The dynamic power of stand-up comedy: from humor discourse to society

by Doris Hui

A stand-up comedy show is presented by a solo performer talking directly to the audience in terms of humor and joke. It requires our language understanding to enable simplify communication as well. It can be exploited as an effective means of persuasion to influence the audiences or raise their awareness of some consequent issues. The stand-up comedy becomes more attractive because the comedian is producing jokes that mostly relies on speaking proficiency or the content rather than body language (as cited in Badara, 2018). The audience is more likely to listen to a story directly instead of reading it. 

In Hong Kong, Dayo Wong Tsz-wah is a famous stand-up comedian. He always introduces a mass of political and philosophical content in his comedy show by using “humor”, which carries a high level of consonant among the audience. Examining the humor discourse in Dayo’s stand-up comedy show has particular characteristics in terms of its creation and language use. We can see how Dayo uses humor techniques to resonate deeply with the Hong Kong audience. 

(01) “點解要叫佢地「武警」？並唔係武力個「武」，而係伯母個「母」，因為係香港做警察嘅首要條件就係要比人問候伯母。” (“They should not be called as “armed police” but “mother police.” )                                                         (Data of stand-up comedy discourse, 2018)

Dayo plays an ambiguous expression on “mother police” (“母警”) which can make the audience laugh. He compared “armed police” to “mother police” because their pronunciation is the same in Cantonese but the meaning is entirely different. The police officers were scolded by the citizens for the violent dispersal in the demonstrations. In Cantonese’s foul language, a highly offensive expression is to mention someone’s mother. Therefore, Dayo suggested that the police should be called “mother police” since the protesters always use offensive language to express their dissatisfaction with the police officer. 

(02) “而家香港嘅問題，係婆媳糾紛，……除非你老婆第一日入門就全心全意同奶奶講：……「阿媽，我愛你！」……” (“The conflict between Hong Kong and mainland China is just like the mother-in-law’s dispute. Would the son’s wife says “Mum, I love you so much” sincerely to her husband’s mother?”)                                           (Data of stand-up comedy discourse, 2014)

The statement is an ironic speech, which is a statement that means opposite to what it says. Here is a good comparison to describe the relationship between Hong Kong and Mainland China nowadays. Mum is representing China, and the son’s wife is representing Hong Kong. The conflicts between them mostly come from the problems of “new immigrants”.  The number of tourists from Mainland to Hong Kong has continually increased and the problems of “competing resources” are even more extended. However, neither the Hong Kong government or China, is considering carrying out any suitable policies to develop a mutually beneficial development. Dayo commented, “Mum, I LOVE YOU so much” is an irony since there is no suitable expression that people will have a supportive statement to your “enemies”. The discourse is supported by the political backgrounds which can emerge as irony as well as causing humor. 

(03) “尊嚴幾錢啊？而家『粗鹽』都貴過『尊嚴』啦！” (“Nowadays, the price of “coarse salt” is much higher than the price of our “dignity”!”) 

(Data of stand-up comedy discourse, 2003)

Dayo compared “coarse salt” to “dignity” since the pronunciation of these two words are similar in Cantonese, and “coarse salt” compared to the commodity price in Hong Kong. The expensive cost of living in Hong Kong has put a heavy burden on the citizens in daily life. This humor discourse emerged laughter because Dayo used metaphor by comparing the commodity price to inanimate objects. Also, it is a satire that the price of an inanimate object (“coarse salt”) can be entirely higher than the value of our “dignity” in Hong Kong. 

In a nutshell, stand-up comedy is easy for the audience to see how the human events as open to change, contingent or not at all certain. Dayo created and participated in most of the dialogues with humor, philosophical elements, and irony. The stand-up comedy show held by Dayo Wong Tsz-wah can carry a high level of consonant among the audience, and it also has the power to raise the audience’s awareness of the local phenomenon and social issues.