An Analysis Of The Verbal Humor In Joe Wong’s Talk Show From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Humor,as an important part in the daily life, can be found everywhere. It not only makes our life more interesting, but also reflects the wisdom of people. In recent years, talk show as one of the forms of humor has become more and more popular. It can reflect the culture, livelihood, and customs of a county. It is also a good way for English learners to study language and culture.Many scholars have studied the usage of language on American talk show. The Relevance Theory proposed by Sperber and Wilson provides a new cognitive pragmatic perspective for the study on verbal humor.This thesis chooses 15 examples from Joe Wong’s talk shows performed at Annual Radio and Television Correspondents’ Dinner and his some other talk show programs. as its research data and employs the qualitative analysis as its research method to analyze the verbal humor on the basis of Relevance Theory. The research questions of this thesis are as below:1) How is the verbal humorous effect created under the Relevance Theory?2) What are the factors that cause the failure of verbal humor based on Relevance Theory?In the process of analyzing the humor production and comprehension, some contents from the Relevance Theory are used. They are ostensive-inferential process, optimal and maximal relevance, processing effort and cognitive context. Finally, the author illustrates the major findings, limitations of present study and suggestions for further study.According to the analysis of how the verbal humorous effect is produced and the factors that lead to the failure of verbal humor under the framework of Relevance Theory, people can improve their knowledge of humor at a cognitive level. After knowing production and comprehension of verbal humor, a new idea and theoretical basis can be provided for humorists to create outstanding works. It also can help them avoid the failure of verbal humor. Because Joe Wong is a Chinese American, he can bring us a new perspective of cross-cultural communication.