Page 54 - The Language of Humour

THE SHOCK OF THE NEW 41

‘Have a nice day!’ ‘Thank you, but I have other plans.’
Does your dog bite?’ ‘No.’ (Bends down to stroke dog and gets
bitten) ‘I thought you said your dog didn’t bite?’ ‘It’s not my dog.’
(Billy Connolly)
‘Did you imagine you’d live here for twenty years?’ ‘No, I didn’t
imagine it -I really did.’ (People Like You, Radio 4)
Stewardess: There’s a problem in the cabin?
Passenger: What is it?
Stewardess: It’s a little room at the front of the plane where the
captain sits, but don’t worry about that now. (film Airplane)
‘We have the largest country in the world [USA]. They used to tell us
at school that some of our states are as big as France and England put
together.’ ‘Ah, you must find it very draughty, I should fancy.’ (Oscar
Wilde)

DISCOURSE

The term discourse is used to describe the rules and conventions
underlying the use of language in extended stretches of written and
spoken text. Efficient listening and reading involve prediction from
clues and signals: the audience is usually one jump ahead. The openings
of texts often create certain expectations about what will follow. These
expectations are then subverted in humour:

England’s not a bad country—it’s just a mean, cold, ugly,
divided, tired, clapped-out, post-imperial, post-industrial, slag-
heap covered in polystyrene hamburger cartons.
(Margaret Drabble)

Discourse also refers to the conventions of conversation and dialogue:
knowing the appropriate range of responses at stages in the
conversation:

‘Sorry to trouble you.’
‘Not at all.’
‘Thank you very much. Good day.’
(Morecambe and Wise)
Users of the language understand conventions for the overall structure of
types of discourse. There is the expectation in ‘Englishman, Scotsman,
Irishman’ jokes, for example, that the first two set up a pattern and the