catch yourself? I feel like that all the time. ((laughter)) {applause} I have a map of the United States. it's actual size. ((laughter)) it says: "one mile equals one mile."

408

409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

((laughter)) when people ask where I live I say E5. ((laughter)) last summer I folded it. ((laughter)) {applause} my girlfriend has a queen size bed and I have a court jester size bed. ((laughter)) it's red and green and has bells on it. ((laughter)) the ends curl up. ((laughter)) I woke up one morning she asked me if I slept good I said: "no, I made a few mistakes." ((laughter)) I got a postcard from my best friend George. it was a satellite picture of the entire earth. and on the back he wrote: "wish you were here." ((laughter)) {applause} alright now I'd like to do my imitation of bowling ((he drags the microphone along the floor, then lifts it)) gutter. ((laughter)) {applause} it took me a year and a half to write that. ((laughter)) I didn't know how to word it. ((laughter)) {plays guitar} I don't know how to play this. ((laughter)) I'd like to play everything the Beatles ever recorded. ((laughter)) I won't do all of "Hey Jude" ((laughter)) what are these strings for? ((laughter)) why don't I tell you about the girl I'm seeing now. I - I met her in Macy's in New York City. she was buying clothes and I was putting slinkies on the escalators. ((laughter)) {starts playing the guitar} the girl I'm seeing now, her name is Rachel (1.0) she is a very pretty girl,

409

468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

she has (1.0) emerald eyes and (1.0) long flowing plaid hair. ((laughter)) the last week in August, we went camping .. way up in Canada we were laying around in the woods and stuff and (1.0) I don't know how she did it but ... Rachel got poison ivy on her brain. ((laughter)) and the only way she could scratch it was if she .. thought about sandpaper. ((laughter)) {still plays the guitar} she's a rich girl, (2.5) she's from somewhere else and her father is an incredible millionaire (3.5) you know how he made his money? (3.0) he's the guy who designed that little diagram that shows you which way to put batteries in something. ((laughter)) ((sings)) hey, hey ... Rachel dear, how I wish you were here. {claps hands} hey, hey I can almost see you ... ((stops singing)) having sex with Rachel (2.0) is amazing. ((laughter)) it's like going to a concert it really is. she yells a lot. ((weak laughter)) she throws Frisbees around the room. ((laughter)) and when she wants more she lights a match. ((laughter)) ((sings)) hey, hey ... Rachel dear, how I wish you were here. hey, hey I can almost see you

410

527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 571 572 573 574 575 576 577 578 579 580 581 582 583 584 585

Audience: S.W.: Audience: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

{finishes his song} ((laughter)) {applause} that was fun. ((weak laughter)) today I was no that wasn't me. ((laughter)) {applause} yesterday I saw a subliminal advertising executive but just for a second. ((laughter)) I finally went to the eye doctor. I got contacts but I only need them when I read so I got flip-ups. ((laughter)) keep 'em on my desk right next to my typewriter. I have the oldest typewriter in the world. it types in pencil. ((laughter)) under my bed I have a shoebox full of telephone rings whenever I get lonely I open it up just a little bit and I get a call. one time I dropped the box all over the floor and the phone wouldn't stop ringing. ((laughter)) so I had to have it disconnected. I got another phone though I didn't have much money so I had to get an irregular phone (3.0) it had no five on it. ((laughter)) I was walking down the street and I bumped into a good friend of mine. and he said: "how come you never call me anymore?" I said: "I can't call everyone I want. my phone has no five on it." ((weak laughter)) he said: "that's really weird." ((weak laughter)) he said: "how long have you had it?" I said: "I don't know ... my calendar has no sevens." ((laughter)) {applause} I got up the other day and everything in my apartment had been stolen

411

586 587 588 589 590 591 592 593 594 595 596 597 598 599 600 601 602 603 604 605 606 607 608 609 610 611 612 613 614 615 616 617 618 619 620 621 622 623 624 625 626 627 628 629 630 631 632 633 634 635 636 637 638 639 640 641 642 643 644

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: Man: S.W.:

Audience:

and replaced with an exact replica. ((laughter)) {weak applause} I couldn't believe it (2.0) I called my friend and said: "look at this stuff, it's all an exact replica. what do you think?" he said: "do I know you?" ((laughter)) it's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it. ((laughter)) I just got out of the hospital. I was in a speed-reading accident. ((laughter)) I hit a bookmark. ((laughter)) flew across the room. I'm doing a lot of painting lately, abstract painting, extremely abstract... no brush, no canvas. ((laughter)) I just think about it. ((laughter)) one time I went to a museum where all the work in the museum was done by children. they had all the paintings up on refrigerators. ((laughter)) {applause} I also went to a museum where they had all the heads and arms from the statues that were in all the other museums. ((laughter)) {applause} I left there and I was walking down the street and I saw a man who had wooden legs and real feet. ((laughter)) {weak applause} he asked me if I knew what time it is I said: "yes but not right now." ((laughter)) yeah. (7.0) I like my dental hygienist, I think she is very pretty so whenever I go to have my teeth cleaned while I'm in the waiting room I eat an entire box of Oreo cookies. ((laughter))

412

645 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 653 654 655 656 657 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 665 666 667 668 669 670 671 672 673 674 675 676 677 678 679 680 681 682 683 684 685 686 687 688 689 690 691 692 693 694 695 696 697 698 699 700 701 702 703

S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

{applause} sometimes they have to cancel all the rest of the appointments. ((laughter)) I got up this morning and couldn't find my socks, so I called information. ((laughter)) I said: "hello, information?" she said: "yes." I said: "I can't find my socks." ((weak laughter)) she said: "they're behind the couch." ((laughter)) and they were. ((weak laughter)) I'm tired of calling up the movies and listening to that recording of what's playing so I bought the album. ((laughter)) last time we went to the movies I was thrown out for bringing my own food in. my argument was the concession stand prices are outrageous. besides, I haven't had a barbecue in a long time. ((laughter)) {applause} I went to the cinema. it said adults $5.00, children $2.50. I said: "alright, give me two boys and a girl." ((laughter)) one time I went to the drive-in in a cab. ((laughter)) the movie cost me $95. ((laughter)) {applause} I went into a place to eat, it said breakfast anytime. so I ordered French toast during the Renaissance. ((laughter)) {applause} one time right in the middle of a job interview I took out a book and I started reading. ((weak laughter)) the guy said: "what the hell are you doing?" I said: "let me ask you one question.

