Submitted by Josimara Dias Brumatti (bcgdigital@ndc.uff.br) on 2017-02-10T16:04:51Z No. of bitstreams: 1 diss_ester.pdf: 3276457 bytes, checksum: 2f3a592de87bbe6d66b7ce2df19a3748 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-10T16:04:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 diss_ester.pdf: 3276457 bytes, checksum: 2f3a592de87bbe6d66b7ce2df19a3748 (MD5) / Esta dissertação visa a analisar o fenômeno do humor em um espetáculo de comédia no gênero stand-up sob a ótica da Linguística Cognitiva. Vários estudos sobre o discurso humorístico já foram realizados com foco nos aspectos linguísticos (TRAVAGLIA, 1990; POSSENTI, 1998; CARMELINO, 2009; SCHWARZ, 2010), nossa proposta é demonstrar que as teorias cognitivas podem contribuir para explicar o fenômeno do humor de uma forma ainda não abordada pela linguística mais tradicional. Nosso objetivo é investigar quais são os processos cognitivos que ocorrem no momento da punch-line – onde existe a expectativa do riso. O fenômeno do humor, baseado nas teorias linguísticas cognitivas, tem sido foco de estudo de vários pesquisadores (ATTARDO, 1994; RASKIN, 1979; COULSON, 2001; FAUCONNIER, 1984; FELTES, 2009; COSCARELLI, 2009; KRIKMANN, 2006). Nossa hipótese é que podemos compreender o sentido dos discursos da comédia de stand-up através das seguintes teorias: (i) Frame (FAUCONNIER, 1998, 2002, 2003; FILLMORE, 1984; COULSON, 2001; LAKOFF, 2004; KOESTLER, 1964; RITCHIE, 2004; MINSKY, 1974), e (ii) Teoria dos Espaços Mentais e sua extensão: Mesclagem Conceptual (FAUCONNIER, 2003; TURNER, 2003; KÖVECSES, 2006). Lakoff (2004) afirma que segundo a Ciência Cognitiva nós, seres humanos, pensamos através de frames, e para uma pessoa compreender uma verdade, o que foi dito precisa ter alguma relação com o conhecimento enciclopédico registrado em nossas sinapses, em nosso cérebro. Os temas usados nos espetáculos de comédia stand-up, como: racismo, política, casamento, sexo, etc., servem de pano de fundo para que o comediante alcance o efeito do humor da plateia. Geralmente, esses temas envolvem opiniões socialmente controversas, gerando uma oposição de frames, causando uma incongruência entre os frames da narrativa. O discurso humorístico tem como característica a resolução de uma incongruidade e é esperado que o humor surja no exato momento de sua resolução - quando um frame, considerado estável, por ser aceito culturalmente é mesclado por um novo frame, considerado episódico ou emergente. Dessa forma, temos na teoria da mesclagem conceptual base suficiente para, de forma mais pontual, analisarmos o discurso humorístico, por ser este um processo rico em mesclagens. E estas desvelam, sempre novas maneiras de observar a realidade, pois apontam novos sentidos. Para análise, escolhemos como corpus o espetáculo de comédia no gênero stand-up, Kill the Messenger, protagonizado pelo comediante Chris Rock, em sua turnê Mundial de 2008. Até o momento presente, supomos ser a primeira análise de comédia stand-up em pesquisas no Brasil. / This work aims to analyze the phenomenon of humor of a show of stand-up comedy, under the focus of the Cognitive Linguistics. Many studies about the humor discourse have already been made focusing on linguistics aspects (TRAVAGLIA, 1990; POSSENTI, 1998, CARMELINO, 2009; SCHWARZ, 2010). Our proposal is that the cognitive theories could contribute to explain the phenomenon of humor in a way not yet seen by the traditional linguistic. Our goal is to investigate which cognitive process occurs during the punch line – where one finds the laughter expectation. The humor phenomenon – based on the linguistic cognitive theories – have been the object of study of many researchers (ATTARDO, 1994, RASKIN, 1979, 1985; COULSON, 2001; FAUCONNIER; TURNER, 2004; FELTES, 2009; COSCARELLI, 2009, KRIKMANN, 2006). Our hypothesis is that we can find the meaning of stand-up comedy discourse through the following theories: (i) Frame (FAUCONNIER, 1998, 2002, 2003; FILLMORE, 1984; COULSON, 2001, LAKOFF, 2004; RITCHIE, 2004; MINSKY, 1974; KOESTLER, 1964), (ii) Mental Spaces Theory and its extension: Conceptual Blending (FAUCONNIER 2003, TURNER, 2003; KÖVECSES, 2006). Lakoff (2004) says that according to the Cognitive Science people think in Frames. Thus, what is said only will make any sense to us if the concepts fits into our frames, registered in our brain’s synapses. The themes used in the stand-up comedy scripts, such as: racism, politics, marriage, sex, and so on, are the background that allows the comedian to work his way through the audience’s laughter. Overall, these themes evolve controversy social opinions, which could launch frame oppositions, causing incongruity between the narrative’s frames. The humor discourse has as characteristic the resolution of one incongruity and it is expected to humor to show up at this exact moment of the incongruity-resolution. The humor will appear at the time when a usual frame, culturally accepted will be shifted by a new one (episodic). That way, we have in the conceptual blending theory suficient data, more precisely, to analize the humor discourse, for its richness of blendings. For these blendings could reveal new ways of seeing the reality because it points new meanings. As a corpus, we have chosen the Chris Rock stand-up comedy show Kill the Messenger of 2008. Until today, we believe this is the first analysis done in stand-up comedy held in Brazil.

