Analysis of Verbal Humor in the Sitcom Young Sheldon: A GTVH-Oriented Semantic Study

Abstract

This study examines the verbal humor within the American sitcom Young Sheldon using the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) as its primary analytical framework. This research primarily aims to analyze how the six components of GTVH or Knowledge Resources (KRs) are realized within the specific episodes that are selected for the research. The KRs of GTVH are consisted of Script Opposition (SO), Logical Mechanism (LM), Situation (SI), Target (TA), Narrative Strategy (NS) and Language (LA). Additionally, this study also examines the difference and conflicting elements of the show being of American origin to Indonesian audience. Utilizing qualitative research with content analysis as its research design, two selected episodes from Season 1 (Episode 3: Poker, Faith and Eggs and Episode 16: Killer Asteroids, Oklahoma and a Frizzy Hair Machine) were selected and analyzed. The findings reveal that the KRs are realized within the show to create a distinction between this show and other shows and to display the show’s uniqueness, the research shows that the most dominant Logical Mechanism (LM) and types of verbal humor simultaneously is irony. This proves that the nuance of TV shows and what kind of show the scriptwriter, and the producer wants it to reflect has been planned from the beginning starting from the types of jokes, characters development, and so on. In conclusion of the research, the researcher finds that humor is generally subjective and can be perceived differently depending on the context, such as geographical location and individual or collective sense of humor.