Conversation

Humor in Spoken Language

Humor in spoken language is based in interaction, demanding participation by the listener and recipient, as with riddle jokes and knock-knock jokes. It often involves gestures, play-acting, and imitations of voices and dialects—matters not addressed by theories of verbal humor. Conversational humor often plays off patterns of spoken interaction, taking the form of proverbial phrases, clichés, one-liners, allusions, stock responses, and puns for recurrent situations, which we pick up from and weave back into conversation; instead of initiating a conversation with a simple and humorless hello, we may choose from a repository of standard formulas such as we can't go on meeting like this under appropriate circumstances. Again in taking leave, we may pass over the uncolored goodbye in favor of jocular stock phrases like see you in the funny papers and don't take any wooden nickels. Besides these formulas for greetings and closings, conversationalists store and recycle humorous phrases tailored to bridge an uncomfortable pause or to wrap up an old topic and to segue into a new one like cat got your tongue? We have special formulas for effecting the transition from a joke or period of nonserious talk into a new topic, namely but seriously, folks and but all kidding aside.

Characteristic Features of Conversational Humor

Let us consider a joking episode to give some sense of the complex interrelation of joking and context. On a plane loading for the flight from New York to Chicago, several passengers were politely letting each other pass, helping each other stow luggage, find seats and so on, when a man with an unmistakable New York accent said, “What's everybody being so nice for? We’re still in New York.” A second man laughed and replied, “Yeah, we’ll be back in Chicago soon. Then it’ll be okay again,” which elicited more general laughter. Now the first speaker may be poking fun at the stereotypical brusqueness of his fellow New Yorkers, and he may be kidding the Chicagoans for their eagerness to be nice. Or he may readily accept both the New York and Chicago stereotypes and the associated behavior patterns as valid, neither good nor bad in their respective places, yet still be joking about the clash of customs: “When in New York, be unfriendly; when in Chicago, be friendly.” What is funny then is the application of the Chicago rule while still on New York turf. In any case, the physical closeness and jostling in the narrow airplane aisle, the incompatible politeness systems, and perhaps even some preflight jitters need relief of some sort, and the two speakers latch onto humor as the vehicle of choice, laughing about the ambiguity of the situation itself where neither set of customs clearly holds sway.

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