Abstract:
Stand-up Comedy (SUC), a form of entertainment involving humour, is commonly
deployed for social re-engineering among Africans, including Ivorians. Extant linguistic
studies on humour in Côte d’Ivoire concentrated mainly on the semiotic analysis of
satirical cartoons and mechanisms of humour observed in humorous press (Gbich) in Cote
d’Ivoire. However, little attention was paid to the socio-pragmatic dynamics of SUC. This
study was, therefore, designed to examine socio-pragmatic dynamics of humour in
routines of selected Ivorian Stand-up Comedians (ISUCNs), with a view to determining
the discourse issues, linguistic resources and humour strategies in the routines.
Dell Hymes’ Ethnography of Communication, complemented by Dan Sperber and Deirdre
Wilson’s Relevance Theory, was adopted as the framework. The descriptive design was
used. Purposive sampling was deployed for the selection of seven ISUCNs because they
featured regularly in ‘Bonjour’ nights (Ivorian annual comic programme ushering every
New Year) organised by Radio-Télévision Ivoirienne. They were Agalawal, Papitou, La
Flamme de l’Estanguer (FE), Mala Adamo, Les Zinzins de l’Art (ZA), Joel and EnK2K.
Seven routines (one for each) were purposively selected from the 2018 edition of Bonjour
recorded on DVD based on their preponderant engagement of socio-political issues. The
data were subjected to socio-pragmatic analysis.
Four discourse issues were identified: economic hardship (Agalawal, Papitou, FE and
ZA), bad governance (Agalawal, Mala Adamo, FE and ZA), unemployment (Agalawal,
FE, ZA and Joel) and marital unfaithfulness (Papitou and EnK2K). These discourse issues
were to mirror the key socio-political problems in Côte d’Ivoire. Four linguistic resources
were deployed: wordplay, repetition, formulaic expressions and code switching. Wordplay
(all comedians) was deployed to display creative playful manipulation of words.
Repetition (Joel, Agalawal, FE and ZA) was utilised to determine the rhythmic flow of the
jokes and to make many ideas clearer and memorable. Formulaic expressions (all
comedians) were used to plan time and to make the pauses shorter or less frequent. Code
switching (Joel, FE, Agalawal, EnK2K and Mala Adamo), which involves Standard
French, Popular African French (Nouchi), English, Arabic and native languages (Baoulé
and Malinké), was deployed to display linguistic competence of the comedians in catering
for the linguistic diversities of Ivorians. Six humour strategies were employed: ridicule,
allusion, irreverent behaviour, absurdity, imitation and irony. Ridicule (all comedians) was
employed to deride socio-political problems verbally and nonverbally. Allusion
(Agalawal) was used to make indirect reference to incumbent Ivorian president. Irreverent
behaviour (Agalawal, Papitou and Mala Adamo) was employed to show the lack of proper
respect for authority. Absurdity (Mala Adamo) was deployed to present situations that go
against all logical rules. Imitation (Papitou and FE) was employed to mimic little children
and religious leaders while presenting socio-political problems. Irony (ZA and Mala
Adamo) was used to satirise the socio-political problems in Côte d’Ivoire.
Ivorian Stand-up Comedians engage socio-political issues through the deployment of
humour and linguistic choices in their routines.