Abstract
The paper is a discussion of the type of cohesive devices that can be found in stand-up comedy, focusing more specifically on callbacks. Other cohesive devices are also mentioned so as to provide some background on how stand-up comedy shows are structured. Stand-up comedy shows are indeed quite generally ignored in the discussion of genre-related cohesion-building mechanisms, and this paper aims at filling this gap. The paper uses as theoretical backdrop the functional linguistics analyses of cohesion, as well as some of the discussions of topic continuity and sequencing done in Conversation and Discourse Analysis. A short comparison with some of the devices used in literary narratives is also proposed, using the tools of French structuralist narratology (Genette’s analepses, in particular), which allows us to delve further into the specificities of the genre. It is shown that the callback technique used in stand-up comedy offers very interesting data on how a discourse can be made coherent at a macro level, vs. the inter-sentential one; such techniques should therefore be included in the repertoire of cohesion-building tokens when these are discussed across genres.
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- 1.
There are a few studies that have been carried out; there are several student papers some of which can be found online, sometimes without a clear author’s name (http://rudar.ruc.dk/, http://library.binus.ac.id/; the topic of comedy seems to have become popular for both Master’s Theses and seminars). Schwarz’s study (Schwartz 2010) does not specifically focus on cohesion; other studies may not be strictly speaking linguistic, or not linguistic, but they may shed interesting light on the genre and the problems we are discussing here (e.g., Glick 2007; Bolens 2015). The question of narrativity will be dealt with here in relation to cohesion; other dimensions of narrativity may not be included in the paper.
- 2.
Harry Hill is also reputed for his callbacks, but we have not got yet to analyzing his shows.
- 3.
Certain one-liners follow each other thematically, for instance, which creates (usually very) short sub-sections within the shows. Shows made entirely of a succession of one-liners, vs monologues, are nonetheless the exception rather than the rule in our corpus (also see next section).
- 4.
Although it is difficult to explain it in just a few lines, “alternative” – the word is used by the comedians themselves – refers to a form of comedy that is (meant to be) different from what existed before, in its contents (for instance, maybe, self-reference, i.e., using one’s own life as comedy material, for U.S. performers in particular, but not only them) or form (improvisation; performances in small venues such as pubs and clubs; humour is no longer based on jokes…).
- 5.
Wembley Stadium in London sits 90,000 people and the O2, 20,000.
- 6.
Or mothers, although a number of them are men. Examples of women performers are, for instance, Ellen DeGeneres and Elaine May in the U.S.; in the U.K., Jo Brand and Sarah Millican, who are mentioned in this paper, are also women.
- 7.
We will not discuss how the notion of sequences can be applied to shows in detail here.
- 8.
These remarks are provisional.
- 9.
Cf. Phill Jupitus in Quadrophobia (or other shows, cf. QI, Series 10, Episode 3) who uses yeah –as well as Good thing, and True story– to imitate Eddie Izzard.
- 10.
When the audience does not seem to respond to something, Izzard, speaking to himself, says something along the lines of Do not ever mention that again, Never use these two together again, and pretends to write it on his hand for future reference. This has become a well-known gesture and is used across shows.
- 11.
The author’s are probably thinking of the “rule of three” (three is linked to good rhythm) often discussed by comedians. This will not be developed here.
- 12.
Although the last quotation says that callback is not used in the U.K., many examples were found. So reincorporation is just a different name for it.
- 13.
He mentions it in the commentaries of the Force Majeure DVD.
- 14.
See Sect. 3 for an explanation.
- 15.
This retake on a previous routine is what Bolens 2015 mostly focuses on.
- 16.
Anaphors are of course known to (sometimes) function across whole paragraphs, and anaphor chains also function across a whole paragraph, or text. What makes the kind of techniques we have described before perhaps specific is that they necessarily function at the level of the show.
- 17.
We will focus on what is directly linked to callbacks here. A more general discussion, which would necessarily have to be more detailed, will have to be left for elsewhere.
- 18.
In the commentary that is to be found in the Force Majeure DVD.
- 19.
Bauformen des Erzählens, Stuttgart, 1955, 2nd part (Genette 1972: 95).
- 20.
We are not using the word “incongruous” or discussing the incongruity theory of humour on purpose as this would require a specific discussion. Incongruity may create humour, but is, possibly, not the sole source, or a necessarily straightforward source, of humour. We will therefore deliberately not go into this debate here.
- 21.
It is only partly the case in his example, as this is the beginning of a sequence, and so is known to be used when a topic is introduced; this is arguably not a “therefore” so. The next example consequently illustrates the kind of problem we are dealing with here in a clearer way.
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Chauvin, C. (2017). Callbacks in Stand-Up Comedy: Constructing Cohesion at the Macro Level Within a Specific Genre. In: Aijmer, K., Lewis, D. (eds) Contrastive Analysis of Discourse-pragmatic Aspects of Linguistic Genres. Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54556-1_8
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