Indonesian Humorous Status in Social Media: An Application of Script-Based Semantic Theory of Humour

This paper aims to analyse Indonesian humorous status in social media by applying the Script Semantic Theory of Humour (SSTH) and the parameters called Knowledge Resources (KRs) of the General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH). It is conducted by applying a qualitative method since the purpose of this study is primarily to describe and to establish the variation in a situation, phenomenon, problem, or event without quantifying them. The data is taken from Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp account followed by the first writer of this study for eight months. There are 17 statuses to be analysed, in which, seven statuses consist of 21 phrases analysed by applying SSTH theory, while the other 10 statuses consist of 14 phrases as set-up stages, 18 phrases, and three pictures as punchline stages analysed by applying GTVH theory. From the data being displayed, regarding the Superiority theory, it is found that people generally laugh because of other people’s misfortunes, and it emphasizes one’s superiority to the shortcomings of others. The people will laugh at individuals who are inferior or ugly, because they feel happy, and feel superior to them. Based on Release/Relief theory, humorous status also stems from regenerating something painful into something light-hearted. It is an indication of the misfortunate aspects of life. From the Incongruity theory, it is found that humour appears when there is an oddity between the concepts prepared in certain situations and the real events that are thought to be related to the concept. The paper further elaborates the findings and discuss them in detail. * Corresponding author, email: sisila@unimed.ac.id Citation in APA style: Damanik, S. F., & Mulyadi. (2020). Indonesian humorous status in social media: An application of script-based semantic theory of humour. Studies in English Language and Education, 7(2), 657-671. Received June 1, 2020; Revised August 10, 2020; Accepted August 15, 2020 https://doi.org/10.24815/siele.v7i2.17237 ©Syiah Kuala University. All rights reserved. S. F. Damanik & Mulyadi, Indonesian humorous status in social media: An application of script-based semantic theory of humour | 658


INTRODUCTION
Humour has a fairly central role in human life. In the opinion of Raskin (1984, p.1), humour is a phenomenon where someone will laugh when seeing (visually) or hearing (audibly) something funny, which can be a situation, a story, or a thought that appears in everyday life. Humour is not merely as entertainment to release the psychological burden of the audience, but also as a vehicle for social criticism of all forms of inequality that occur in the community. With a unique form of imbalance that occurs in society, humour can be expressed in funny language that is casual and tickles the reader or listener. In line with Raskin, Attardo (1994) also believes that humour is implicitly or explicitly laughter. Something that can make people laugh is something funny. In other words, it can be said that a mental phenomenon (humour) produces complex neurophysiological manifestations (laughter).
Some recent studies suggested one of the most common social functions of humour is the construction of solidarity and in-group identity (Archakis, & Tsakona, 2005). In their research, they have focused on the target of the humour as the most useful knowledge resource for their purposes. It is also illustrated that humour can be a flexible discourse strategy to establish some particular aspects of social identities by concentrating on a particular aspect of humour encoded in The General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH) terms as the knowledge resource of 'target'. In short, humour reveals information regarding the humourists' shared beliefs and values and proves to be an efficient means for the participants to construct their situated sense of social identity.
Along the same line, Brock (2005) analysed the humour of Monty Python. It has been variously described as zany, bizarre, and anarchic. It is not only due to their stream-of-consciousness approach, the depiction of extreme violence, etc., but also because the Pythons produce unexpected script constellations. Miczo (2014) in his paper presents a model linking form and function in conversational humour. In the model, a pair of incompatible initial scripts (i.e. opposition scripts) is activated when the membership category is referenced in the settings. The punch or jab-line introduces a second opposition script that 'resolves' or makes sense from the first opposition in terms of organizational preferences. It was found that these preferences have implications in bringing together or sharing the interlocutor when the humour of the conversation is examined.
It is already understood that social media is an online platform used by people to build social networks or social relationships with other people who have similar interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. People sometimes use humorous status to convey something. The humour type and function contained in the Indonesian humorous status in social media are interesting to be analysed since, in Indonesia, there is relatively little linguistics research on this issue in particular social settings. It is considered interesting to indicate all aspects of the status from the abstract joke-concept identified by the Script Semantic Theory of Humour (SSTH), to the language it is being expressed in. In line with the Superiority theory, humour is concerned with social aspects. Central to these theories is the idea that laughter derives from the joy of feeling superior to some other, or that humour is a social corrective that corrects deviant behaviour (Attardo, 1994).
The most influential linguistic theories of humour are The Script Semantic Theory of Humour (SSTH) and the General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH) which have been widely accepted as thorough formal accounts of the mechanisms driving jokes and have served as a piece of information to begin a process for much contemporary linguistic work done on humour. It is supported by Archakis and Tsakona (2005) in their research paper where they applied the GTVH to conversational narratives and to integrate it with sociopragmatic approaches. They also considered that script opposition as a necessary prerequisite for humour and its perlocutionary effect as a secondary criterion for the characterization of a narrative as humorous. Antonopoulou and Sifianou (2003), in their view, also found that the GTVH is the only full-fledged semantico-pragmatic theory of humour today which is coherent, formalizable, and epistemologically interesting. They investigate humorous exchanges in Greek telephone conversation openings and found that such interactions are understood as a game, with interlocutors negotiating and co-constructing tacit rules involving a deliberate attack on social and linguistic conventions and creating a new code about in-group members only. The exchanges examined involve wordplay, insincere inquiries, complaints, and reprimands.
In this paper, the three types of humour theories from SSTH and the GTVH are used in analysing Indonesian humorous statuses in social media. This paper aims to contribute to the application of the SSTH and GTVH to an appreciation of the social interaction of everyday jokes in social media. More specifically, in this paper, the Indonesian humorous status in social media are analysed by applying SSTH analysis and GTVH analysis.

