прагматика и медиа дискурс / Mikhalkova_pragmatics_of_invective_some_corrections

“Girl 1: “Did you guys see Mr. Johnson? He’s all bald and wrinkly”.— Mervin Watson: “Hey, if bald and wrinkly is your thing, you might wanna check out my Mr. Johnson” (Merv, the Perv).

Or when one wishes to prove one’s superiority, as it happened in the case with the assistant producer and LeBron James, described above. Here, Agon postulates the superiority of a more mature, successful and productive part of the society over those, who is not enough grown-up for it or those who are already too old.

The table helps to define two contrast archetypical groups, which form the deepest semantic level in the invective. These groups are: children and old men. And each of them has a number of negative features, which are combined in the

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image of Trickster (thus, his contradictory nature is illustrated). The clusters show, that in the Russian discourse children’s immature behavior is connected with their immoral inclinations (alcohol abuse, smoking, strange sexual desires). The American discourse also gives an image of a child resembling a little animal, and also of an adult person, who is apt to behave childlishly. The level of modern context in both cultures – Russian and American – includes examples of famous people and characters, that are connected with children’s and teenage culture. A similar situation for the elders was not observed.

§ 2.4.4. INVECTIVE OF SOCIAL STATUS

The social status of the participants of a verbal fight is a major factor in forming the invective of social status (see description of the pragmatic rules of invective in § 1.2.1.). That is why the reference to the social status of the antagonist is not accidental in the invective names, even if the constituent lexemes belong to other semantic fields (e.g. bottom, sexuality, addictions, etc.).

This factor also justifies the impressive qualitative predominance of the invective names with the semantics of social status in both shows: 33 in the Russian one and 41 in the American one.

The invective of social status can be found in different kinds of context. As for the Russian TV show, it can be found in an everyday situation – in a family or a circle of friends:

“Один Валера на весь мир был такой… Друзей – ноль. Посещений – ноль. Да, это Валера” (Одноклассники),

in a speech about political matters:

“Самый короткий анекдот про белорусов: “Долг” (Короткие анекдоты и мобильный телефон “Витязь”),

or about sports:

“Чемпионат мира по быдлу” (Новый чемпионат мира по быдлу

“Свинство-2005”),

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“Тренер по кочену. Такая древнерусская игра” (Спортивный канал

“Спорт! Спорт! Турбоспорт!”).

But the invective of social status is more often placed in the context of ads parodies, especially when Russian products are ridiculed59:

“Первый отечественный сотовый телефон “Витязь 117М/42Ф”

(Короткие анекдоты и мобильный телефон “Витязь”), “Пиво “Жигулев” – единственное российское пиво, признанное в

Германии говнищем” (Новый чемпионат мира по быдлу “Свинство2005”).

The context of social invective in SNL includes, first of all, political speeches as well as celebrities’ monologues:

“I’m Abraham Lincoln. I’m just out here splitting some rails” (The Falconer),

“So, for now, I’m not movie star James Franco; I’m just new Columbia student James Franco... the movie star. I’m like any other kid on campus” (James Franco’s Monologue).

Several times we came across a situation, where a character, who claims to be successful, leaves a profitable place for a less popular one or even for isolation:

“…for reasons known only to him, he left his wife and career, and moved deep into the forest. Now, he is known only as… “The Falconer” (The Falconer);

“Wilderness Comedian… turns his back on civilization to find nature’s audience” (Wilderness Comedian).

The invective of social status does not play the leading role in everyday situations, sketches on sports, etc. It is used locally in different contexts and does not mark any key or turning points, but only completes other invective images (strange people, fools, unlucky sportsmen):

59 The tradition of self-mockery over Russian products was established in the Soviet times in newspaper publications and cartoons, and in the sketch-show “Fitil”.

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“I will not be your server because Mark Payne don’t serve nobody but the Lord Jesus Christ” (Pizzeria Uno),

“Yes, we lost every single swim meet that we participated in, all your scholarships have been revoked and we’ve had two deaths by drowning” (Locker Room Motivation).

In an ads parody the products’ quality does not become the subject of invective (e.g. in “T-Mobile” or “Jar Glove” the products even have an exceedingly good quality, that solves certain problems); but what is ridiculed is the way, how advertisers manipulate consumer attention. For example, in “Jar Glove” the housewife goes as far as killing her husband, which would not happen, had she used the jar glove.