413

704 705 706 707 708 709 710 711 712 713 714 715 716 717 718 719 720 721 722 723 724 725 726 727 728 729 730 731 732 733 734 735 736 737 738 739 740 741 742 743 744 745 746 747 748 749 750 751 752 753 754 755 756 757 758 759 760 761 762

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

if you were in a vehicle and you were traveling at the speed of light and then you turned your lights on, would they do anything?" ((laughter)) he said: "I don't know." I said: "forget it, then. I don't wanna work for you." ((laughter)) {applause} every night I go home and I stare at my rug and I try to move it using telekinesis doing that every night for eight years the rug hasn't moved an inch the rest of the house is gone. ((laughter)) a while ago, I was in Las Vegas I was at the roulette table having a furious argument over what I considered an odd number. ((laughter)) {applause} it's pretty funny. I bought some powdered water but I don't know what to add. ((laughter)) I spilled spot remover on my dog. now he's gone. ((laughter)) {applause} I got on an elevator and this old guy got on with me. I was over near the buttons I pushed no.4 and I said: "where are you going?" (1.0) he said: "Phoenix." ((laughter)) so I pushed 'Phoenix'. ((laughter)) doors opened, two tumbleweeds blew on. (1.0) we stepped off, we were in downtown "Phoenix". (1.0) I said: "you know, you're the kind of guy I'd really like to hang around with." ((laughter)) he said: "well,

414

763 764 765 766 767 768 769 770 771 772 773 774 775 776 777 778 779 780 781 782 783 784 785 786 787 788 789 790 791 792 793 794 795 796 797 798 799 800 801 802 803 804 805 806 807 808 809 810 811 812 813 814 815 816 817 818 819 820

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

I'm going out to the desert you wanna go?" I said: "sure." so we hopped in his car and started driving out to the desert. he told me he spent most of his life working on a research project for the government trying to find out who financed the pyramids. ((laughter)) he worked on it 30 years and they paid him an incredible amount of money he told them he was pretty sure it was a guy named Eddie. ((laughter)) {weak applause} we get out to his house 500 miles in the middle of the desert. the phone rings, he says: "you get it." so I run over and I picked it up, the man says: "Steven Wright?" I said: "yes" ((weak laughter)) he said: "this is Mr. Haynes, your student loan director from your bank." ((laughter)) I said: "yeah?" he said: "you're 62 bank payments behind. found out today from the institute you attended that they received none of the 17 thousand dollars we loaned you. we'd really like to know what you did with it." I said: "well Mr. Haynes, I'm not gonna lie to you. I gave the money to my friend Jiggs Casey and he built a nuclear weapon with it. ((weak laughter)) and I'd really appreciate it if you wouldn't call me anymore. ((laughter)) {applause} I have several hobbies which I enjoy to the fullest I have a large seashell collection which I keep scattered on the beaches all over the world.

415

821 822 823 824 825 826 827 828 829 830 831 832 833 834 835 836 837 838 839 840 841 842 843 844 845 846 847 848 849 850 851 852 853 854 855 856 857 858 859 860 861 862 863 864 865 866 867 868 869 870 871 872 873 874 875 876 877 878 879

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

((laughter)) {applause} maybe you've seen it. ((laughter)) I also collect rare photographs. I have two very rare photographs. one is a picture of Houdini locking his keys in his car. ((laughter)) the other one is a rare photograph of Norman Rockwell beating up a child. ((laughter)) {applause} there is a museum of Natural History in New York, accidentally, I walked into the ladies' room, I said, "sorry I thought this was an exhibit." ((laughter)) they got all upset, women can't live with 'em, can't shoot 'em. ((laughter)) {applause} the Stones. I love the Stones. I can't believe they are still doing it after all these years. I watch them whenever I can. (1.0) Fred and Barney. ((laughter)) {applause} last summer I drove cross country with a friend of mine. we split the driving we switched every half mile ((laughter)) the whole way across we only had one cassette tape to listen to (1.0) I can't remember what it was. ((laughter)) we were in Salina, Utah, when we were arrested for not going through a green light. we pleaded "maybe". ((laughter)) but for absolutely no reason, we went to Canada. I was feeling good I had just received my degree in calcium anthropology. ((weak laughter)) the study of milkmen. ((laughter)) {weak applause} when we were driving over the border

416

880 881 882 883 884 885 886 887 888 889 890 891 892 893 894 895 896 897 898 899 900 901 902 903 904 905 906 907 908 909 910 911 912 913 914 915 916 917 918 919 920 921 922 923 924 925 926 927 928 929 930 931 932 933 934 935 936 937 938

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

back into the United States they asked me if I had any firearms. I said: "what do you need?" ((laughter)) {applause} I was traveling with my friend George. some people think George is weird because he has sideburns behind his ears. ((laughter)) I think he's weird because he has false teeth but he has braces on them. ((laughter)) {weak applause} George is a radio announcer and when he walks under a bridge you can't hear him talk. ((laughter)) {applause} when I first moved into my house there was a switch on the wall that didn't control any lights or anything I'd just flick it up and down every once in awhile then about a month later I got a letter from a woman in Germany. ((weak laughter)) saying: "cut it out." ((laughter)) Friday, I was in a bookstore I started talking to this very French-looking girl. she was a bilingual illiterate she couldn't read in two different languages. ((laughter)) {applause} I left the store and I went down the street to my bus till my bus came and I got on I sat down beside this beautiful blond Chinese girl. ((laughter)) I said: "hello." and she said: "hello." and I said: "isn't it an amazing day?" and she said: "yes it is, I guess." "I said: what do you mean 'you guess'?" she said: "well things haven't been going too well for me lately I said:

417

939 940 941 942 943 944 945 946 947 948 949 950 951 952 953 954 955 956 957 958 959 960 961 962 963 964 965 966 967 968 969 970 971 972 973 974 975 976 977 978 979 980 981 982 983 984 985 986 987 988 989 990 991 992 993 994 995 996 997

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

"like what?" she said: "I can't tell you I don't even know you." I said: "yeah, but sometimes it's good to tell your problems to an absolute total stranger on a bus." she said: "well I've just come back from my analyst and he's still unable to help me." I said: "what's the problem?" and she paused and said: "I'm a nymphomaniac and I only get turned on by Jewish cowboys." but she said: "by the way my name is Diane" and I said: "hello, Diane, I'm Bucky Goldstein." ((laughter)) {applause} for a while I lived in Vermont with a guy named Winny. we lived in a house that ran on static electricity. ((weak laughter)) if we wanted to cook something we had to take a sweater off real quick. ((laughter)) we wanted to run a blender, we had to rub balloons on our head. ((laughter)) I thought I was a procrastinator until I met Winny. Winny got a birthmark when he was eight. ((laughter)) all Winny did ... all day was practice limbo. he got pretty good. he could go under a rug. ((laughter)) people would come over to me and say: what's that? I'd say that's Winny. about six months after we were living there I looked outside my window and I saw a bird wearing sneakers it had a little button on it that said: "I ain't flying nowhere." ((laughter)) so I opened the window, I said:

418

998 999 1000 1001 1002 1003 1004 1005 1006 1007 1008 1009 1010 1011 1012 1013 1014 1015 1016 1017 1018 1019 1020 1021 1022 1023 1024 1025 1026 1027 1028 1029 1030 1031 1032 1033 1034 1035 1036 1037 1038 1039 1040 1041 1042 1043 1044 1045 1046 1047 1048 1049 1050 1051 1052 1053 1054 1055 1056

