What do people laugh about on the Internet? Linguistic and linguacultural analysis of humor

Sobyanina Valentina Aleksandrovna ORCID: 0000-0002-1973-451X Doctor of Philology Professor; Institute of Foreign Languages; Moscow City University 4, Second Agricultural ave., Moscow, 129226, Russia valensob@mail.ru

Introduction

The category of humor or comic is one of the most complex aesthetic and linguistic categories that has attracted the attention of researchers since antiquity and continues to interest scientists to this day. Recently, there has been a noticeable increase in interest in the problems of the "comic" from various specialists - philosophers, cultural scientists, psychologists, politicians, literary critics, linguists. There are many studies examining the essence of comic and humor, their properties. The role of humor in our lives cannot be overestimated. It is human nature to laugh not only when it is funny, but even when he is in a difficult life situation. Humor helps to cope with the difficulties in life, to cope with yourself, not to get depressed, to look at yourself from the outside and treat it philosophically.

Each nation has its own vision of the "funny". The linguistic and cultural specificity of humor is determined by the peculiarities of the mentality of the people, their history, ethnic characteristics, and character traits of people. Therefore, the study of humor of various linguistic and cultural communities makes it possible to identify both general and specific characteristics of people's worldview, their worldview. This, in turn, can improve intercultural communication, better understand the psychology and mentality of another people and eliminate some stereotypes in relation to any nationality. In this regard, the relevance of humor research in linguistics is beyond doubt.

The purpose of this work is to study the category of comic using the example of German and Russian languages and to establish some linguistic and linguocultural features of humor, primarily presented on the Internet.

Material and methodology

Some German-language and Russian-language sites dedicated to humor, anecdotes and other issues where humor was presented in one way or another were used as research material: http://www.dein-witz.de , ^[1], http://www.hahaha.de / ^[2], https://witze.net / ^[3], https://probok.net ^[4], https://www.anekdot.ru / ^[5] and others.. Some examples were taken from the youtube platform and from some other sites.

Semantic and contextual types of analysis were used as the main research methods, taking into account the linguistic and cultural specifics of the material.

Results and their discussion

Many works have been written about the comic in linguistics since the time of Aristotle. One of the best researchers of the linguistic nature of humor and the comic, including on the material of the German language, is V.D. Devkin, a well-known lexicographer who analyzed spoken language. "The comic is an aesthetic category conditioned by a special form of thought, a specific perception of reality. Comedy is subjective. It arises on the basis of the discovery of the inconsistency of the phenomenon" ^{[6, p. 5]}. According to V.D. Devkin, the humorous effect is based on the effect of deceived expectations. It is characterized by ambiguity, ambiguity, collision of the incomparable, i.e., error, anomaly" ^{[6, p. 8]}. According to the scientist, "wit is based on the ability to find closeness between what seems at first glance different and difficult to compare" ^{[6, p. 5]}.

Well-known researchers of the comic are also V.Y. Propp ^[7], B.Y. Borev ^[8], B. Dzemidok ^[9], E.A. Zemskaya ^[10], V.Z. Sannikov ^[11], T.A. Gridina ^[12] and a number of other scientists. V.Z. Sannikov wrote that the basis of the comic is always there is some kind of discrepancy, a violation of the norm. In addition to the effect of deceived expectations, he also calls the "comic shock" that occurs in a person due to this discrepancy ^{[11, pp.21-22]}. This shock arises from deciphering disparate things and brings pleasure.

T.A. Gridina researched language play as one of the types of comic. She understands by this term a conscious violation of a stereotype, the purpose of which is "the desire to achieve a certain effect of aesthetic impact, more often comic, by violating the norm of perception of linguistic units, creative (non-standard) use of linguistic means" ^{[12, pp. 4-6]}.

Humor can be created in speech through the use of various linguistic means – through polysemy, homonymy, paronymy and paronymic attraction, metaphorical reinterpretation, through the use of word-formation means, including occasional cases, etc. V.Z. Sannikov gives a good example of the emergence of a humorous effect based on playing with homonyms: "Matter is infinite, but it is always missing for someone's pants" ^{[11, p.254]}. In this case, humor is based on the collision of the philosophical term "matter" and its homonym with the meaning "fabric, material".

Comic as an extensive category can be realized through various types of humor and laughter – satire, irony, language play, jokes, sarcasm, puns, etc. For this, lexical, stylistic, as well as grammatical, phonetic and spelling means are used, most often. They have different purposes, but all these types are aimed at realizing a humorous or satirical effect – to make someone laugh, relax, stun, as well as criticize, draw attention to the problem, motivate, etc.