LITERATURE REVIEW
The first part in this section is to discuss the content of humorous online status from the SSTH point of view, and the second part is to discuss the content of humorous online status, in which six parameters, called Knowledge Resources (KRs) of the GTVH are used.

Semantic-Script Theory of Humour (SSTH)
In the Semantic-Script Theory of Humour (SSTH) Raskin (1984) groups various theories into three categories, namely: Superiority Theory, Release/Relief Theory, and Incongruity Theory. In the theory of humour, uperiority, or also called Plato & Aristotle Theory because it emerged in the 19th century (Saude, 2018), asserted that people generally laugh because of other people's misfortunes, because this misfortune emphasizes one's superiority to the shortcomings of others. Plato said that silliness is marked by the appearance of irregularities in a person, while Aristotle argues that, we laugh at individuals who are inferior or ugly, because we feel happy, feel superior to them. For example, the situation when someone looks at a beautiful and graceful woman, but then suddenly the beautiful woman falls over because of her high heels. Another example, when it is quiet during the exam, there is the sound of people snoring.
Meanwhile, in the theory of release (Release/Relief Theory), it is said that laughter can affect psychology. Here, humour is used to reduce or release physical or emotional tension or stress. By laughing, complex body movements occur that can cleanse breathing, and increase oxygen, and even considered able to help fight infection.
In Incongruity Theory, laughter comes from an awareness that something is inconsistent with the logic used in perceiving an event (Lynch, 2002). When humour is present, that is, in situations when interpreting an unusual reality. Something can be considered funny if it is illogical, or irrational, paradoxical, incoherent, erroneous, or improper. Humour is considered something that involves a person's intellectual activities. Humour is based on aspects of one's cognition, because it involves individual perceptions of events, people, or symbols. For example, in stand-up comedy, the 'turn' from a setup, or the so-called punchline, is a form of the inconsistency of the story built in the setup. A successful punchline is illogical, irrational, wrong, or improper. It can be seen in the following example, "In my opinion, the American landing on that month was a lie, if it was true the 60s had landed there, (set up) there would have been Mc-Donalds now" (punchline).
In his hypothesis, Raskin (1984) stated that a text can be categorized as a text that produces jokes if it has the following two conditions: 1.
The text, in whole or in part, corresponds to two different scripts.

2.
The two scripts with the corresponding text were the opposite. The script referred to by Raskin (1984) contains information which is a prototype of the existence described, such as a routine that is commonly done. At the simplest level, a script is equivalent to the lexical meaning of the word.

