Humor 143

5.  Conversation analysis

Conversation analysis (CA) here taken as a cover term for discourse analysis and research in ethnomethodology has dedicated quite some work to humor. Overviews can be found in Sherzer (1985), Norrick (1993: 139–164), Attardo (1994: 293–331, 2001a: 61–69), Kotthoff (1996), Glenn (2003), and several papers in a special issue of the Journal of Pragmatics on humor (Attardo ed. 2003.). To the publications reviewed in those sources can be added the following: Fillmore (1994), Eggins and Slade (1997: 155–167), Priego Valverde (1998, 2003), Nardini (2000), Buttny (2001), Viana (2001), Schegloff (2001), and Branner (2003).

When considering the CA of humor a distinction between canned and conversational jokes is often introduced: essentially, a canned joke is a joke that has less contextual ties than a conversational one and thus can be recycled more easily (see Attardo 1994: 295–299 for references). Canned jokes prototypically exist in written or oral ‘repertoires,’ while conversational jokes are improvised. It has been argued convincingly (Zajdman 1991) that the distinction is in fact a continuum that can range from (almost) total lack of contextual ties to the point where the joke is indistinguishable from the rest of the non-humorous discourse (in this case, obviously, the speaker does not signal that humorous nature of the joke).

5.1  Canned jokes in conversation

The most influential work in the CA of jokes is without discussion Sacks’. Sacks describes what he calls the ‘sequential organization’ (1974: 337) of joke-telling in conversation. He finds that it breaks down into three parts: the preface, the telling, and the reaction.

5.1.1  Preface

Canned jokes are (mostly) narratives and hence they need to be introduced in the flow of conversation, for example so that the narrator may be granted the floor for an extended turn. The preface has three main functions: securing the acceptance of the joke-telling form the audience, negotiating the acceptability of either the joke or the telling of one, and clueing the audience on the correct (i.e. humorous) interpretation of the text.

5.1.2  Telling

The telling being a narrative, consists of only one turn, by one speaker. Other turns within this part will generally be perceived as interruptive (although there are exceptions,­ e.g. interactive jokes, such as knock-knock jokes, which require the audience’s intervention). Sacks’ sees the telling of the joke as the setting up of a ‘puzzle’ for the audience,­