This is a semi-autobiographical script about the author, Eric Hollerbach. It analyzes how problems with his mother manifest into problems with his romantic relationships.

This dissertation addresses the possibilities for humor to serve as political action. While humor has been studied since Aristotle, and many theories about its efficacy as a rhetorical form abound, most claim at best that humor produces a lesser effect than other, more serious forms of discourse. When audiences, institutions, contemporary scholars and even the comics themselves address humor, they tend to reify the theories of foundational scholars - theories that serve to circumscribe the place of humor as necessarily non-political and non-efficacious. Such modalities of humor span many theories, including intentional forms such as irony, parody and satire, spatializations such as the carnivalesque, effects based criteria such as pleasure and/or laughter (as opposed to pain and/or outrage). When taken up at an institutional level (whether by legal or economic institutions, or even by scholarly institutions), these pre-set modalities comprise sets of rules, or litige, that preempt the possibility for some of humor's most progressive functions. To reexamine humor, this project begins with the most marginalized of humorous forms, stand-up comedy. Beginning from a standpoint of critical rhetoric, routines by comics such as Lewis Black, Lenny Bruce, Dave Chappelle, Margaret Cho, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher, Michael Richards and Sarah Silverman are used to display the limitations of contemporary theories, as well as to point out the possibility for stand-up comedy to enact critique. The primary finding is that humorous techniques create a separation between the stated and the inferred, which provides possibilities for audience judgment that is prudential in the sense of operating without pre-set models. The possibility of prudential judgment enables humor to enact détournement, the detour, diversion, hijacking, corruption or misappropriation of the spectacle.

Stand-up comedy represents a particularly potent form of rhetorical and performative criticism because of its potential duality. On the surface, a comedy set can look breezy and entertaining while containing a sharper, more critical message underneath. Like a fluffy, besprinkled cupcake hiding a potent antibiotic, stand-up comedy offers potentially healing insight under the cover of whimsy. Comedians have always utilized their performances to skewer those in power, but an increasing number have taken to the stage recently to address a particularly insidious social and cultural malady. The stigma associated with mental illness continues to limit the opportunities of those living with mental disorders, meaning comedians utilizing their performances to push back against this stigma represent a significant form of anti-mental-illness-stigma advocacy. In this dissertation, I argue that stand-up comedy is a uniquely subversive and resistant communicative act that enables performers to combat the stigma associated with mental illness. Grounding my discussion in literature about mental illness and two of the most common disorders, anxiety and depression, I construct an original performance criticism evaluative framework derived from three anti-stigma-advocacy techniques: protest, educate, and contact. While these techniques offer guidance for any kind of anti-stigma advocacy, I draw them into the realm of anti-mental-illness-stigma advocacy by utilizing my framework in a performance criticism of stand-up performances by Aparna Nancherla, Maria Bamford, Bo Burnham, and Chris Gethard—four comics known for discussing their mental health onstage. Moreover, I weave autoethnographic responses to each performance throughout my analysis to showcase the power of these cases of comedic anti-mental-illness-stigma advocacy to alter my perspective on my own anxiety.Ultimately, this dissertation demonstrates the potential of stand-up comedy as anti-mental-illness-stigma advocacy by chronicling my own growth in response to the work of these comedians. It also identifies aspects of stand-up that may be potentially useful to other kinds of anti-stigma advocacy. Additionally, the framework created and used in this dissertation provides both a rubric for future anti-stigma performance criticism and a blueprint for creating anti-stigma performance. Stand-up comedy is a significant performance genre and stand-up comedians can launch biting critiques that cultivate greater cultural citizenship for the marginalized and disenfranchised. A significant number of people will undoubtedly continue to spot the silly facade of stand-up comedy and look past the deeper insight, even though it can educate an audience, protest misinformation, and provide opportunities for contact between otherwise unfamiliar demographics. My effort here is to value stand-up comedy as a powerful communicative act because it has changed my life and will continue to incite change for many others. And that’s no joke.

