“OK, SEE YOU”: HOW HUMOUR IS CONSTRUCTED THROUGH DISCOURSE AND CHARACTERISATION OF APPA IN KIM’S CONVENIENCE

Abstract

Situational Comedy (Sitcom) is a genre of television discourse where its impetus is primarily comedic in nature, thereby distinguishing itself from other television genres (Mills, 2009). Because of its complex nature to balance characters, humour and linguistic discourse, sitcoms make for an interesting study in the way humour is constructed and what it means. To research on the construction of humour, this thesis will conduct a pragmatic discourse analysis approach on the popular Canadian sitcom, Kim’s Convenience, as its primary data text. Specifically, the interactions of the character Appa, one of the central characters of the sitcom, with other characters will be analysed. The main purpose of this paper is to find out how humour is created in Kim’s Convenience that is multicultural in nature, making use of notions of characterisation and discourse strategies to uncover this. This study not only adds to the linguistic analysis of film discourse in the field of pragmatics but also to the field of narratology in comedy writing, where characters are at the forefront of what makes a sitcom funny. Linguistic and discourse frameworks such as Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory, Grice’s Cooperative Principle, Semiotics and Focalisation are used for the analysis. This thesis aims to answer the following research questions: § RQ1: How is humour created through characterisation in a sitcom? § RQ2: How does language and discourse add to the humour of the character? This thesis posits that humour is produced through both characterisation and discourse, more specifically in the production of archetypal characters that reflect the lived experiences of people in society, which makes it entertaining and resonating for audiences to watch. Therefore, through discourse and characterisation, humour is carefully manufactured through the character of Appa in Kim’s Convenience.