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

"what's your problem buddy?" he said: "I'm sick of this stuff every year it's the same thing: winter here, summer there, winter here, summer there. he said: I don't know who thought this up, but it certainly wasn't a bird." ((laughter)) I said: "well, I was just making breakfast, come on in. do you want some eggs? .. sorry." ((laughter)) {applause} the ice cream truck in my neighborhood plays "Helter Skelter" ((laughter)) (3.0) a couple of nights ago I came home very late ... it was the next night. ((laughter)) I was having a little bit of trouble getting into my apartment. I accidentally took out a car key and I stuck it into the door and turned it and the building started up. ((laughter)) so I drove it around for a while. ((laughter)) went too fast and the police pulled me over, they said: "where do you live?" I said: "right here." ((laughter)) then I parked it in the middle of a highway and I ran out the front door and yelled at all the cars to get the hell out of my driveway. ((laughter)) {applause} nobody who lives in the building noticed that the building had been moved because everybody who lives in the building is absolutely insane. ((weak laughter)) the man who lives above me designs synthetic hairballs for ceramic cats. ((laughter)) the woman who lives beside me

419

1057 1058 1059 1060 1061 1062 1063 1064 1065 1066 1067 1068 1069 1070 1071 1072 1073 1074 1075 1076 1077 1078 1079 1080 1081 1082 1083 1084 1085 1086 1087 1088 1089 1090 1091 1092 1093 1094 1095 1096 1097 1098 1099 1100 1101 1102 1103 1104 1105 1106 1107 1108 1109 1110 1111 1112 1113 1114 1115

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

tried to rob a department store .. with a pricing gun. ((laughter)) she walked in and said: "give me all of the money in the vault, or I'll mark down everything in the store." ((laughter)) {applause} it's a good apartment to live in because they allow pets. I have a pony. ((laughter)) I have a Shetland pony named Nikkie. I like to ride him around the apartment, if I have to flip an album, I ride him over to the stereo, ((weak laughter)) if I wanna make a sandwich, I ride him into the kitchen, you know, but sometimes his hooves slide on the tiles and he falls down. ((weak laughter)) last summer he was involved in a bizarre electrolysis accident. ((laughter)) all the hair was removed except for the tail. now I rent him out to Hare Krishna family picnics. ((laughter)) one night I couldn't sleep so I got up (2.0) I got hungry so I went down to this store that I know is open 24 hours and when I got down there there was a guy outside locking it up. he said: "sorry, we're closed." I said: "what do you mean 'you're closed'? the sign says 'open 24 hours'." he said: "not in a row." ((laughter)) {applause} last night I had a dream that all the babies prevented by the pill showed up. ((laughter)) they were mad. ((laughter)) {weak applause} angry babies all over the place. ((laughter)) I was Caesarean born

420

1116 1117 1118 1119 1120 1121 1122 1123 1124 1125 1126 1127 1128 1129 1130 1131 1132 1133 1134 1135 1136 1137 1138 1139 1140 1141 1142 1143 1144 1145 1146 1147 1148 1149 1150 1151 1152 1153 1154 1155 1156 1157 1158 1159 1160 1161 1162 1163 1164 1165 1166 1167

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience:

you can't really tell although whenever I leave the house, I go out through the window. ((laughter)) {applause} years ago, I was skiing in England. ((weak laughter)) it was a rare package deal: two weeks in England, one night in Connecticut, two weeks in England. ((laughter)) I said: "yeah, I'll take it." I got on this chairlift with this guy I didn't know. we went half way up the mountain without saying a word. then he turned to me and said: "you know, this is the first time I've been skiing in ten years." I said: "yeah, why did you take such a long time off?" he said: "I was in jail." ((weak laughter)) he said: "you wanna know why?" I said: "no, not really." ((laughter)) then I said: "alright, you better tell me why." and he said: "I pushed a total stranger off a Ferris wheel." ((weak laughter)) {weak applause} I said: "I remember you." ((laughter)) {applause} thank you very much. thank you all. thanks for coming. I appreciated it. {applause}

421

17.4. Transcript Steven Wright: I Still Have a Pony

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 Presenter: good evening. please welcome from Boston Steven Wright. Audience: {applause} S.W.: thanks. Audience: ((laughter)) S.W.: when I was a little kid, I wish the first word I ever said was the word "quote", so right before I died, I could say, "unquote". Audience: ((laughter)) {weak applause} S.W.: lots of my friends have babies, but I don't have any babies, but I have lots of friends. babies don't have any friends. Audience: ((weak laughter)) S.W.: they all have those baby monitors so they can hear the baby from the other room which I consider a form of wire tapping. Audience: ((laughter)) S.W.: someday is gonna be a really smart baby next to a fake recording of some fake baby noises. Audience: ((laughter)) S.W.: gonna crawl out the window and go to Italy. Audience: ((laughter)) S.W.: I need one of those baby monitors from my subconscious to my consciousness so I can know what the hell I'm really thinking about. Audience: ((laughter)) {weak applause} S.W.: sometimes I talk to myself fluently in languages I'm unfamiliar with. Audience: ((laughter)) S.W.: just to screw with my subconscious. Audience: ((laughter)) S.W.: it's a good thing a lot of people speak foreign languages, otherwise those people would have no one to talk to. Audience: ((laughter)) {applause} S.W.: when I was in first grade, the teacher told us that the president was married to the first lady and all I could think of was "wow, I wonder if she ever saw any dinosaurs." Audience: ((laughter)) S.W.: she told us about Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel and that day I went home I was laying at the top of my bunk bed looking at the ceiling

422

58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

and I'm thinking "why not?" my brother's pushing the bed around "give me more aqua." ((laughter)) I did Jesus and Santa Claus on a seesaw. ((laughter)) {weak applause} I had Jesus on the low end even though he weighed less. ((laughter)) because he's Jesus ((laughter)) Jesus pissed off a lot of people you know, "will you stop turning the water into wine, I'm trying to take a shower." ((laughter)) what did Jesus ever do for Santa Claus on his birthday? ((laughter)) {applause} don't think about it, it doesn't mean anything. ((laughter)) you know, the New Testament is pretty old. ((weak laughter)) I think they should call them the Old Testament and the Most Recent Testament. ((laughter)) you know, when you look at a star, it may not even be there anymore because it takes so long for the light to get from there to here. it may be gone, it just looks like it's still there. that's how I see my old girlfriends. ((laughter)) imagine if light bulbs worked like that. ((weak laughter)) I thought I told you to shut that light off. ((laughter)) I did. it should be out by Friday. ((laughter)) the universe is expanding, that should help ease the traffic. ((laughter)) imagine Pulitzer prize fighting. ((laughter)) {applause} see two writers beating the shit out of each other. ((laughter)) imagine how weird phones would look if your mouth was nowhere near your ears.