SNL has a tendency to mock at the politicians. During the pre-election campaign in the USA, Hillary Clinton, George Bush and John McCain were the most frequent subjects of the invective:

“Hillary Clinton: “I didn’t want a woman to be President! I wanted to be President, and I just happen to be a woman!” (A Non-Partisan Message From Sarah Palin & Hillary Clinton),

“People know Bush is available… Considering I am up to a 42% approval rating” (Richard Eckstrom for Comptroller),

“I’m John McCain. I approved this message” (McCain Approves).

The invective of status is evidently destructive in these cases, as the mentioned politicians and candidates were lagging behind in the election race, and Hillary Clinton and John McCain lost in the struggle for the US presidency.

In Comedy Club the politicians’ status is not lowered, which probably indicates either a continued censure control over the political discourse, or the low rating of political jokes, while the topic was broadly discussed by the comedians of the old school and their followers (Evgeniy Petrosyan, Maksim Galkin, etc.) on the Post-perestroika television. The popular object of the invective of status in comedy Club is the comedians themselves: the host Artashes Sarkisyan often likes to underestimate the residents’ status:

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“Гольф-клубы, яхты, топ-модели – все это не для них. Сестры Зайцевы на сцене Камеди” (Самый сильный борец Абхазии Ашот).

The same stands for the Russian show-business stars:

(об Алексее Глызине) “Сигарет вам?... Вы же… Вы же мой единственный фанат!” (Лена, фанат Глызина и семейная сцена), (об Александре Серове) “Моя новая песня, как и все мои остальные

песни, называется “Рождественская грусть” (Прогноз погоды России на

27 октября 2115г.), “Только попробуй плюнуть Гришковцом в Наташу, скотина! Вот в

Гричевского плюнь” (Незлобин и Элвис поговорили о женщинах). The status ascribed to native products by the Russian show-men is either

extremely underestimated (“лучше, чем ничего”, “говнище”, “говняной”) or overestimated in cases of laudation:

“Нашивки для любой одежды “Dolce & Gabanna” – одевайся модно”

(Новый чемпионат мира по быдлу “Свинство-2005”) – here cheap clothes with fake labels of expensive brands are ridiculed.

As far as people are concerned, the status is intermingled with the image of a loser who a) is badly dressed:

“Десять лет ходил в одних штанах. Если б не эти штаны, я б не узнал его даже” (Одноклассники);

b) is unknown or undistinguished against the background of others:

“Я и тот человек, который стоит на синтезаторе” (Прогноз погоды России на 27 октября 2115г.);

c) has got no friends, spouses, children, etc.:

“У меня день рождения сегодня. Никто не пришел… Секса не было уже восемь лет” (Одноклассники);

d) has an unpopular profession:

“Тренер по кочену. Такая древнерусская игра” (Спортивный канал

“Спорт! Спорт! Турбоспорт!”).

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As a rule, the subjects of invective in SNL are usually well-known people – politicians and celebrities. That is why the invective of social status often turns into laudation:

“Hillary Clinton: “The candidate I will have defeated running what I am sure will have been an honorable, albeit losing campaign” (An Address from the All-But-Certain-To-Be Next President);

“Christopher Walken: “Tonight... is my one-hundredth time hosting. [ the audience laughs ] Yes... my centennial. People... tell me it’s less than that, but I count reruns” (Christopher Walken’s Monologue).

The image of a loser is often depicted in everyday life scenes or parodies:

“We have one agent on loan from Langley. They call him... Agent 420…” (Agent 420).

In this sketch the agent has number “420”, i.e. on the scale of agents (for instance, James Bond – 007), he is among the worst, in the bottom of the list (420), and he is also sent on loan.

The image of a social failure in the American invective is most vividly illustrated by the lexeme “loser”. The moment of “unpopularity” can also be traced here:

“We’re the school’s most popular, no tryout, non-lesbian, a capella group!” (James Franco’s Monologue).

A loser is often a person, unable to succeed in work or competition with others. Thus, the above mentioned Agent 420 is the only one, who has not yet been sent on a mission, he looks strange and silly (long-haired blonde with a bandage around his head), he smokes weed and cannot perform the simplest task – to catch a flight at the right time. The image of a loser also contains some features of destruction (for example, Agent 420, having smoked marihuana, blows up an island).

