Language Style of Comedy: A Study in Stylistics

This work is a study in stylistics. It goal is to examine the languageofcomedy in our society. It shows the effect of the language of comedyontheaudience and what the audience has to benefit fromthe language usedbycomedians. The theoretical framework, ‘’ethnography of communication’’ usingthespeaking model, is used to accurately and satisfactorily describe anyspeechevent, more especially the joke extract for this study. The data for thestudyare joke extract, the sources of the data were fathered fromvarious comedyshows and radio station in Nigeria. The work shows, through critical analyses that comedy is beyondentertainment, it mirrors the society. It also shows what makes a comedianspecial from other character, by examining their style of language andthemessage; what it communicate. In conclusion the main contribution of this work is that it suggest re-examination of people towards comedy. It is also noticed that there is alinkbetween linguistics and literature. Hence, there is need for other linguist towork on literature.