423

116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience:

((laughter)) imagine Osh Kosh straitjackets for little insane children. ((laughter)) oh stay away from Jimmy. ((laughter)) I met this woman and I really liked her as soon as I met her all I could think of wasI was wondering if there was such thing as the opposite of restraining order. ((laughter)) I liked her 'cause she wasn't normal she liked to dance really fast to very slow music. ((laughter)) which I found very erotic. ((laughter)) due to a head injury as a small boy, ((laughter)) I was playing Jacks way too fast. ((laughter)) her eyes were a little bit too close together like the headlights on a Jeep. ((laughter)) I used to call her AC, almost Cyclops. ((laughter)) {beginning applause} in her spare time she liked to waste time. ((laughter)) she was a mail order bridesmaid, ((laughter)) she would drink so much she would slur her pauses. ((laughter)) she lived in a beautiful house had cathedral floors. ((laughter)) you walk in, you just fall right down into the middle. ((laughter)) we went out for about six months then she left, she went back to school in Seattle, she was studying, uh .. Forensic Astronomy. ((laughter)) she wrote me this beautiful letter and I read it. in the bottom I crossed her name off and I wrote my own name and I sent it back to her. ((laughter)) and I never heard from her ever again. ((laughter)) apparently, she didn't like what she wrote. ((laughter))

424

174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232

S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

{applause} the reason I'm so laid back is 'cause in high school I smoked a lot of Ritalin. ((laughter)) my problem is I was reincarnated without ever having been alive the first time. ((laughter)) my nephew has HDADD ((weak laughter)) high definition attention deficit disorder. ((laughter)) {applause} he can barely pay attention but when he does it's unbelievably clear. ((laughter)) {applause} I saw an advertisement for some invisible fences I thought that'll be perfect for my invisible dogs. ((laughter)) I live in Massachusetts I didn't shovel a driveway once this past winter since I bought the flamethrower. ((laughter)) you know, the earth is bipolar, ((laughter)) so I've been emailing my answering machine which has been sending faxes to my cellular subconscious which has call waiting so in case I'm thinking about something else, I can get back to myself later. ((laughter)) {applause} it's out of control now don't you think? ((weak laughter)) I heard soon they're gonna have digital numbers. ((laughter)) my dog has a website. ((laughter)) all it is is naked cats. ((laughter)) {weak applause} so last night as I was downloading pornographic bootleg Sponge Bobs. ((laughter)) sent to me from a hairdresser I know in Argentina. I noticed that I had no milk for tomorrow's coffee, so I looked at the car keys which had been strategically

425

233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

placed under the short leg of the kitchen table so the soup wouldn't spill and I had to make a decision do I walk to the store or do I drive and spill the soup. ((laughter)) after half an hour on my hands and knees I delicately removed the car keys from under the table and the soup didn't spill which pissed me off so much that I whipped it against the wall. ((laughter)) {applause} then I tried to wash it off with my machine gun squirt gun which was full of another kind of soup and I kinda liked the pattern I made so I took photographs of it intending to do paintings of the photographs which I would sell back to myself later since I am a private collector. ((laughter)) {weak applause} then I got outside I get in my car and I'm driving out to this store. and my mind is skipping around I'm wondering how my life would have been different had I been born one day earlier. then I'm thinking: "maybe it wouldn't have been different other than I would've asked that question yesterday. ((laughter)) {applause} so I go in the store and no one's behind the register and I'm thinking I should go behind the register so when people come in they can ask me questions and I can say: "what do I look like, I work here? ((laughter)) then I went to the back of the store where they keep the milk and out of the corner of my eye I saw this seventeen-year-old girl come out of the back room and go behind the register and I'm wondering what was she doing in the back room, and then I tried to distract myself from my own imagination. I looked at a can of peas and I started counting the peas that were on the label of the can

426

292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

forty-four, forty-five, forty-six I'm wondering if they had a meeting on how many peas should be on the label of the can. ((weak laughter)) forty-seven is too many, forty-five is not enough, all in favor of forty-six, okay, it's forty-six. ((laughter)) then I took the milk and I went up to the register and I said: "hey, how are you?" and she said: "would that be all?" and I said: "no. I wanna buy this." ((laughter)) {applause} then I tried to read her mind but I couldn't 'cause I can barely read my own mind. ((laughter)) then I was imagining me and her running naked across Fenway Park holding hands and the crowd cheering: "go, go, gooo." ((weak laughter)) then I said to her "do you like baseball?" and she said: "what?" I said: "do you sell lighter fluid by the case?" ((laughter)) she got all nervous so then I left. ((laughter)) then I'm driving around and I'm thinking: "alright I'm still alive, now what am I gonna do. ((laughter)) so I figured I'd go down and rent a movie so I go out to the video store and I can't remember the title of the movie I want so I'm describing the movie to the guy. I say: "yeah, you know, it's that black-and-white movie it's on colored film. ((laughter)) I think it stars Nicolas Cage and Hayley Mills.

427

351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

((weak laughter)) it's that movie where the country loses the war 'cause they accidentally made the submarines out of Styrofoam and they won't go under the water. ((laughter)) the guy's just blankly looking at me. ((laughter)) as I'm saying this to him I'm realizing this is not a movie I saw, this is a dream I had. ((laughter)) {applause} I'm thinking: "my God. I'm trying to rent one of my own dreams." ((laughter)) which would be pretty cool actually. ((laughter)) then the guy says to me: "that's not a movie you saw that's a dream you had." and I said: "how do you know?" and he said: "'cause you were in here last week trying to rent the same thing." ((laughter)) {applause} then I said: "alright let me know when you get it in. ((laughter)) (3.5) next week I'm gonna have an MRI to find out whether or not I have claustrophobia. ((laughter)) {weak applause} in school they told me 'practice makes perfect' then they told me 'nobody is perfect' so then I stopped practicing. ((laughter)) here are some of my answers to some everyday questions: "excuse me sir, do you know what time it is?" "no, I'm not from around here." ((laughter)) "excuse me, do you know where the train station is?" "probably near the tracks." ((laughter)) sometimes when I'm over at someone's house and no one is in the kitchen, I like to write things on that 'to do' list

428

409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

they have on their refrigerator. ((laughter)) memorize distances to all other planets. ((laughter)) adopt baby, then sell on black market. ((laughter)) ever notice when a house burns down the only thing left standing is the fireplace and the chimney? ((laughter)) how is that for evidence. ((laughter)) I bought a new camera. it's very advanced. you don't even need it. ((laughter)) {applause} why are the pictures square if the lens is round? ((laughter)) I bought a new phone. the first thing I did was push redial. ((laughter)) the phone started having a nervous breakdown. ((laughter)) the phone was twitching like this I don't have this information. ((laughter)) I bought an iPod that can either hold 5000 songs or one telephone message from my mother. ((laughter)) {applause} they say you're not supposed to put metal in a microwave oven, they were right. ((laughter)) I'm missing a wall in my kitchen. ((laughter)) today I was talking to myself I was very polite and cordial but I could tell I was lying. ((laughter)) under my breath I said: "you're full of shit." then I said: "what?" then I said: "nothing." ((laughter)) you know if heat rises heaven might be hotter than hell. ((laughter)) {applause} I'm thinking of buying a plasma television in case I need a blood transfusion,

