Humour in Algerian Stand-up Comedy: A Pragmatic and Sociolinguistic Analysis

Abstract

The current thesis analyses humour in Algerian stand-up comedy. Thus, the investigation aims at finding out the mysteries behind ‗why do we laugh‘ and reveals the functions of humour in stand-up shows. It also describes how the comedians devise their humorous discourses when an attention to the examination of code switching is provided. The findings reveal that the comedians employ a combination of verbal, gestural and prosodic features to attain the humorous peaks. Indeed, the jokes expressed in the stand-ups are cognitive triggers causing laughter either when an incongruity is resolved, or when the comedian‘s implicated assumptions is inferred, or when the private stereotypical representations are revealed and approved in public. Thus, on the basis of observational comedy and self-deprecating humour, comedians play a major role in the transmission, reinforcement and/or adjustment of cultural representations with diverse functions. Moreover, the comedians devise their scripts in a code understood by the audience spotted in switches between Arabic and French to pursue the Algerian linguistic norms, but also for humorous effects, especially when code switching is expressed with changes of speech tone and accompanied with gestures.