Pragmalinguistic Analysis of Humor in the Third Season of the British TV Series Blackadder

master's thesis

• Author: Marko Đurić
• Mentor: Marina Grubišić (mentor)
• Committee member: Irena Zovko Dinković (predsjednik povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Janja Čulig (član povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of English language and literature); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2023-07-05, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Philology; Anglistics

Abstract

Blackadder is a British television sitcom that aired from 1983 to 1989. It was written by Rowan Atkinson, Richard Curtis, and Ben Elton, and starred Rowan Atkinson as the main character, Edmund Blackadder. The series follows the adventures of the cunning and scheming Edmund Blackadder and his bumbling servant Baldrick in different periods of British history. This paper will focus on the third season of Blackadder, also known as Blackadder the Third, on how it breaks Grice’s maxims related to the cooperative principle, on how sarcasm was used in the show, and which theories of humor could be applied to analyze the jokes in the show. The paper seeks to identify every time that a maxim is broken in the third season of the series, which of the four maxims are broken the most and in which way they are broken. It also aims to identify every time that sarcasm is used in the third season of the series and which multimodal markers of sarcasm are used. Finally, the aim of this paper is to look at certain jokes in the show through the lens of different theories of humor, such as the superiority theory and incongruity theory, and to identify the theory of humor which could be applied to most of the jokes in the third season of the series.

Abstract (croatian)

Crna Guja je britanska humoristična serija snimana od 1983. godine do 1989. godine. Seriju su napisali Richard Curtis, Ben Elton i Rowan Atkinson, koji ujedno tumači i glavnu ulogu u seriji. Serija prati zgode lukavog Edmunda Blackaddera i njegovog sluge Baldricka u različitim periodima britanske povijesti. U radu je analizirano kršenje Griceovih maksima i korištenje sarkazma u trećoj sezoni serije Crna Guja. Osim toga, analizirane su i komične situacije u seriji uz pomoć teorija humora.

• Keywords: Blackadder; cooperative principle; Grice's maxims; sarcasm; superiority theory; incongruity theory
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:774599
• Study programme: Title: English Language and Literature (double major); specializations in: Linguistics, Literature and Culture, Translation; Course: Linguistics; Study programme type: university; Study level: graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti (magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2023-07-07 11:46:00