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Four - Between Jokes: Silence and Ambiguities within Humour

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2024

Daniel Hammett
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield and University of Johannesburg
Laura S. Martin
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
Izuu Nwankwọ
Affiliation:
Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Germany
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Summary

Silence entails a gap within conversations or joke-telling in which no one says anything or gives any response. It is also a moment of profound political work, wherein issues that cut to the bone, often uncomfortable, are broached, ultimately forcing reflection on the part of audiences and performers. Silence also signals the diversity of an audience because not every member of the audience finds every joke laughable (Harvey, 1989, pp 347–8). In joking situations, silence can either be the bridge-gap between the moment between a punchline and a laugh or can indicate an undesirable absence of laughter ascribed to failed humour (Bell, 2015, p 101), due to the understanding that the joke may be lost on the audience or subject to unintended readings and reception. In this sense, silence is the antithesis of laughter because when the punchline comes from the comedian, especially in situations where the joke has been delivered appropriately, laughter implies that it is funny and that the comedian has done his job well, whereas silence means the very opposite; the audience does not think that what has been said is funny. Consequently, silence becomes the audience’s way of countering the (re-)definitions of its boundaries of risibility. With this in mind, consider the following story:

Theophilus is a comedian. One of his favourite jokes is how he shortened his name to Theo and then to T because people were saying it in ridiculous ways. In one of his career-changing performances, he ridicules an important politician in the audience, saying that he is so tight-fisted that when he was to be honoured with a statue, he was more interested in knowing what it would cost to erect it at the city centre. When he is told the price, he exclaims in dismay: ‘What!? We could build a new city with that amount. Please give me the money, let me go and stand there during the commissioning!’ The audience laughed and clapped, but not the mayor and those with him. They all maintained straight faces throughout the entire rendition of this comedian, taking their cue from their principal.

Type
Chapter
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Humour and Politics in Africa
Beyond Resistance
, pp. 100 - 124
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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