AN ANALYSIS OF HUMOR IN TUKUL ARWANA TALK SHOW BUKAN EMPAT MATA (FRANSOA GUEST)
ALFIANTO
alfianto.2008@gmail.com
Graduated Program, State University of Makassar
ABSTRACT
This study aims to analyze humor in expressing ideas of Tukul Arwana Talk Show” Bukan Empat Mata” episode Aku Lapar. The approach employed in this research was descriptive qualitative. The type of this research belongs to discourse analysis. Data collection of this research was conducted through video downloaded from youtobe of Tukul Arwana talk show Empat Mata Episode “Aku Lapar”. Which is the guest Franshoa. Furthermore, the data from recording was transcribed, and then identified, selected, and classified or extracted. The research finding , the writer found that Tukul Arwana during in Talk Show, he always made humor, made the individual smiles, laughs, and otherwise displays amusement in a variety of situations.
Keywords: Humor, Talk Show.
INTRODUCTION
Humor is an important tool to achieve certain purposes. Humor is at first a type of language behavior. Attar do defines humor by two criteria (Attardo: 2003). The first one is whether the event elicits laughter or smiling. The second one is whether it was produced with the intention of eliciting laughter or smiling. Martin and Lefcourt (1984) said that humor is “the frequency with which the individual smiles, laughs, and otherwise displays amusement in a variety of situations” (p. 147), but later (Lefcourt & Martin, 1986) said that laughter and humor are not the same thing. Anthropologist Robert R. Provine has spent years studying laughter and believes that laughter is not always connected to humor; rather, laughter is more often used as a mechanism for moving conversation (Provine, 1996). The question still remains whether humor is a learned behavior or a natural characteristic of all people. Even though humor, as a linguistic and interactional process, appears to be a universal human phenomenon, it is more obviously embedded in situated socio-cultural context than most other communication. Discourse analysis has recently begun to explore humor in discourse from both the linguistic and socio-cultural perspective.
The concept of talk shows on television, especially in Indonesia, has been considered as an event concept that will never be defeated rating soap operas or other entertainment programs. Talk show is often considered boring, too hard to digest, not attractive packaging, and various other reasons that make the talk show increasingly marginalized in the affairs of the acquisition of rating. But the emergence of program Bukan empat Mata (B4M) in Trans7 TV provides another perspective on the business community and media in view of talk show program. In fact, B4M talk show is able to break most people opinion about the talk show program called will never get a high rating. The Program B4M is a talk show program that uses humor and always brings a perspective celebrity.
Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyze humor in expressing ideas of Tukul Arwana Talk Show” Bukan Empat Mata” episode Aku Lapar. It is deals the result of this study is expected to be useful information for any people in order to make people understand the coversation expecially for teacher in understanding the students way of thinking in initiating ideas through humor.
RELATED LITERATURE
A. Definition of Humor
A standard definition for humor is hard to find. Martin and Lefcourt (1984) said that humor is “the frequency with which the individual smiles, laughs, and otherwise displays amusement in a variety of situations” (p. 147), but later (Lefcourt & Martin, 1986) said that laughter and humor are not the same thing. Anthropologist Robert R. Provine has spent years studying laughter and believes that laughter is not always connected to humor; rather, laughter is more often used as a mechanism for moving conversation (Provine, 1996).
The incongruity theory is the prevailing current theory on humor; it views humor as being primarily cognitive. This theory says that something is humorous because the event (joke, body movement, statement, for example) is incompatible with our expectations and causes a momentary cognitive struggle to resolve the perceived incongruity. Once the incongruity is resolved, the situation is perceived to be humorous. The most famous proponent of this theory is Immanuel Kant, and other supporters have included Gerard, Beattie, Schopenhauer, Bergson, Menon, and Willmann (Keith-Spiegel, 1972).
The superiority theory was formally developed by English philosopher Thomas Hobbes but has fallen out of favor in the past couple of decades. Proponents of this theory include Aristotle, Plato, Meyerson, Sidis, and Wallis, although some theorists, such as Hunt, Carpenter, McDougall, and Rapp, hold that this theory can also include laughter that is not always scornful, but is congenial and empathetic (Keith-Spiegel, 1972).
