Research On Language Humor In Comic Sketches Of Spring Festival Gala From The Perspective Of Memetics

Memetics, based on Darwin’s theory of evolution, is a new theory to explain the ruleof cultural evolution. The core of memetics is meme, which was first put forward byRichard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene (1976). It has gradually been mature afterthe further development of Blackmore.Comic sketch is one of the most popular forms of art. It has the features of concise inlanguage, humorous and touching and rich in content, etc. A large number of idioms,advertisements, lyrics, catchwords that are familiar by the audiences are replicated andtransmitted in comic sketches of Spring Festival Gala. In the process of replication andtransmission, comic sketches on one side reflect the characteristics of language memes, onthe other side achieve humorous effect. Therefore, language memes do exist in comicsketches and they can make humor occur. The present thesis, research on language humorin comic sketches from the perspective of memetics, gives an analysis of the languagememes in comic sketches of Spring Festival Gala under the guidance of memetics.Furthermore, it has a discussion on the mechanism that language memes in comic sketcheshelp to achieve humor effect.As to the research method adopted in the thesis, I mainly adopt qualitative method, byhaving a comparison, analysis and summary of the data collected from the comic sketchesin Spring Festival Gala, this research analyzes and discusses the replication andtransmission mode, the pattern of manifestation of language memes, and the mechanism ofhow humor is achieved by language memes. I find in the present research that languagememes are replicated and transmitted by genotype language memes and phenotypelanguage memes. Meantime, humor in comic sketches has a close connection withlanguage memes. The mechanism that language memes achieved humor lies in thatlanguage memes appears in language humor always become the humorous factor. By theimitation of the forms of the idioms, advertisements, lyrics, catchwords, language memeswould evoke the audiences’ association of a familiar expression which is the originalexpression. But under close studying, the language memes can be recognized as aimitation that just have the same or similar form with the original ones. The differences between the imitated version and the original ones in such aspects as connotation,implication or emotional color between them can generate humor effect.In our academic world, memetics is a newly-invented theory, however, it shows itsenormous power and appeals to scholars gain new enlightment in combination with theirown field, such as in sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics. However, few of them havedone a systematic research of language humor with memetics as a theoretical guidance,the related study is even rare. Therefore, the present research is possessed with not onlysome academic value but also with practical significance by analyzing language humorwith memetics as a theoretical tool. It can also give us a hint in its application, languagehumor with language memes has functions of activating atmosphere and adding fun to ourlife, solving conflicts and improving interpersonal relationship, saving one’s face andeliminating embarrassment. Meanwhile, this research applies memetics to the study ofsociolinguistics, which develops the research angle of sociolinguistics.