Taboo infringement and layered comedy : a linguistic analysis of convolution in Gervais and Merchant's Life's Too Short
Articolo
Data di Pubblicazione:
2016
Citazione:
Taboo infringement and layered comedy : a linguistic analysis of convolution in Gervais and Merchant's Life's Too Short / D. Heaney. - In: COMEDY STUDIES. - ISSN 2040-6118. - 7:2(2016 Jul), pp. 152-168. [10.1080/2040610X.2016.1196565]
Abstract:
What follows is a qualitative, linguistic analysis of layered comic
techniques used by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant in the
British comedy series Life’s Too Short. Because each episode
revolves round Warwick Davis, an actor with restricted growth, or
dwarfism, the likelihood of taboo infringement and of consequent
offence is considerable. One of the ways in which this risk is diluted
in contemporary comedy is through the process of ‘convolution’, a
multiple layering of comic effects that can attenuate offensiveness
in two possible ways: either by increasing a sense of ridiculousness,
or by being so tangled as to make it difficult for viewers to identify
with any certainty the point of the comedy. Referring to aspects of
conversation analysis like politeness and facework theory, and to
facets of mediated interaction, chiefly participation framework, this
paper considers how the writers exploit workplace interactions,
service encounters and media interactions in the docucomedy
format to multiply the convolutions round this sensitive subject.
Tipologia IRIS:
01 - Articolo su periodico
Keywords:
sitcom; disability; convolution; transactional, workplace and media encounters
Elenco autori:
D. Heaney
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