Metaphorical humor in satirical news shows: A content analysis

Ellen Droog, Christian Burgers

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

56 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Satirical news is often characterized as a hybrid genre that consists of three
important communicative functions: it is (1) humoristic, (2) informative, and
(3) evaluative. The Humoristic Metaphors in Satirical News (HMSN) typology
demonstrates that metaphors can be utilized by satirists to express this
hybridity by consisting of a combination of one or more of satire’s core
communicative functions. Nevertheless, the underlying principles through
which metaphors are capable of humorously explaining and/or criticizing
current affairs are less clear. To broaden our understanding of how metaphorical humor is used in satirical news to fulfill these functions, we integrate
the HMSN typology with the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH). The
GTVH assumes that all verbal humor must draw from six interdependent
Knowledge Resources (KRs). Through a content analysis of metaphorical
humor used across various American satirical news shows, we investigated
how these KRs are used to fulfill satire’s core communicative functions across
the various metaphorical sub-types of the HSMN typology. We found that: (1)
some KRs can help fulfill the communicative function(s) of metaphorical
jokes, while (2) some KRs constrain the options available for the expression
of certain communicative function(s) or other KRs.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)275-290
Number of pages16
JournalMetaphor and Symbol
Volume38
Issue number3
Early online date25 May 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Funding

This work is part of the VIDI research program ‘Contemporary Political Satire: Medium, Language, and Impact of Satiric News’ with project number 276-45-005, which is financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).

FundersFunder number
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Metaphorical humor in satirical news shows: A content analysis'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this