The third most prominent surviving theory is the relief theory, or psychoanalytic theory, which was introduced by Spencer (McGhee, 1983a) and popularized by Freud. (1905/1989) According to this theory, humor is a socially acceptable way of releasing built-up tension and nervous energy. Everyone has certain areas that he or she finds uncomfortable, fearful, and/or embarrassing, and humor is a way of relieving this stress in a socially acceptable way. Other proponents of this theory include Kline, Gregory, Dewey, Patrick, Dooley, Feldmann, and Wolfenstein (Keith-Spiegell, 1972).
B. The Function of Humor
Martineau (1972) discusses three functions of humor: consensus, conflict and control. The term consensus refers to the reduction of social distance. The function of such humor is to initiate and solidify the development of social relationship. It therefore encompasses functions such as integration into a group, and creating solidarity. Conflict humor introduces or fosters conflict in a group. Ridicule is a form of humor that can effectively introduce conflict. The term control refers to the control of others. Humor is used to express grievances and to draw people’s attention to their mistakes. The control function is also discussed by Collinson (1988). He discusses humor on the shop floor, identifying three functions – to resist boredom, to conform and to control others. Collinson’s conform reflects the consensus category created by Martineau. To resist boredom is a function not mentioned by Martineau. This will be the function of a large number of instances, although probably not often the sole reason. A broader term is to amuse or to entertain.
C. Verbal Humor Versus Conceptual Humor
Even though humor differs from individual to individual and from culture to culture, there is one distinction which seems to apply universally, which has to do with how the humorous effect is achieved, and that is Freud's distinction between verbal humor and conceptual humor. Verbal humor is when an aspect of language, such as structural ambiguity, is exploited in order to achieve a humorous effect, while conceptual humor involves concepts or ideas that are thought of as humorous without using aspects of language for other purposes conveying the humorous message.
There are several areas of language in which there are units and structures which may be exploited in order to create incongruity, most of which involve ambiguity. Some of these are:
a. Phonology: system of sounds in a language
b. Graphology: written form of a language
c. Morphology: the structure and organization of individual words
d. Lexis: individual words of a language (and the relation between their form and their meaning)
e. Syntax: how words are structured into meaningful strings of words
Each of these levels involve various types of conventions of language (or rules or whatever), which may be exploited by speakers in order to create humor-generating incongruity.
D. Social Aspects of Humor
Humor is very much a social phenomenon and serves various types of social or interpersonal purposes.
The social aspects of humor are reflected in the nature of laughter. Laughter typically occurs in groups of two or more people and rarely, or at least less frequently, when people are alone. Research into laughter and humor has shown that people who laugh at something in the company of others often do not laugh at the same thing when they are alone. Likewise, if an individual is in the company of other people who do not laugh at something, then this individual will typically stop finding it humorous. Conversely, being the only person who laughs at something in a group of people often results in embarrassment and awkwardness. Finally, an individual who does not normally find something humorous may laugh at it, ending up seeing it as humorous after all, if in the company of other people who are laughing at it. This means that not laughing at somebody's attempt at humor not only disproves of their sense of humor but also signals social distance and non-sympathy (it can of course also signal the failure to understand the joke etc.). Another consequence is that not laughing when other people laugh signal non-membership and non-allegiance with them.
E. The Effects of Humor
Many people praise the effect humor has on talk show process, but the literature on the effectiveness of humor is far from unanimous. Shade (1996), with all his statements about the usefulness of humor in talk show, acknowledges that, both a personal sense of humor and the use of humor in the work environment are essential.
Studying the effects of humor on Talk Show program in general has led to mixed results. One of the main difficulties surrounding the issue of humor in TV programs is the multidimensionality of humor. Humor is at once cognitive, emotive, and psychological. Differences among people’s personalities, experiences, and ideas lead to different concepts of what is funny. Disagreements concerning the definition of humor and the theories surrounding humor make humor research difficult and prone to debate. However, the research that has been conducted so far has yielded some significant results.
RESEARCH METHOD
This research used a descriptive qualitative method. Generally, qualitative method is the method use to analyze the problems which are not designed or arranged using statistic procedure (Subroto 2007:5). As Wilkinson (2000:7) stated that the resulting data is presented in the form of description. So, the data in this research is in the form of descriptions. The subject of this research was Franshoa. In collecting data, the writer used video downloaded from youtobe of Tukul Arwana talk show Empat Mata Episode “Aku Lapar”. Which is the guest Franshoa. Furthermore, the data from recording was transcribed, and then identified, selected, and classified or extracted based on the analyzing needs which were relevant to the topic of this research.