Overestimation of the speaker’s status, when he or she mocks at somebody, is rather obvious:

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“Только попробуй плюнуть Гришковцом в Наташу, скотина! Вот в Гричевского плюнь” (Незлобин и Элвис поговорили о женщинах)

– this remark is based on the gender stereotype: you cannot spit at women, that is why you have to find an object of another status – a male guest, less famous than the Russian pop-singer Natasha Koroleva. The speaker evidently overestimates his status, if he can choose the “object of the spitting abuse”. It is also quite common for Comedy Club, that celebrities, who are not present in the studio, can easily become subject of the invective of social status: the speaker can “eat them”, “spit them out”, and accuse of different misfortunes, like loss of fans:

“Ты съел Гришковца!” (Незлобин и Элвис поговорили о женщинах) or parody and ridicule their professional skills and sexual failures:

“Вы же мой единственный фанат!” (Лена, фанат Глызина и семейная сцена).

In sketches with fictional characters one of the two personages usually makes a fool of the second one. For example, in the sketch “На приеме у олигарха” an oligarch asks a visitor one and the same question about the drinks he is going to order – “tea or coffee?”, thus annoying him so, that the visitor has to leave.

SNL, as well as Comedy, often ridicules celebrities. The role of the judge (the Laughing Man) is given to the third party – viewers and guests in the studio, and the speaker gets a special status of a universal faceless joker. Nevertheless, some SNL comedians’ status changes with the course of time: they stop being faceless, their popularity increases (for example, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Christopher Walken, Steve Martin, etc.). That is why some celebrities’ monologues are built on laudation. At the same time a well-known person may underestimate his or her status in order to get closer to the audience:

“I’m just new Columbia student James Franco... the movie star. I’m like any other kid on campus” (James Franco’s Monologue),

but in this example James Franco ends up mocking at his acquaintance from the audience – an averaged image of a college student. In such cases, a famous person

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celebrates his or her victory, as he or she is stronger or more attractive. So, James Franco steals that student’s girlfriend.

The invective of social status in sports contains an aspect of competition (“Сумо и Репортаж из запоя”, “Locker Room Motivation II”), but the following difference is quite remarkable – in SNL a loser loses social status, and in Comedy a loser is exposed to sexual abuse:

“Русский супермэн знает наизусть Камасутру, поэтому побеждает своих врагов всегда по-разному” (Бессмертный о русском супермэне), “Дагестанский сумоист… оказывается за спиной. По дагестанским понятиям он его выиграл” (Сумо и Репортаж из запоя).

In Comedy Club social status is connected with money, that is why the losers are so remarkably poor:

“Гольф-клубы, яхты, топ-модели – все это не для них. Сестры Зайцевы на сцене Камеди” (Самый сильный борец Абхазии Ашот).

The national aspect of invective shows in one of the sketches by Garik Martirosyan, where he predicts that by 2115 Russia will conquer the whole world (Прогноз погоды России на 27 октября 2115г.). Hence, some names of countries vary according to the Russian toponymic traditions: “Усть-Буэнос-Айрес”, “Бразильская АССР”, etc.

Competition is most vividly expressed through hints of deceit, tricks, ideological manipulation in political speeches:

“A successful nightclub comic who gave up the wildlife of Las Vegas for the wildlife of the North American wilderness” (Wilderness Comedian)

–it is unlikely that a successful comic will change Las Vegas for American backwoods;

“And now, a nonpartisan message from Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Hillary Clinton” (A Non-Partisan Message From Sarah Palin & Hillary Clinton)

–politicians rarely provide an objective assessment of the events, since they have to support the interests of different groups. Stealing somebody’s fame is also the subject matter of celebrities’ monologues:

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“Until you moved into Livingston Hall, I was Top Dog! It was just ME and

a bunch of dorks like Ken Wo!” (James Franco’s Monologue).

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What strikes as unusual is lack of political subject in this type of invective in Comedy Club and its extreme popularity in the U.S. It should be also noted, that the negative features of the Russian image of a loser are poverty and violence; an American loser suffers from social isolation, which may be conditioned by American mentality, where a loss is not associated with violations of public laws (mugging, violence, etc.). The absence of laudation is quite notable in the Russian TV show (the only performance with the elements of laudation is cell phone advertising parody “Первый отечественный сотовый телефон “Витязь

117М/42Ф”). The American laudation creates an image of a deceiver, who earns money by manipulating others. Any famous person can become a trickster – from a politician to a TV star.

§ 2.4.5. INVECTIVE OF ANIMAL NATURE

Comparison with animals is often found in different types of invective, but it can form a separate group as well, when animalistic features become the main basis for accusation. The trickster, being a pre-historic stage of human consciousness development, is often personified as an animal. It can be physically dangerous or can break social norms and taboos. The quantity of such names in both discourses is similar: 18 in Russian and 17 in American.

One of the key means of accusation, employed in this type of invective, is comparison of an addressee with an animal, made on the observations of his or her

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