Dysphemism and Hope-crushing Humor in Iraqi Street Interviews: A Pragmatic Case Study of ‘Ma’a Al-Aziz’
Dysphemism and Hope-crushing Humor in Iraqi Street Interviews: A Pragmatic Case Study of ‘Ma’a Al-Aziz’
Pages
1066-151Abstract
Iraqi street interviews have become a source of humor and entertainment for Iraqi society. However, this humor often comes at the expense of the interviewee’s suffering. In the widely-watched street interview program “Ma’a Al-Aziz,” the interviewer uses dysphemism and hope-crushing humor to target participants’ positive face, trivialize their hardships, and indirectly comment on social or political issues. The current study analyzes twenty interviews from “Ma’a Al-Aziz,” an Iraqi televised program circulated on social media. A qualitative approach is employed, drawing on an eclectic model that integrates Attardo’s (1994) theory of humor, Culpeper’s (2005) model of impoliteness and face attack, and Allan and Burridge’s (2006) framework of dysphemism. Findings reveal that Al-Aziz consistently employs ridicule, irony, and offensive comparisons, often presented as humor, to attack both positive face (the need for approval) and negative face (the need for autonomy). Dysphemistic strategies identified include exaggeration, taboo expressions, de-agentivization, objectification, synecdoche, and overgeneralization
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