Script
Originally, the script is the term and concept that comes from psychology, but during the late 1970s and early 1980s, it came into usage in linguistics (Attardo, 2001). According to Attardo (2001, p. 2), it is a cognitive structure attributed by the speaker that determined the speaker with information on how a given existence is structured, what are its parts and components, or how an activity is done by the speaker, relationship organized, and so on, to cover all possible relations between existences (including their constituents). It is in line with Raskin's (1984, p. 81) idea who stated that "the script is a large chunk of semantic information surrounding the word or evoked by it". So, it is surrounding information we relate with an existence, which could be an object, a concept, an activity, etc. In other words, scripts are almost equivalent to the lexical definition of the word. The word CUP, for example, would activate a series of scripts roughly equal to all of the different senses of the lexeme CUP. It is the other words surrounding cup in a text that activates the script relevant to that particular context. Raskin ascertains between different levels of scripts in terms of complexity and abstraction are different.
According to Raskin (1984), scripts containing many other scripts can be categorized as macroscripts and/or complex scripts in which they are clusters of scripts organized chronologically. SCHOOL is an example of a macroscript since it activates ideas of a certain order of events that is expected. Scripts like WAITING IN THE CLASSROOM/STUDYING/GROUP DISCUSSION, etc., figure in chronological order of events. Complex scripts are also clusters of different scripts but without a chronological ordering. A complex script like WAR, for example, is comprised of many different scripts, such as ARMY/VICTORY/WEAPONS, etc. It is a cluster of many different scripts, but not in expected order of events. SCHOOL is also a complex script in the sense that it also activates scripts beyond those that figure in the chronological order like TEACHER/STUDENT/CLASSROOM, etc.
While Attardo (1996) makes a dissimilarity between lexical scripts, inferential scripts, and sentential scripts. Inferential scripts are activated from the context the text figures in. For example, a letter of recommendation would evoke scripts of some expected form, format, content, etc. Sentential scripts are operated inferentially through which lexemes figure together rather than directly from a single lexemic handle occurring in the text. For example, if you have a text which lexically activates the scripts HUSBAND, LOVER, ADULTERY, WIFE, LAWYER, and COURTROOM, the sentential script of DIVORCE would be activated without a direct lexemic handle in the text. Attardo and Raskin (1991) proposed the General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH) as a revision of the SSTH. To have a broader multidisciplinary theory of humour, the GTVH is a broadening of SSTH out of semantics. The GTVH aims to be a joke representation model, indicating all aspects of the joke from the abstract jokeconcept identified by the SSTH, to the language it is being expressed in. There are six parameters needed to propose the construction of a joke into a text. These parameters are called Knowledge Resources (KRs). The GTVH includes five Knowledge Resources to jokes in addition to Script Opposition carried over from the SSTH. These knowledge resources are Language, Narrative Strategy, Target, Situation, and Logical Mechanism. Attardo and Raskin (1991) borrow concepts from various adjacent fields such as cognitive linguistics, psychology, stylistics, folklore, etc. The central concept of this theory is that it proposes a hierarchal structure between these KRs that is supposed to predict similar perceived jokes. In theory, it is predicted that share-more-knowledgeresource jokes will be perceived as more similar to each other. If jokes of comparison have the same number of identical knowledge resources, the joke that shares higherlevel knowledge resources will be commonly considered more alike. This hypothesis is generally proven by Ruch et al., (1993). The theory also states that higher-level resources may code and limit lower-level resources.

METHODS
This study is conducted by applying a qualitative method because the purpose of this study is primarily to describe and to establish the variation in a situation, phenomenon, problem, or event without quantifying them (Kumar, 2011). In this case, this study simply tried to analyse the Indonesian humorous status in social media since nowadays it is a popular media used by people to build social networks or social relationships with other people who have similar interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. The data related with humour was gained from various users of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp account followed by the first writer of this study for eight months. From the period, 17 statuses were analysed, where seven statuses consist of 21 phrases are analysed by applying SSTH analysis while the other 10 statuses consist of 14 phrases as set-up stages, 18 phrases, and three pictures as punchline stages were analysed by applying GTVH analysis. The data was considered humorous statuses because it was seen from the comments of the statuses that the people who read the statuses laughed when seeing (visually) or hearing (audibly) it. It is in line with Raskin's (1984) opinion about humour.
The technique of data collection was carried out by observing, copying, and reading. Data analysis techniques in this study were carried out systematically, by looking at notes, copying status that contains humour or invite laughter, then transcribing the data in an analysis worksheet, reducing data, coding data, analysing and explaining the findings, and concluding the data/verification (Miles & Huberman, 1994).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
As previously mentioned, there have been many proposed theories of humour over the years. Figures of historical importance range from Plato and Aristotle, to Cicero, Kant, and Freud. Their contributions as well as modern theories are discussed in Raskin's extensive survey in Semantic Mechanisms of Humour (Raskin, 1984) and Attardo's discussion in Linguistic Theories of Humour (Attardo, 1994). Generally, the theories of humour that have been proposed are placed into three groups: Superiority Theory, Release/Relief Theory, and Incongruity Theory. The classification is based on the different aspects of humour they denote (Attardo, 1994;Larkin-Galiñanes, 2017).
In this section, the analysis is divided into two, namely SSTH analysis and GTVH analysis. The first section is to discuss the content of humorous online status from the SSTH point of view and the second section is to discuss the content of humorous online status, in which six KRs of the GTVH were used.

