Linguistic Aspects of Humor in American Stand-up Comedies about Arabs: A Multimodal Analysis of Digital Discourse

Abstract

Humor in stand-up comedy has long been studied where humor is disputably attributed to the incongruity theory or to some linguistic tools such as pun or hyperbole. This study investigates humor in American stand-up comedies that tackle Arabs’ issues. More specifically, the study tries to determine the features of such comedy; whether this humor is verbal or nonverbal, whether stereotypes play any role in it, and whether the comedian’s ethnic background has any influence on it or not. Moreover, the study aims at testing the compatibility of the theoretical framework used. The study employs Kress & Van Leeuwen’s (2021) model of visual design to analyze the data_ 1:53 hours of videos, collected from the YouTube platform. The data comprises videos for American comedians who do jokes about the Arabs. Russell Peters is Indian American, Maz Jobrani is Iranian American, and Nemr Abou Nassar is Lebanese American. This study applies Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) within a qualitative approach to carry out deep linguistic analysis of the data. Results indicate that comedians try to create laughter using ten comedy tactics (expectation breaching, misconstruing, exaggerations, fear, disproportionate reactions, contradictions, stupidity, fooling, irony and mockery) which are realized by a shift between verbal and nonverbal techniques. Verbal techniques involve pauses, voice modulation, word elongation, accent mimicry, incorrect language, word choices, laughs and sounds. Nonverbal strategies include body movement, gestures, gazes, and facial expressions. It is also revealed that all the comedians tackle almost the same stereotypes and topics about the Arabs, but their shows differ due to their ethnic variation. Thus, each comedian proves to be highly critical of his own people, but addressing the Arabs, they show various perspectives. Results also prove that the theoretical framework adopted is well-suited for the analysis, but the study proposes a more robust framework. Such findings are useful for any future research involving stand-up comedies, and for helping comedians construct their shows.