429

468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W:: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

((laughter)) that way I can mainline 150 channels right into my arm. ((laughter)) that way they can do my autopsy via satellite. ((laughter)) I have a CD burner: my fireplace. ((laughter)) a friend of mine is a pilot. we were gonna go somewhere in his car and for absolutely no reason he waited 45 minutes before he backed out of his driveway. ((laughter)) I have another pair of pants just like these (2.5) except they're red with green stripes and they're shorts. ((laughter)) {beginning applause} last night, I was in a restaurant called Bulimia's. ((laughter)) the line for the bathroom was incredible. ((laughter)) {applause} {he plays with his guitar} this is a song I wrote when I was three. ((laughter)) oh I think the kitten is trying to kill me. ((laughter)) I'd better kill him first. ((laughter)) good thing mommy's sleeping. ((weak laughter)) where are the big scissors. ((laughter)) here, kitty, here, kitty, here, kitty ((laughter)) we're gonna play a different funny kind of game nothing is ever gonna be the same. {stops playing the guitar} {applause} I have a half-twin, ((laughter)) I also have a Siamese-stepson a friend of mine is on the Ouija board of directors. ((laughter)) {weak applause} my doctor told me I shouldn't work out any more until I'm in better shape. ((laughter)) I said:

430

526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 571 572 573 574 575 576 577 578 579 580 581 582 583 584

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

"alright, don't send me a bill until I pay you. ((laughter)) I was in 3rd grade when they told me there was a skeleton inside of me and it freaked me out. ((laughter)) from then on every Halloween I went door to door naked, ((laughter)) don't think of the skin, don't think of the skin ((laughter)) that was the same year she asked us if we could be any animal in the world what animal we'd wanna be. and I raised my hand and I said: "a bird." and she said: "why? so you could fly?" I said: "no, so my shit would be white." ((laughter)) {weak applause} the teacher started crying. ((laughter)) one of my grandfathers died when he was a little boy. ((laughter)) lately I've been trying to feel healthier so I've been eating a lot of vitamins but I don't know I I don't know. ((weak laughter)) how many vitamins you hafta eat before you feel full. ((laughter)) one good thing about it though, the color of my urine is amazing, ((laughter)) it's like going to a laser show. ((laughter)) I go in there, I shut the lights off, I put Pink Floyd on and... ((laughter)) {applause} so I called up the airline to make a reservation. they said: "how many will be traveling?" I said: "how do I know, it's your plane."

431

585 586 587 588 589 590 591 592 593 594 595 596 597 598 599 600 601 602 603 604 605 606 607 608 609 610 611 612 613 614 615 616 617 618 619 620 621 622 623 624 625 626 627 628 629 630 631 632 633 634 635 636 637 638 639 640 641 642

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

((laughter)) I bought one walkie-talkie. ((laughter)) I didn't want anyone to hear what I was saying. ((laughter)) I'm addicted to placebos. ((laughter)) I could quit, but it wouldn't matter. ((laughter)) {applause} I'm also part of the Jehovah's Witness Protection Program. ((laughter)) I have to go door-to-door and tell everybody I'm somebody else. ((laughter)) I think it's wrong that only one company makes the game Monopoly. ((laughter)) {applause} I'm writing an unauthorized autobiography. ((laughter)) when it comes out, I'm going to sue myself. ((laughter)) 24 hour banking? I don't have time for that. ((laughter)) a friend of mine has a trophy wife but apparently it wasn't first place. ((laughter)) {applause} I'm exhausted from trying to believe unbelievable things. ((weak laughter)) all my friends tell me stories and at the end they say: "isn't that unbelievable?", then I say: "I guess so" then I try to believe it, then I'm exhausted. ((laughter)) and I have to be asleep by one in the morning because my dreams are gonna start whether I'm sleeping or not. ((laughter)) which can make for some pretty strange conversation if I'm still awake. ((weak laughter)) I thought those were your rickshaws. ((laughter)) what the hell are you talking about? ((laughter)) when I was in high school I worked in a pet store

432

643 644 645 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 653 654 655 656 657 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 665 666 667 668 669 670 671 672 673 674 675 676 677 678 679 680 681 682 683 684 685 686 687 688 689 690 691 692 693 694 695 696 697 698 699 700

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

and they fired me because, uh.. what happened was, uh.. ((weak laughter)) they had three snakes in there and, uh, one day I braided them. ((laughter)) I tried to pass it off as one snake with three heads. ((laughter)) oh, yes, it's very rare it's from Connecticut. ((laughter)) I asked my girlfriend if she ever had sex with a woman, and she said: "no." and I said: "you should try, it's fun." ((laughter)) and she did. now she's gone. ((laughter)) {applause} you never see advertisements for string, ((laughter)) they make string but they never advertise. ((laughter)) if I ever did a commercial, it would be for string. hi, if you need to get some string get this string, ((laughter)) it's the greatest string in the world. it's almost rope. ((laughter)) but it's not, it's string. ((laughter)) and you can cut it up into different lengths and tie stuff up with it and stuff. ((weak laughter)) I don't know what you're gonna do with it, just get it. ((laughter)) yesterday, I returned a movie. the people at the theatre were pissed. ((laughter)) so I rented a movie and I put it in the DVD player and before the movie starts, it says: "uh, this film has been modified to fit your television."

433

701 702 703 704 705 706 707 708 709 710 711 712 713 714 715 716 717 718 719 720 721 722 723 724 725 726 727 728 729 730 731 732 733 734 735 736 737 738 739 740 741 742 743 744 745 746 747 748 749 750 751 752 753 754 755 756 757 758

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience:

((laughter)) can you imagine if it wasn't? ((laughter)) all you'd see is like a knuckle. ((laughter)) {weak applause} so I'm driving down the highway, there's a guy hitchhiking he's holding a sign that says 'heaven'. so I hit him. ((laughter)) {applause} probably he went there, he looked like a nice guy. ((laughter)) I got a new dog, he is a 'paranoid retriever', ((laughter)) he brings back everything because he is not sure what I threw him. ((laughter)) sometimes I like to go into a waiting room and just sit there and wait, ((laughter)) nurse comes out: "do you have an appointment?" "no, just waiting." ((laughter)) "what are you waiting for?" "nothing, just avoiding the moments" ((laughter)) "would you like to see the doctor?" "I don't know. what kind of a doctor is he?" ((weak laughter)) "he's a foot doctor." (5.0) "I'd like to see a man that tall" ((laughter)) a few minutes later a 12 inch guy walks out into the waiting room, ((laughter)) he says: "take off your shoes and socks". I take 'em off he looks at me and says: "there's nothing wrong with you." I say: "take off your shoes and socks." he said: "what do you think?" I said: "I don't know. I've seen bigger feet on a bird." ((laughter))