FINDING AND DISCUSSION
The Findings showed video downloaded from youtobe of Tukul Arwana talk show Empat Mata Episode “Aku Lapar. This video showed the humor of Tukul Arwana and the guest Fransoa.
Extract 1. Introduction
This conversation was taken from the first video downloaded from youtobe of Tukul Arwana talk show Empat Mata Episode “Aku Lapar. Tukul Arwana introduced his guest Fransoa from Francis.
Tukul : Bintang tamu saya selanjutnya adalah bule Francis yang kelaparan di Indonesia, Kuliahnya juga sama dengan saya di sorbon university, ini presiden Francis Swaswasamitran itu ngobrol dikemang dengan saya, ya demi sesuap makanan Indonesia dia berani mencoba menjadi penyanyi di youtube dari lagu disco, dangdut hingga music rock. Siapa bule yang kelaparan ini langsung saja kita saksikan penampilan dari FRANSOA…
Based on the first extract above, introduction of the guest from presenter Tukul Arwana to audience. Tukul Arwana explained to the audience about Fransoa’s life in Indonesia. But when Tukul Arwana introduced Fransoa to audience, he made humor like the sentence that I undelined above and he made the audience laughing. It is related to Martin and Lefcourt (1984) said that humor is “the frequency with which the individual smiles, laughs, and otherwise displays amusement in a variety of situations” (p. 147).
Extract 2. Asking Question
This conversation was taken from the first video downloaded from youtobe of Tukul Arwana talk show Empat Mata Episode “Aku Lapar. Tukul Arwana asking question for Fransoa.
Tukul : I like a… you’re a… the singer… you’re a… the moving a right and side very well… ada berapa macam makanan Indonesia dilirik lagu aku lapar, inspirasinya dari mana?
Franzoa : ada… dilagu ada 43 jenis makanan, Indonesia aja, Indonesian food only
Tukul : forty one
Vega : forty three hehehehe
Tukul : forty three
Based on the second extract above showed that Tukul Arwana asked question for Fransoa. But when Tukul Arwana spoke like I like a… you’re a… the singer… you’re a… the moving a right and side very well…, it is made the audience laughing. It is refers to the incongruity theory is the prevailing current theory on humor; it views humor as being primarily cognitive. This theory says that something is humorous because the event (joke, body movement, statement, for example) is incompatible with our expectations and causes a momentary cognitive struggle to resolve the perceived incongruity.
Extract 3. Pepi Cuts the topic
This conversation was taken from the first video downloaded from youtobe of Tukul Arwana talk show Empat Mata Episode “Aku Lapar. When Tukul Arwana spoke suddenly Pepi cut their conversation.
Pepi : satu lagi shake noodle
Tukul : apa itu?
Pepi: mi kocok
Tukul: hahahahahah
Vega: satu lagi mas seat rice
Tukul: apa?
Vega: nasi duduk hahahahaha
Tukul: hahahha
Vega: seat rice
Based on the third extract above showed that when Tukul Arwana spoke with Fransoa suddenly Pepi cut their conversation and he said satu lagi shake noodle, and Tukul Arwana responsed with he said apa itu? And Pepi answerd mi kocok it is made all of audiences laughing. In the same case, the sentence in line six and seven made audience smiling and laughing. It is related to humor is an important tool to achieve certain purposes. Humor is at first a type of language behavior. Attar do defines humor by two criteria (Attardo: 2003). The first one is whether the event elicits laughter or smiling. The second one is whether it was produced with the intention of eliciting laughter or smiling.
CONCLUSION
Humor is an important tool to achieve certain purposes. Humor is at first a type of language behavior. Attar do defines humor by two criteria (Attardo: 2003). The first one is whether the event elicits laughter or smiling. The second one is whether it was produced with the intention of eliciting laughter or smiling. Martin and Lefcourt (1984) said that humor is “the frequency with which the individual smiles, laughs, and otherwise displays amusement in a variety of situations” (p. 147), Furthermore, this research describes the analysis of humor in expressing ideas of Tukul Arwana Talk Show” Bukan Empat Mata”. The writer just observed one meeting. Based on the finding above, the writer found that Tukul Arwana during in Talk Show, he always made humor, made the individual smiles, laughs, and otherwise displays amusement in a variety of situations.