Scholarship on humour in the Indian context has hardly looked at how performative humour or comedy intersects with the different axes of social stratification to impact caste groups perched at a disadvantageous position. And although English stand-up comedy in the country is gradually being recognized as an important facet of contemporary popular culture, efforts to see how this genre of performative humour aids and abets caste discrimination is still largely missing in the academic discourse. This study is an attempt to address this knowledge gap. By considering English political stand-up comedy as a subgenre of the wider performative art form, it aims to determine how comedians use political humour to critique the dominant understanding of the nation that the Indian State is trying to peddle to its citizens, and more importantly, if caste forms an analytical tool that informs their critique. This study uses a qualitative discourse analysis methodology to study precisely how caste finds representation in the comedians’ critique of the nation. It selects six political stand-up comedians and examines all of their stand-up comedy clips available for viewing on YouTube. By using a range of theoretical concepts, this research attempts to recognize the important connection between caste and political humour in India. It finds that English political stand-up comedy in India is anti-ritualistic as well as hegemonic. Comedians raise difficult, politically charged topics, normalize the critique of important political developments through humour and in doing this, negotiate the boundaries of free speech. They promote new understandings about the nation that is in stark contrast to the dominant ideology. But at the same time, the domain of English political stand-up comedy is not representative of caste questions. Comedians hardly ever talk about caste, and even when they do, it is mostly a passing remark or a hurried reference. Caste is also not represented in the comedians’ identities since most of them hail from upper caste backgrounds. English political stand-up comedy, then, in spite of its democratizing potential, reflects and reproduces the caste bias inherent in the broader national public sphere. These research findings prompt a discussion on caste in popular culture and institute political humour as a legitimate entry point into the sociological analysis of Indian society. / Graduate / 2022-08-06

This thesis deals with the structural design and manufacture of special power wheelchair prototype in collaboration with company Brano. Remarkable feature of this wheelchair is the ability to pull its user to an upright position, offering the greater independence, self-sufficiency and medically positive impact on physical functions. The content of this thesis is devoted to a search of the current state of knowledge in the matter, structural analysis of complete wheelchair assembly with a detailed description of each component including the important calculations and analyzes, as well as a description of the wheelchair testing. The conclusion presents summarization of all the results in structural, technological and economic terms.

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With the rise of feminist sentiment and the growing awareness of gender equity in China, social media has become an increasingly central space for Chinese feminist expression. However, the complex dynamics of feminist expression in these online spaces—and the role of popular culture in facilitating such discourse—are still to be fully elucidated. This dissertation delves into these understudied facets, focusing on the social media platforms Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) and Bilibili (China’s largest anime fandom hub), through a cross-platform comparative analysis of the online discussion sparked by the stand-up comedy acts of Chinese female comedians. It further narrows its focus to young (age 22-33) female audiences' engagement with these comedy routines online, probing their perceptions of the confluence between feminist discourse, humor, and social media. Drawing on a mixed-methods qualitative approach that combines content analysis of videos and comments on Douyin and Bilibili with in-depth interviews with 15 young female participants, this dissertation demonstrates how users employed the platform’s creative features to challenge everyday sexism by echoing or building upon the stand-up comedians’ gags. At the same time, the analysis also uncovers how social media is used to insult and push back against these feminist voices. Subsequently, audience analysis reflects the dual use of female comedians' humor as a tool for cultural critique and community formation, while highlighting the deterrents to engagement, such as the polarized reception, stigma surrounding feminism, and online censorship. The findings shed light on the sophisticated role of social media as a platform for digital feminist expression, and the ways in which it can amplify both feminist discourse or, conversely, give voice to misogynistic attacks. They also uncover audience perceptions regarding the influence of popular culture in enhancing female representation, albeit within a frequently binary discourse. Additionally, the study addresses broader cultural implications, including the weaponization of “Westernness” in misogynistic rhetoric and the impact of censorship on audience interaction. By situating the investigation within the context of China's digital landscape and framing stand-up comedy—a genre that resonates with millennials and Gen Z—as a unique lens through which to view feminism, this dissertation transcends mere observation of a cultural phenomenon to offer a deeply personal exploration. It aspires to enrich the literature on social media as a fertile ground for gender-related discussions and to chronicle the emergent feminist ethos of our era.