434

759 760 761 762 763 764 765 766 767 768 769 770 771 772 773 774 775 776 777 778 779 780 781 782 783 784 785 786 787 788 789 790 791 792 793 794 795 796 797 798 799 800 801 802 803 804 805 806 807 808 809 810 811 812 813 814 815

S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

then he started dancing, really fast and whistling really loud and then I left. ((laughter)) {beginning applause} what the hell did you think was gonna happen? ((laughter)) {beginning applause} you people are crazy. ((laughter)) when I was in 3rd grade I had a seventy-year-old teacher, and she could barely hear anything so she would turn the thermostat down to sixteen degrees so in case anyone talked she could see your breath coming out of your mouth. ((laughter)) that was the same year I had a globe that lit up and I used to use it as a night light, put it on the floor in my bedroom which was pretty cool except some nights I'd wake up in the middle of the night all freaked out thinking I was floating in outer space. ((laughter)) then in 1969 a teacher showed us pictures of the Earth taken from the Apollo. and she said: "does anyone know what this is?" and I said: "yes, that's the floor in my bedroom." ((laughter)) when I was seven, my parents had a party and I went around to all the guests with a glass of water and I said: "here, drink this. this is a magic glass of water. if you drink this, you all get a little bit taller." and they all drank some and they thought, "oh, isn't this a weird kid?" and when they all drank some and went back to what they were doing, I went to the room where they keep all the coats, and I hemmed all the sleeves two inches. ((laughter)) they were all freaking out when they left. ((laughter)) I'm a tired man. (3.0)

435

816 817 818 819 820 821 822 823 824 825 826 827 828 829 830 831 832 833 834 835 836 837 838 839 840 841 842 843 844 845 846 847 848 849 850 851 852 853 854 855 856 857 858 859 860 861 862 863 864 865 866 867 868 869 870 871 872 873

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience:

I went to high school in London because we moved around a lot because my father thought he was in the military. ((laughter)) then we came back to Massachusetts where I lived and went to school in Massachusetts but in the summers I worked in Toronto in a Planetarium. nine of us worked there, we had our own softball team, ((weak laughter)) we would play other Planetariums in the area. ((laughter)) when no one was inside the Planetarium we would practice inside the Planetarium and I played second base so I stood right under Saturn and the shortstop stood under Jupiter and the third baseman stood under Mars. one time we tried the same set up outside but everybody was just way too far away from each other. ((laughter)) {applause} I was just standing in the middle of Utah like this, ((laughter)) in high school I went out with two different girls. one was like the girl next door if you live next door to a whore house. ((laughter)) the other one was an angel on earth. she had little bumps on her back where her wings used to be. ((weak laughter)) apparently, at one point she also had wings on the front. ((laughter)) I went to take her out, her father said I want her home by 8-15. I said: "in the middle of August? that's cool." ((laughter)) that was the first time I was ever in love, and I learned a lot. before that, I never even thought about killing myself. ((laughter)) {applause} sometimes at night we would go up to the Planetarium and lay down on the roof and look up at the stars. ((laughter)) it was like being in a galaxy sandwich. ((laughter))

436

874 875 876 877 878 879 880 881 882 883 884 885 886 887 888 889 890 891 892 893 894 895 896 897 898 899 900 901 902 903 904 905 906 907 908 909 910 911 912 913 914 915 916 917 918 919 920 921 922 923 924 925 926 927 928 929 930 931 932

S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

I'd bring my harmonica and I had a pair of glasses. I painted lines across the lenses so when I looked at the sky the stars would become notes on the lines and I would play the sky. ((weak laughter)) one time a shooting star went by, I almost broke my neck. ((laughter) I said: "Lucinda, will you always love me?" she said: "I doubt it. I don't even love you now." ((laughter)) {applause} my grandfather had a special rocking chair built that would lean forward rather than backwards so he could fake interest in any conversation. ((laughter)) when I was little one Christmas he gave me a box of broken glass. he gave my brother a box of band-aids. ((laughter)) then he said: "now you two share." ((laughter)) one time he said: "Steven, how old are you?" I said: "I'm five." he said: "when I was your age, I was six." ((laughter)) then he cackled madly and threw a spoon against the window. ((laughter)) he was an odd man. ((laughter)) he once carved a turkey out of a chicken. ((laughter)) his will was on IOU. ((laughter)) he told me sometimes when you lose, you really win like if you were playing musical electric chairs. ((laughter)) {beginning applause} one time I told him a dream I had and I said: "what do you think that means?" and he said: "it means you were sleeping." ((laughter)) I remember when he died

437

933 934 935 936 937 938 939 940 941 942 943 944 945 946 947 948 949 950 951 952 953 954 955 956 957 958 959 960 961 962 963 964 965 966 967 968 969 970 971 972 973 974 975 976 977 978 979 980 981 982 983 984 985 986 987 988 989

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

I was a little boy and I went to the wake with my aunt and I was kneeling down at the casket and I was looking at him inside the casket and I started thinking about my flashlight. ((laughter)) I started thinking about the batteries inside my flashlight. and I said to my aunt: "maybe he's not dead, maybe he's just in the wrong way." ((laughter)) {applause) so I got off the plane and I forgot to undo my seatbelt and I'm pulling the plane through the terminal, ((laughter)) and the wings are knocking people over. then I said: "oh, I'm sorry, I didn't notice." then I almost broke both my arms trying to hold open a revolving door for someone, ((laughter)) then I tried to hang myself with bungee cord. ((laughter)) I kept almost dying. ((laughter)) I have a paper cut from writing my suicide note. ((weak laughter)) it's a start. ((laughter)) {applause} when I go to the grocery store and I see a guy pushing 30 shopping carts across the parking lot, sometimes I say: "you know, somebody else might wanna use one of those." ((laughter)) {applause} last time I went to the grocery store I caused a lot of commotion because I tried to buy that thing at the register that separates your food from the other guy's. ((laughter)) "no I NEED this." ((laughter)) you don't know what it's like where I live. ((laughter)) I went into a store and I asked the woman if she had anything to put underneath the coasters. ((laughter)) I told her my coasters are marking up my tables. ((laughter)) the woman started crying.