In modern research, humor is also associated with the peculiarities of the mentality and culture of the people, it reflects in each language its own special picture of the world. V.I. Karasik writes about this: "Being a cultural concept, humor has value characteristics, i.e. it is associated with key life orientations..." ^{[13, p. 156]}. He notes that laughter is a way of emotional relaxation on a positive basis after a dangerous event. What is funny in one culture may turn out to be unfunny in another culture, and even ridiculous and offensive. Therefore, knowing (or not knowing) these features and taking them into account (ignoring) them in communicating with native speakers can lead to the success (failure) of intercultural communication.

A number of works have been devoted to the study of the peculiarities of humor on the Internet. For example, some scientists have analyzed the use of humor in advertising, on social networks, and in political communication. A number of works based on the material of the German language are devoted to the analysis of ethnostereotypes using the example of anecdotes and jokes on the German-speaking Internet ^[14], as well as anecdotes related to certain professions ^[15]. N.V. Shiryaeva's dissertation is also devoted to the study of linguistic and cognitive features of jokes in the German language ^[16]. Researcher N.D. Milovskaya devoted a number of works to humor, both in general the semantics of the comic and its individual types, in particular, anecdote ^[17]. L.A. Tyukina also analyzes in her works various types and genres of humor – jokes and language play, including on relevant topics during the period the coronavirus pandemic ^[18]. Among German humor researchers, H. Kotthoff can be noted, who deals with humor in dialogic speech, including its gender aspect ^[19].

Regarding the humor of the Germans, there is a well-known stereotype that Germans have little of this feeling. German humor has specific features, not everyone understands it. The Germans are laughing at themselves in this regard. There are all kinds of jokes on this topic: "Das kürzeste Buch der Welt? Das Witzebuch der Deutschen!" (Question: What is the shortest book in the world? Answer: The book of jokes of the Germans.) ^[20]. Mark Twain is credited with saying the following about German humor: "Ein deutscher Witz ist nichts zum Lachen" (A German joke – there is nothing funny there).

The Internet today provides people with great opportunities for creativity and creating humor, and of all kinds – from funny, harmless jokes to rather harsh "black humor" on a variety of topics – social, political, and international issues. Such jokes quickly spread through various Internet channels and social networks and become public. In this regard, the Russian people are very creative. Here is a recent example. As soon as Vladimir Putin recently announced the testing of a new weapon – medium-range missiles with the innocuous name "Hazel", literally immediately a meme with the image of our president with the name "Strong Hazel" appeared on the Network. This name is associated with the famous American action film starring actor Bruce Willis "Die Hard" with a hint of the power of the weapon and its stunning effect. The weapon was named the hazel bush, and the humorous effect appeared based on the similarity of this word with the paronym "nut". Thus, serious political and military topics are translated into a humorous plane in order to avoid excessive seriousness of the situation.

Humor about political figures and humor of politicians are widely represented on the Internet, for example, there is a collection of jokes and videos by V.V. Putin on youtube, a number of videos are dedicated to the humorous phrases of our Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ^[21], who likes to joke. These jokes are generally perceived very positively by the Internet community, which indicates a respectful attitude towards these politicians.

As for German politicians, in recent years, most of the jokes, comic statements and memes have been dedicated to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Through various types of comic, she is mostly criticized because of her ambiguous, controversial decisions and statements on various social and political issues, she is even accused of lying. So, one of the memes depicts an aging Angela Merkel with a lot of wrinkles and the following entry: Wer t ?glich das Volk und sich selbst bel ü gt, altert merkelig schneller (Who deceives the people and himself daily, ages noticeably faster). Interestingly, various words are formed based on the surname of the ex-chancellor, in particular, in the example presented, the adjective merkelig is consonant with the German word merklig with the meaning "significantly, noticeably", resulting in a language game with a hint of insincerity and deceitfulness of the ex-chancellor. From the surname Merkel, the verb merkeln appeared in German colloquial speech, meaning "to do nothing on important issues, not to give clear statements on this or that important problem," indicating some uncertainty of its policies and actions, indecision and sometimes cowardice. Other colloquial verbs were also formed from this verb - herummerkeln, sich durchmerkeln, vor sich hin merkeln.

Memes on the Internet are now generally becoming an important means of comic, satire and criticism of people and various phenomena, as they combine, as a rule, a visual image and a text, that is, they are a multimodal means. For example, one of the key German TV channels "ARD" is depicted in the form of a pack of washing powder with the inscription "Gehirnw? sche. Intensive", hinting through the metaphor of Gehirnw?sche at the intensive brainwashing of viewers in their programs and the explicit political propaganda of the channel.

