The Humorous Language of The Office's Michael Scott: World's Best Boss

This thesis will examine how humor is conveyed through linguistic means in NBC’s satiric mockumentary-style comedy television series The Office (2005-2013) by the main character Michael Scott. It will specifically research his use of language in scenes called “talking heads”, wherein the character speaks directly to the camera in a monologue/interview-type setting. The thesis statement is that although humor is incredibly subjective, an analysis using Richard Alexander’s model of classifying jokes will suggest that Michael Scott’s comedic success as a character is explained not by the number and nature of his intended jokes, but by the number and nature of his unintended humor. Alexander suggests six criteria for ascertaining humor. When humor is in fact ascertained it can be categorized as one of sixteen types of humor. This technique was applied to three categories of utterances: intended jokes, unintended humor, and non-jokes. The number of non-jokes was largest with 85...Show moreThis thesis will examine how humor is conveyed through linguistic means in NBC’s satiric mockumentary-style comedy television series The Office (2005-2013) by the main character Michael Scott. It will specifically research his use of language in scenes called “talking heads”, wherein the character speaks directly to the camera in a monologue/interview-type setting. The thesis statement is that although humor is incredibly subjective, an analysis using Richard Alexander’s model of classifying jokes will suggest that Michael Scott’s comedic success as a character is explained not by the number and nature of his intended jokes, but by the number and nature of his unintended humor. Alexander suggests six criteria for ascertaining humor. When humor is in fact ascertained it can be categorized as one of sixteen types of humor. This technique was applied to three categories of utterances: intended jokes, unintended humor, and non-jokes. The number of non-jokes was largest with 85 utterances, making it nearly four times as large as the intended jokes category. In the latter, ‘joke’ was the most prevalent type of joke with 36%. Unintended humor counted 44 utterances, of which 30% was ‘satire’. Non-jokes were also chiefly satiric, coming in at 39%. We theoretically know Michael is funny because he is the main character in a comedic television series, however this evidence shows that intended humor and/or jokes attribute the least to his comicality. Unintended and unconscious humor was predominantly present and mainly satiric in nature. It could be assumed that the thesis statement is correct.Show less

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The Humorous Language of The Office's Michael Scott: World's Best Boss