Page 45 - The Language of Humour

32 THE SHOCK OF THE NEW
We estimate, and this isn’t an estimation, that Greta Waitz is 80
seconds behind. (David Coleman)

The term paradox is often used in logic for a self-contradictory
proposal such as ‘This statement is not true’. In literature the term
oxymoron refers to statements which are seemingly absurd, even if
actually well-founded, such as the example of ‘bitter-sweet’. In order to
make a satirical comment, the following are presented as oxymorons:

Tory Party
Socialist Worker
Military Intelligence

A tautology, however, is a statement which is true by virtue of its
meaning alone, as there is apparently needless repetition. Slips of the
tongue account for such utterances by sports commentators, collected
and recycled in the columns of Private Eye:

Hurricane Higgins can either win or lose this final match
tomorrow.
(Archie McPherson)

As this is communicatively empty, tautologies can also be termed
nonsense. Sayings that occur in everyday speech are apparent
tautologies, like ‘What’s done is done’, but they do make an emphatic
point, so are not devoid of sense. The sitcom Brittas Empire plays with
semantic relations. The first example seems to state the obvious; the
second has a type of twisted logic.

Criminals—they can’t be trusted.
I brought a brick to break the window with. And a spare brick
in case it’s double glazing.

Activity with text

The novel Catch-22 (Joseph Heller, 1961) has been so influential that
its title is now part of the English language. It is listed in The Concise
Oxford Dictionary as meaning ‘a dilemma or circumstance from which
there is no escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent
conditions’. In the following extract the army doctor is explaining
Catch-22 to the hero, Yossarian, who is so desperate to stop flying