Reading Report _____________________________________

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Reading Report ___________________________________
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Villy Tsakona Jab lines in narrative jokes.
Neal R. Norrick Saarland University
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Outline

• Why I chose this article
• Previous reading
• Summary
• Example
• Evaluation

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Why I chose this article

• I chose this article because Im interested in
  laughter in the joke-telling performance.
• I already knew about jab lines from a paper by
  Attardo (2001), but he didnt talk about jab
  lines in jokes.
• Everybody (Freud, Sacks, Oring, Attardo) says
  laughter occurs after the punch line in jokes,
  but Id noticed that there was laughter at
  various places in the joke-telling performance.

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Previous reading

• Attardo (2001 29) distinguishes punch lines from
  jab lines. Like punch lines, jab lines are based
  on semantic script opposition, but jab lines are
  not final, they do not interrupt the flow of the
  text, and they do not cause a reinterpretation of
  the foregoing text (82-83). Punch lines are
  characteristic of jokes, while jab lines are
  characteristic of longer humorous texts.

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Summary

• Building on Attardos distinction, Tsakona
  demonstrates that many narrative jokes include
  one or more jab lines in their set up, so that
  in many narrative jokes, the punch line is not
  the only humorous element and that humor is not
  restricted to the end of the joke but may well
  appear before the punch line, too.
• Jab lines may constitute part of the set up of a
  joke and provide information necessary for the
  delivery of the punch line, while adding a
  humorous tone to the joke before the punch line.

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Example

• At four oclock in the morning, a hotel
  receptionist receives a phone call from a guy who
  sounds drunk and asks what time the bar opens.
  The hotel bar opens at noon, sir, replies the
  receptionist. An hour later, the receptionist
  receives a second call from the same guy who
  sounds even more drunk. When does the bar open?
  As I told you, sir, the bar opens at noon,
  answers the receptionist. After another hour, the
  guy calls again and sounds even more drunk than
  before. What time did you say the bar opens?
  The receptionist replies, The hotel bar opens at
  noon, but if you cannot wait, you can ask room
  service to bring you something to drink in your
  room. No, I dont want to get into the bar,
  says the man. I want to get out of it.
• Tsakona calls all three chunks in green jab
  lines the last sentence constitutes the punch
  line

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Evaluation

• Tsakona bases her arguments entirely on written
  joke texts rather than observations of joke
  performances, so they are really just intuitions
  about what may be funny, but they provide an
  initial orientation about where we might expect
  pre-punch line laughter in an authentic joke
  performance.

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Reference

• Tsakona, Villy. 2003. Jab lines in narrative
  jokes. Humor International Journal of Humor
  Research 16(3). 315329.