Memes are actively used on the domestic Internet for various reasons, including in social advertising. So, on the website "Traffic jams.no" ^[4] they are used as an important and effective means of advertising conscious behavior of drivers on the roads and safe traffic, as well as criticism of some drivers: for example, one of the memes depicts an animal – a goat - with the inscription "Turned from the second row? Cool. Everyone is looking forward to what else you're going to do." Thus, those drivers who commit actions prohibited by the rules of the road, namely, turning from the second row, which can lead to an accident, are criticized. The goat depicted on the meme is actually a metaphorical image, a visual metaphor, an indirect swear word in relation to such drivers. The satirical effect thus achieves its goal.

Various anecdotes are very numerous on the Internet, for example, political ones criticizing the authorities and politicians of Germany:

Was ist der Unterschied zwischen Windeln und Politikern? – Es gibt keinen! Beides muss man regelmäßig wechseln… aus demselben Grund. (What is the difference between diapers and politicians? – There is no difference! Both need to be changed regularly...For the same reason.).

The joke criticizes the ruling political elite of Germany, which is not very effective. It is compared with diapers for babies, which indicates a negative assessment of the activities of politicians. The satirical effect arises in this case on the basis of the ambiguity of the verb wechseln (to change diapers and change politicians).

The Bundestag is also being criticized:

Was ist der Unterschied zwischen einem Theater und dem Bundestag? – Im Theater werden gute Schauspieler schlecht bezahlt. (What is the difference between a theater and the Bundestag? – Good actors are poorly paid in the theater). The humorous effect in this case is created by comparing theater actors with members of the Bundestag, as well as contrasting antonyms-adjectives gut – schlecht (bad – good), that is, good actors get little money, and politicians get a lot for bad work.

Among the jokes and jokes on the Internet, Germans have the most jokes about representatives of different nationalities (ethnoanecdotes) and various professions, as well as about women (primarily blondes) and politicians. According to some studies, Poles, Turks and Italians predominate among representatives of different countries, and jokes and anecdotes about doctors and officials are more common among professions ^{[14, 15]}. Poles are ridiculed for their propensity to steal; Turks for their desire to conflict with Germans and court women:

Laut einer polnischen Studie spart man viel Geld im Supermarket, wenn man statt zur Kasse direkt zum Auto geht (According to one of the Polish studies, you can save a lot of money if you go directly to the car instead of the cash register).

Ethnoanecdotes have a pronounced negative evaluative character and are usually associated with stereotypes among Germans in relation to various nationalities. In this case, we can observe the national and cultural specifics of humor. For example, in Russia, jokes are associated with other nationalities, and the nationality itself, as a rule, is not named and is generalized (Caucasians, representatives of Central Asia, migrants). However, there are anecdotes about specific nationalities (Chukchi). But they mostly belong to the period of the USSR.

Studies show that among professions, Germans most often ridicule doctors (more than 30%), civil servants (13%), bank employees (10.6%), judges and police officers, waiters, politicians, scientists, as well as representatives of some other professions ^[15]. Doctors are criticized for their lack of professionalism, lack of sufficient qualifications and incorrect treatment, and jokes about officials and employees indicate that they do not work much, but receive a large salary:

Was ist der Unterschied zwischen einem Dieb und einem Arzt? – Der Dieb weiß, was seinem Opfer fehlt (What is the difference between a thief and a doctor? – The thief knows what the victim is missing).

In this case, humor is based on the ambiguity of the verb fehlen and the clash of its different meanings in context: this verb can mean, on the one hand, the question that a doctor usually asks a patient "was fehlt Ihnen?/what is bothering you?", and, on the other hand, "in relation to the actions of a thief, this verb has the meaning "to be absent, not to be missed", that is, the victim lacks something, since the thief stole something.

It should be noted that there are actually no jokes about doctors on the Russian-language Internet. This fact can be explained by the fact that in our country this profession is treated with exceptional respect. And this is also the linguistic and cultural specificity of humor. There are a large number of sites in Russian dedicated to humor, for example, on the website anekdot.ru ^[5] Jokes can be selected by topic, by date, by relevance. Users of the site can add jokes themselves, and readers rate them. So, in the first place according to the readers' vote at the moment was an anecdote devoted to a very relevant topic related to the need to solve the demographic problem, when one of the deputies of the State Duma in a sharp form using rather rude vocabulary appealed to women to give birth to more children, which was followed by an immediate negative reaction from people in the form of a joke with occasional vocabulary:

Some deputies recommend Russian women to give birth while the birthing machine is working. In response, the Russians recommend that some deputies think with thinkers before speaking with talkers.

