It's Good to Laugh - Identifying Verbal and Non-verbal Humour in the British TV Sitcom

Television situation comedy is a blend of word play and visual humour that involves the audience in a pleasurable weekly appointment of viewing for the purpose of “having a laugh”. The comic script provides an extended string of jokes, densely packed into the half-hour show and supported by the visual behaviour of the protagonists. Such verbal play includes puns, one-liners, rejoinders, sexual innuendos as well as catchphrases which stick to the protagonists from one episode to the next, and which viewers come to expect. The humour provoked reflects the customary joking relationship and bonding created between participants in everyday casual conversation. Consequently, the sitcom viewer becomes a ratified onlooker, joins in the accompanying canned laughter, and listens and watches in anticipation of the inevitable that the comic suspense and timing provide. This contribution focuses on four popular sitcoms chosen not only for their varying combinations of verbal and visual humour but also for their representativeness of British situation comedy.