The drama of dialogue action in distinct discourse spaces
Conservative and liberal humour in television talk shows
The article addresses the issue of intracultural dialogue between two strong political mindsets, liberal and
conservative. This polarization is typical of contemporary cultural divides and emerges in the public sphere through mass media,
often finding its outlet through humour, which may be treated as a mediating factor. It will be discussed on the example of a
popular Polish humorous talk show broadcast on the public TV channel as compared to one broadcast on commercial television. The
central finding of the study, seemingly replicable for other languages and television cultures, is the discovery of the central
item on the discursive agenda, i.e., a worldview hiding in the conservative epistemic stance that assumes the authority of the
journalists running the show.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Right-wing vs left-wing humour in the lens of dialogue scholars and humour scholars
- 3.Conservative vs liberal stance: The Polish style
- 4.The two Polish talk shows in counterpoint
- 5.Analysis of selected examples
- 5.1Speaker’s authority – Omniscient satirist (WTW) vs speaker’s distance (SZK)
- 5.2Humour targets and negative sterotypes
- 5.3Sarcasm and irony
- 5.4Play of imagination vs targeted humour
- 5.5The literal vs the metaphorical
- 6.Conclusions
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
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Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Laineste, Liisi & Anastasiya Fiadotava
2024.
Polarised but similar.
The European Journal of Humour Research 12:1
► pp. 194 ff.

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