There are a lot of humorous videos from various programs and shows on the German-speaking Internet. Humor is not easy to understand there, since the perception and understanding of humor is influenced by the specifics of oral speech – sometimes its fast pace, indistinctness of pronunciation of phrases, precedent aspects and other factors. Let's give an example of humor from one such video and demonstrate how the humorous effect is actualized through hyperbole. Hyperbole as a technique for creating a comic effect can be seen in a video featuring the famous German humorist Kai Yanar (with a migrant background), taken on Youtube on the My Spass channel. The video is called Kaya Yanar Dialekte Sprachen & Kulturen Ringlstetter B R ^[22].

Kaya Yanar talks about prices in Switzerland and Germany:

….Die Schweiz ist wunderschön, ich liebe die Schweiz... also ich würde gerne ein Haus kaufen von der Schweiz, aber ein Haus in der Schweiz kostet so viel wie ein ganzes Dorf in Deutschland... (Switzerland is beautiful, I love Switzerland, I would love to buy a house there, but a house in Switzerland costs like a whole a village in Germany...).

It is clear that this is not the case, one house in Switzerland cannot cost as much as an entire village in Germany, but the comedian deliberately creates such an exaggeration to show how expensive housing in Switzerland is. This situation with real estate prices seems absurd to the audience, so they laugh together.

In the same video, Kaya Yanar uses another exaggeration, talking about visiting the world-famous St. Petersburg Hermitage Museum. The comedian says that this museum is visited by many people of different nationalities: Italians, Germans, and, of course, Russians. But it is the Chinese who come there most of all:

...in der Ermitage gab es deutsche Touristen, kleine Familien drei, vier, fünf Leute, italienische Schulklassen und chinesische Horden... 100-150 auf einen Schlag, den ganzen Raum fluten... (there were German tourists in the Hermitage, well, small families, 3-4 people, maybe 5, there were Italian schoolchildren, and hordes (hordes) of Chinese ... 100-150 people in one group, capable of filling the entire surrounding space with themselves ...).

Kaya Yanar, using the word Horde to describe the number of Chinese in the museum, shows how many of them visit this museum. In addition, the humorist parodies Chinese speech and gestures and facial expressions characteristic of representatives of this people. The audience imagines a huge number of Chinese, their unusual language, the way they talk loudly, specific behavior and fuss, and all this makes them laugh.

To create humor, various lexical means are used – most often hyperbole, evaluative and expressive, as well as reduced vocabulary, polysemy, homonymy and paronymy, metaphor. But sometimes the humorous effect is created at the expense of book vocabulary and official style vocabulary:

This kind of comic creation technique is present in the video Menschen mit Beamtendeutsch | extra 3 | NDR, which can be found on the Youtube channel Extra 3. The main character of this video is a civil servant Renate Muller. Renate has a big problem: the environment does not understand her, as she uses too formal vocabulary in everyday life to describe simple things. For example, when going to iron clothes, Renate asks her husband to give her an iron in these words:

Kannst du mir bitte das Leitungsstrombetriebene von inbeheizte Griffeisen mit ebener Fläche zum Zwecke der Stoffglättung geben? (Could you please give me a wire powered by heated handles with a flat surface to smooth the fabric?)

Instead of just saying, "Please give me an iron," Renate complicates her request by using complex formal vocabulary that is inappropriate in this everyday situation. Her husband looks at her in surprise, not understanding what she wants. And the audience laughs at the inappropriateness of the vocabulary used by the heroine of the video.

There are quite a lot of linguistic means of creating humor, and a separate study will be devoted to this aspect in the future.

During the analysis, it was also noted that "black humor" (German Galgenhumor – gallows humor) is widely represented on the Internet. In the German-speaking segment, it deals with all sorts of taboo topics. Taking advantage of the fact that the Internet is virtually uncontrolled and anonymous, these rules are violated and the most taboo topics of Germans are ridiculed – religion, sexual issues, death, illness, racism, some types of crimes, that is, now there are actually no taboo topics in "black humor". There are significantly fewer such cases on the Russian-language Internet.

Conclusions

Based on the above, we can conclude that humor has played and plays a crucial role in people's lives. With the help of humor, people relax, cheer themselves up and others up. But humor not only entertains, it helps to cope with difficult life problems, difficult situations, reduce the stress response of the body to unpleasant events and even helps to survive. Scientists write about the positive effects of humor and laughter on human health. There is a science that studies the influence of humor and laughter on a person from a psychological and physiological point of view - this is gelotology. So we can safely recommend everyone to laugh for your health. And the task of linguists is to identify linguistic, linguocultural and linguosocial aspects of humor and to establish linguistic means of its actualization in various languages and cultures, which contributes to a deeper understanding of both their own people and foreign culture. Sometimes humor with its linguistic component in many cases indicates the pain points of society, therefore it helps to solve complex problems.