Superiority theory
Superiority theory is concerned with the social aspects of humour. Central to these theories is the idea that laughter derives from the joy of feeling superior to some other, or that humour is a social corrective that corrects deviant behaviour (Attardo, 1994). According to these theories, all humour is based on a discourse of included groups and excluded groups. Consider, for example, the following humorous status used by a netizen in social media: (1) Banyak kesamaan belum tentu jodoh. Contohnya, sama-sama pakai camera 360, pas ketemuan sama-sama kaget lihat muka aslinya. (Many similarities are not necessarily matched. For example, both use camera 360, when they meet, they are both shocked to see the original face.) For example (1), the status aims to insult the targets who always use camera 360 to cover the original face. It indicates that people will laugh if they see the misfortune of others or feel the pleasure of doing contempt for others. It also can be analysed from the following examples: (2) Nggak masalah kalau kamu nggak suka sama aku. Nggak semua orang punya selera yang bagus. (internet source: santrialim.com) (It doesn't matter if you don't like me. Not everyone has good taste.) Example (2) indicates that the one who wrote the status felt superior to the target by noted that he/she is deserved not to be loved by someone who has low taste.
(internet source: santrialim.com) (Having a beautiful girlfriend often makes your heart hurt, having an ugly girlfriend often makes your eyes hurt.) Example (3) directly indicates that the targets of this humorous status are not beautiful.
(internet source: santrialim.com) (If your name isn't Google, stop acting like you know everything.) The focus in example (4) is the one who knows all. This satirical status uses the term Google as a comparison.
(5) Mbak, daripada tangan, mending mulutnya aja yang di-lotion deh. Biar enggak kasar." (internet source: santrialim.com) (Ma'am, why don't you apply the lotion to your mouth rather than hands to make it smooth?) The lotion is usually used as a medicine or a beauty delivery system. Many lotions, especially hand lotions and body lotions are meant instead to simply smooth the skin, but in example (5), the lotion is asked to be applied to the targets' mouth in order not to speak too rough for the function of the lotion itself is to smoothen the skin.
From the examples of statuses above, it can be concluded that people generally laugh because of other people's misfortunes, and it emphasizes one's superiority to the shortcomings of others. The silliness is marked by the appearance of irregularities in a person, and the people will laugh at individuals who are inferior or ugly, because they feel happy, feel superior to them. The status is made to be successful in gaining the readers' attention.

Release/Relief theory
This theory is based on psychoanalytical theory, with Sigmund Freud as their most influential proponent. This type of liberation theory is also called release, relief, or relaxation theory. This type of release or liberation theory can be a sign of relief from tension and pressure. The following example is a conversational comedy taken from https://ejurnalbalaibahasa.id/ that contains a type of humour release theory: Example (6) shows that JK seems rather angry and emotional because DC insisted on using the term foetus, while the context they were talking about was a foetus or unborn baby. Finally, DC relented for JK. On that occasion, K replies by the humorous statement by saying that there was a big baby, a giant baby. K's statement showed that he wanted to make a ruse or lie to make the tension between JK and DC disappear. K said something that made the reader laugh because the utterance contained humour. After the phrase bayi raksasa 'giant baby' appeared, in which, of course, did not exist in the real world, JK and DC no longer questioned on the word baby and foetus.
The fundamental idea of these theories is that humour involuntarily occurs when an inner tension is released. The pleasure of humour (in this restricted meaning of the word) appears from the release of energy that would have been associated with this painful emotion but has now become redundant (Martin, 2010). Otherwise, humour stems from regenerating something painful into something light-hearted. It is a strategy for coming to terms with misfortunate aspects of life.