438

990 991 992 993 994 995 996 997 998 999 1000 1001 1002 1003 1004 1005 1006 1007 1008 1009 1010 1011 1012 1013 1014 1015 1016 1017 1018 1019 1020 1021 1022 1023 1024 1025 1026 1027 1028 1029 1030 1031 1032 1033 1034 1035 1036 1037 1038 1039 1040 1041 1042 1043 1044 1045 1046 1047 1048

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience:

S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: A man: S.W.:

((laughter)) then I went into another store and I asked them if they had any maps that weren't aerial views. ((laughter)) that guy was weeping openly. ((laughter)) then I said to him: "was the blue the sky or the water?" he said: "just get out of my store." ((laughter)) when I was little my grandmother said: "Steven come over here." I said: "what do you mean?" she said: "you know, you're over there now come over here." ((laughter)) she said: "here's five dollars and don't tell your mother that I'm giving this to you." I said: "it will cost you more than that." ((laughter)) {weak applause} I remember when I was a fetus I used to sneak out at night when my mother was sleeping. ((laughter)) {applause} I thought to myself: "you know, now's the time you should start stealing some stuff. ((laughter)) now that I don't have any finger prints." ((laughter) {weak applause} (4.0) {applause} {plays the guitar} ((laughter)) "ooh" ((laughter)) I said: "ooh" ((laughter)) I was "ooh" ((laughter)) yes I aaam ((laughter)) sooh, yes I am sooohhh yeah. {stops playing the guitar}

439

1049 1050 1051 1052 1053 1054 1055 1056 1057 1058 1059 1060 1061 1062 1063 1064 1065 1066 1067 1068 1069 1070 1071 1072 1073 1074 1075 1076 1077 1078 1079 1080 1081 1082 1083 1084 1085 1086 1087 1088 1089 1090 1091 1092 1093 1094 1095 1096 1097 1098 1099 1100 1101 1102 1103 1104 1105 1106

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: Audience:

Audience: S.W.: Audience:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W:

Audience: S.W.: Audience:

((laughter)) {applause} it was very hard for me to write that song. ((laughter)) I had to barely press down with the pen on the paper. ((laughter)) when I was a little boy we had a dog and uh I don't know why but the dog was born with two vaginas, ((weak laughter)) and we named it Snatches. ((laughter)) {weak applause} {starts playing the guitar and sings} "why can't I find a girl like you?" ((laughter)) {applause} this next song doesn't go something like this. it goes exactly like this. ((laughter)) {applause} {starts playing the guitar and sings} Eddie was a friend of mine. he was killed playing checkers. ((weak laughter)) you know that term 'King me', the other guy wasn't sure what he said. ((laughter)) (5.0) Phil was a friend of mine. and he was killed walking into a walk-in closet. ((weak laughter)) he was walking way too fast and way too far. ((laughter)) (5.0) Dennis was a friend of mine. he was killed breaking a wishbone. nobody knows if it was an accident or suicide they don't know what he was wishing for. ((laughter)) (4.0) Bob was a friend of mine. (2.0) nothing happened to him. ((laughter)) Warren was a friend of mine. he used to play the guitar down in the subway. and then he decided to go electric and he plugged into the third rail and he died. ((laughter)) like my daddy used to say "if worse comes to worse we're screwed." ((laughter))

440

1107 1108 1109 1110 1111 1112 1113 1114 1115 1116 1117 1118 1119 1120 1121 1122 1123 1124 1125 1126 1127 1128 1129 1130 1131 1132 1133 1134 1135 1136 1137 1138 1139 1140 1141 1142 1143 1144

S.W.: Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience: S.W.:

Audience: S.W.: Audience:

{weak applause} he told me to think of the sunset from the sun's point of view. ((laughter)) he told me I was born eight and a half months premature. ((weak laughter)) Paul was a friend of mine. he was killed playing tag. it wasn't really tag it was push. ((laughter)) (4.0) near the Grand Canyon. ((laughter)) when I was a little kid I had a pet possum. and he would never ever ever play dead. and it pissed me off so much that I killed him. ((laughter)) do you think that maybe, maybe I am crazy? on a scale of 1 10, six being the highest. ((laughter)) like my daddy said my guardian angel must be an alcoholic. ((laughter)) he told me that wind chimes were for stupid people so they'd know when there's a breeze. ((laughter)) {applause} thank you very much. thanks a lot. {applause}

441

17.5. German Summary In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird Stand-up Comedy, welche im Deutschen dem Stegreifhumor verbalen entspricht, Humors anhand Das

linguistischer

Aspekte

analysiert.

Hauptaugenmerk wird dabei auf die Analyse der Art und Weise gelegt, mit der erfolgreiche Stand-up Komiker ihr Material planen und vorfhren. Humor in Zu Beginn der Arbeit wird die

Bedeutung

von

unserer

Gesellschaft

dargelegt,

bevor ein berblick ber die Entwicklung von Stegreifhumor, mit Schwerpunkt auf amerikanischem Stand-up, gegeben wird. Daneben wird auch ein kurzer Abriss ber die Geschichte des Stegreifhumors in Grobritannien und Deutschland geliefert. Die Anfnge der Stand-up Comedy gehen zurck ins 16. und 17. Jahrhundert Die und fhren zur italienischen des commedia

dell'arte.

frhesten gehen auf

Formen die

amerikanischen im 19.

Stegreifhumors

Varietshows

Jahrhundert zurck. Im Laufe des 20. Jahrhunderts erfreute sich das Genre besonderen Zuspruches und gewann dank

zunehmender Auftritte von Komikern in Fernsehsendungen hohe Beliebtheit. In dieser Arbeit stehen die beiden Stand-up Komiker, Jerry Seinfeld und Steven Wright im Mittelpunkt der Analyse. Ihr Material wurde transkribiert und diente als Basis fr den analytischen Teil der Arbeit. Beide

Komiker fallen durch ihre hervorragenden Fhigkeiten auf, ihr Material zu prsentieren, wenngleich ihre

442

Persnlichkeiten

auf

der

Bhne

sowie

auch

ihre sind.

Prsentationstechniken

weitlufig

gegenstzlich

Dennoch wird im analytischen Teil bewiesen, dass sie mit sehr hnlichen, arbeiten, verwenden. Vor dem eigentlichen Analyseteil wird der Fokus auf die verschiedenen Humortheorien gelegt, die im Laufe der jahrhundertelangen Forschung von einflussreichen diese wenn nicht jedoch in sogar gleichen Witztechniken unterschiedlicher Hufigkeit

Philosophen und Linguisten aufgestellt wurden. Die Anfnge der Humorforschung liegen in den Arbeiten der beiden

Philosophen Aristoteles und Platon, die, wie Hobbes, von der Annahme ausgehen, dass alles Komische auf einem Gefhl der berlegenheit beruht. Dieses Gefhl bildet sich dann, wenn man ber die Nachteile oder die Niederlage anderer lacht (berlegenheitstheorie). mit ihren die Des Weiteren wird Kant die und

Inkongruenztheorie Schopenhauer

Hauptvertretern das Komische als

diskutiert,

Resultat

zweier unvereinbarer Bedeutungsebenen versteht. Dabei wird das vom Zuhrer bzw. Leser Erwartete nicht erfllt, und er wird in seiner Erwartungshaltung somit enttuscht. In

diesem Zusammenhang wird auch auf Raskin verwiesen, der eine zentrale Rolle in der Entwicklung der Theorie zur Auflsung der Inkongruenz wird spielt. das In Bezug auf auf die die

Erleichterungstheorie

Hauptaugengemerk

443

Philosophen

Spencer

und

Freud,

den

Begrnder

der

psychoanalytischen Humortheorie, gelegt. Beide gehen davon aus, dass gesammelten das Lachen eine Art Energie ist, die Befreiung der im Krper sich vor allem bei der

