British Humor Study Of The London 2012 Olympic Games

The social psychological characteristic of a country is usuallyrendered by the particular social and cultural forms. British humor is a reflection of theBritish social psychological form. It also displays British society and culture in a certainform. British humor is implicative; restraining and unique, it has the obvious aestheticattributes and research value.The London2012Olympic Games is the third time that London hosts summerOlympic Games, this city which has a long history of ancient culture owns a deepcultural accumulation of the Olympic Games. The Guardian is the British national dailynewspaper which is also a liberal democrat newspaper. It always adhere to the conceptof liberal democracy political stance and maverick news conceptions. The2012Olympic Games give Guardian the home advantage, their coverage during the LondonOlympic Games showed their representative characteristics of the British humor.The coverage of Guardian during the2012London Olympics showed that Britishhumor characteristics are mainly expressed with satire; self-deprecation; ridicule andfunny. The satire and the self-mockery take bigger proportion. The application of satirein the coverage are not only trying to make people laugh but also criticizing theOlympics as media reporters. The self-deprecation in the coverage are mocking theBritish athletes and the country with a beneath and undetached attitude. The ridicule andthe funny in the coverage are more performed in playful, ridiculous and witty ways.These four types of humor imply the emotional experience in the coverage and show theaesthetic value of British humor.Authors use a variety of rhetoric to express the British humor in writing techniques.Metaphor, hyperbole, pun and parallelism are the main rhetorical devices be used in thecoverage. Metaphor in the coverage is close to life, it makes the abstract things specific.Exaggeration can better display the authors subjective views to make the coverage morereadable. Pun intended use of polysemy triggered imagination to create humor.Parallelism’s rhythm is powerful and the tone is clear.The Guardian’s coverage of London Olympics in2012expresses the British humorby using punctuation marks and mimetic words. The flexible use of punctuationsespecially the use of parenthesis and quotation marks have their own characteristics.The function of satire; self-deprecation; ridicule are the most prominent. Dashes andslashes also manifested the British humor in some examples. The use of mimetic wordshave increased the Guardian’s human kindness and conveyed the British humor indetail.The Columns "The armchair Olympics";"The worst Olympics in the world" and "FASTER, HIGHER, STRANGER" are quite special during the London2012OlympicGames. The Guardian columnist Marina Hyde, Zoe Williams, Barney Ronay, StephenMoss and some other columnists, their inadvertently writing style create the Guardian’sBritish humor’s characteristics of London2012Olympic Games.The Guardian coverage during the2012London Olympics express the Britishhumor, which has deep political, economic and cultural reasons. The changing of threetimes of the industrial revolution is the main economic reason. The main politicalreasons are the rise and decline after The World War I and The World War II, and alsobecause of the constitutional monarchy in the British royal family; the retained queenand national spirit. The other essential reason is the history and geographical culture.These factors comprehensively discuss the development and the causes of British humorunder the social and cultural context.