Incongruity theory
This type of theory states that humour appears when there is an oddity between the concepts prepared in certain situations and the real events that are thought to be related to the concept. Conversational comedy in social media that contains a type of incongruity theory can be seen in the following example: For example (7), it is shown that the context is important in bringing about the laughter. Laughter appears as a result of the reader's understanding of tambal ban 'tire patches' who "sell" the wind. At the beginning of the sentence, JK's speech really impressed the intellect, but at the end of the utterance, it actually surprised the readers because what was said at the beginning had nothing to do with the tire repairman at all. This is what causes these utterances to be said to be funny and following the type of incongruity theory.

General Theory of Verbal Humour Analysis
As stated in the method section, the GTVH is aimed to be a joke representation model, indicating all aspects of the joke from the abstract joke-concept identified by the SSTH, to the language it is being expressed in. To construct a joke into a text, six parameters are needed to propose. These parameters are called Knowledge Resources (KRs). These knowledge resources are Script Opposition (SO), Language (L), Narrative Strategy (NS), Target (T), Situation (S), and Logical Mechanism (LM). The analysis can be seen as follows; There are two different ideas (SO) stated in the 1 st humorous status, being crazy vs beautiful. The author of the status creates a joke through a fallacious analogy as the LM in a situation where a man is not successful in seducing a lady. The target (T) of the status is female. The NS used by the author of the status is in a form of sarcasm quotation. (If it's that easy, at most the prize will be an umbrella.) From the 2 nd humorous status, the author puts two different ideas of heaven vs umbrella as the OS. The fallacious analogy is made up of the LM in a situation where the author compares the reward of being patient. It is stated that being 'patient is difficult but heaven will be rewarded for her/him because if it is easy, at most the prize will be an umbrella'. From this situation, it can be concluded that anyone can be a target of this status. The NS used by the author of the status is in the form of a quotation. The situation of the 3 rd humour status indicates that at the beginning, the author of the status tries to advise anyone to do good thing though he/she has got something bad from others, then it turns into something worst. The author puts two different ideas of flower vs pot as the OS. The fallacious analogy is used as the LM in which anyone means to someone is used as the target of the status by conveying sarcasm quotations. The 4 th humorous status contrasts two different ideas, to eat the grapes half vs to eat the grapes half portion. The author of the status puts the picture of a bunch of grapes in which it is already bitten half in each of the grape by her son to whom she gave the command. Finally, it can be seen that the punch line is positioned at the end of the status in a short narrative format.
Doing the same analysis to the rest of the data, it is found that the humorous status is built upon various script oppositions and situations (see the Appendix). Moreover, complex logical mechanisms, such as fallacious analogy, self-undermining, and fallacious reasoning are used in most of the status and the most narrative strategy used is in the form of quotation and short narrative.

CONCLUSION
Script-based Semantic Theory of Humour can be applied not only in a long-form narrative text or in a form of a long conversation, but also in the Indonesian humorous status in social media since it was used by the people to build social networks or social relations with others. The theories of humour that have been applied are Superiority Theory, Release/Relief Theory, and Incongruity Theory based on the different aspects of humour they denote.
From the data being displayed under the SSTH, regarding the Superiority theory, it can be concluded that people generally laugh because of other people's misfortunes, and it emphasizes one's superiority to the shortcomings of others. The silliness is marked by the appearance of irregularities in a person, and the people will laugh at individuals who are inferior or ugly, because they feel happy, and feel superior to them. Based on Release/Relief theory, humorous status also stems from regenerating something painful into something light-hearted. It is a strategy for determining the misfortunate aspects of life. Last but not least, from the Incongruity theory, it is concluded that humour appears when there is an oddity between the concepts prepared in certain situations and the real events that are thought to be related to the concept.
From the data under the GTVH by using the Knowledge Resources (KRs) parameters, it is found that the humorous status is built upon various script oppositions and situations. Complex logical mechanisms, such as fallacious analogy, selfundermining, and fallacious reasoning are used in most of the status and the most narrative strategies used are in the form of quotation and short narrative. This paper only focuses on the analysis of Indonesian humorous status in social media by applying the SSTH and GTVH to an appreciation of the social interaction of everyday jokes in social media. Furthermore, investigations from other researchers are essential to get more knowledge in the field of semantic theory of humour related to humorous status in social media.

APPENDIX
List of humour status analysis.