Beschftigung mit Tabuthemen anstaut. Freuds Studie kann im Gesamten betrachtet als eine Synthese von Erleichterungs-, berlegenheits- und Inkongruenztheorie bezeichnet werden. Zum Abschluss der Auswertung diverser Humortheorien wird die allgemeine die Theorie auf der verbalen Basis Humors von Raskin

diskutiert,

von

Skriptoppositionen

beruht. Dabei gelangt man jedoch zu dem Schluss, dass diese Theorie nicht vollstndig auf die Analyse von Stegreifhumor angewandt werden kann, weil dafr essentielle Aspekte, wie zum Beispiel Krpersprache und Intonationswechsel, keine Bercksichtigung finden. Im Anschluss werden als Vorbereitung zum analytischen Teil verschiedene nher Humorgenres Auch und wird charakteristische der Unterschied

Witzformen

betrachtet.

zwischen Stegreifhumor (monologische Prsentation) und dem Erzhlen von Witzen innerhalb einer Gruppe mit mehreren Gesprchsteilnehmern (dialogische Prsentation) offen

gelegt. Dabei wird vor allem die Bedeutung der Art und Weise der Prsentation des Komikers und die zentrale Rolle der Zuhrer innerhalb der Stegreifkomik diskutiert. Im

Besonderen werden die einzelnen Humortechniken analysiert,

444

die die Komiker anwenden, um ihr Material zu planen und zu prsentieren. Zu den Techniken zhlen paralinguistische

Elemente, wie Gesten und Gesichtsausdrcke, aber auch die Anwendung figurativer Sprache. Vor allem Wortspiele,

Implikationen, Anspielungen und bertreibungen knnen als Hauptsulen angesehen zahlreichen oder der der Entwicklung Diese erfolgreichen in Stegreifhumors mit

werden.

werden

Zusammenhang wie von

linguistischen expliziten

Aspekten, Verwendung Der

Wiederholungen Pausen der und Arbeit

Intonationswechseln,

gebracht.

Hauptteil

dient der Analyse von authentischem Material der beiden Stand-up Komiker, Jerry Seinfeld und Steven Wright, und ihrer Verwendung der im theoretischen Teil vorgestellten Humortechniken und linguistischen Aspekte, sowie dem

Einsatz figurativer Sprache. Auch die Rolle der Zuhrer und das direkte Eingehen des Komikers auf die Zuhrer wird im Detail untersucht. Bedingt durch den sehr gegenstzlichen Prsentationsstil unterschiedliche der Aspekte beiden im Komiker stehen ihrer teils Analyse.

Vordergrund

Durch die detaillierte Auswertung des Materials der beiden Knstler wird verdeutlicht, dass Stegreifhumor komplexes Humorgenre ist, das Fhigkeit seitens der ein sehr

hchste Konzentration und voraussetzt. zur Kreation Hchst einer

Komiker fhren

unterschiedliche

Strategien

individuellen Persnlichkeit auf der Bhne, wie im Falle

445

der untersuchten Humoristen herausgestellt wird. Seinfeld hat auf der Bhne eine Persnlichkeit entwickelt, die

uerst natrlich ist und sehr seinem wirklichen Charakter gleichkommt. Wright hingegen stellt eine sehr monotone,

teils sogar apathisch wirkende Bhnenpersnlichkeit dar, und gibt stets nur vor, von seinem eigentlichen Charakter zu sprechen. Nichtsdestotrotz werden oft hnliche, teils sogar gleiche Strategien ihrer und Techniken innerhalb der

Organisation

Prsentationen

angewandt.

Darunter

fallen die Prsentation des Lcherlichen, die Intonation und der Einsatz nonverbaler Aspekte. Aber auch Unterschiede werden herausgestellt, wie zum Beispiel die Inhalte des von den Komikern verwandten Materials. Seinfeld bezieht sich ausschlielich auf Themen, die den Zuhrern gelufig sind, und erzeugt hufig Humor durch das Bewusstmachen bestimmter Gewohnheiten auf Seiten der Zuhrer. Dadurch bildet er eine Beziehung zu den Zuhrern auf, die ihr eigenes Verhalten in bestimmten Situationen wiedererkennen knnen und

Solidaritt zeigen, indem sie zum einen Seinfelds Programm schtzen und zum anderen auch ber sich selbst lachen

knnen. Wright hingegen erfindet Geschichten ber Dinge, die er vorgibt, selbst erlebt zu haben und erzeugt Humor hauptschlich durch die darin hervorgebrachte Inkongruenz. Beide Komiker und unterscheiden negative sich auch im Hinblick auf

positive

Hflichkeitsstrategien.

Whrend

446

Seinfeld groen Wert auf negative Hflichkeit (Auftreten mit Anzug und Krawatte) fr legt, spielen keine den diese Er das formalen schafft Gefhl

Hflichleitsaspekte Solidaritt dadurch,

Wright er

Rolle.

dass

Zuschauern

vermittelt, dass sie den gleichen Sinn fr Humor haben und somit auf einer Ebene angesiedelt sind. Die im letzten Kapitel entworfenen Diagramme dienen der bildlichen Darstellung der Entwicklung von Humor in der Stegreifkomik und setzen die unterschiedlichen Elemente, die fr eine erfolgreiche Prsentation verantwortlich sind, in Beziehung zueinander. Abschlieend lsst sich anmerken, dass Humor in dem von mir ausgewerteten Material hauptschlich aus

Inkongruenz, welche sich in der Pointe der einzelnen Witze spiegelt, geschaffen wird. Dadurch wird unterstrichen, dass beide Komiker die Absicht verfolgen, die Erwartungshaltung der Zuhrer zu tuschen und sie durch Bewusstmachung eben dieser Tuschung zum Lachen anzuregen.

447

Failure is the foundation of success, and the means by which it is achieved.

Lao Tzu, The Way of Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher (604 BC-531 BC)

448

Lebenslauf
Persnliche Daten Name: Geburtsdaten: Jeannine Schwarz 12.10.1981 in Saarlouis

Staatsangehrigkeit: Deutsch

Ausbildung Schule: 1987-1992 1992-2001 Universitt: WS 2001- WS 2007 Grundschule in Nalbach/Saar Albert-Schweitzer-Gymnasium in Dillingen/Saar Studium der Anglistik und Romanistik an der Universitt des Saarlandes Erste Staatsprfung fr das Lehramt an Gymnasien und Gesamtschulen November 2007 Promotion in englischer Sprachwissenschaft an der Universitt des Saarlandes (Univ.-Prof. Dr. Neal R. Norrick)

2008-2010

Beruflicher Werdegang Februar 2008 Januar 2010 Januar 2010 Vorbereitungsdienst fr das Lehramt an Gymnasien und Gesamtschulen im Saarland Zweite Staatsprfung fr das Lehramt an Gymnasien und Gesamtschulen Assessorin des Lehramtes (Englisch/Franzsisch) am Robert-Schuman-Gymnasium Saarlouis

Seit Februar 2010

449

450

451

452