LIMITS OF HUMOR: THE DISCURSIVE FUNCTIONING OF POLEMIC

Abstract

In the words of Courtine (2006): "It's necessary to find texts that bother". Speaking of "political correctness" is a delicate issue (and recent) to society. Furthermore, entering the relationship between humor and the "politically correct" is entering the heart of a very controversial issue. After all, if we consider laughter as the "real humor," the ungraspable that escapes the attempt to determine who and what we can find laughable, is it possible to say that the "politically correct" represents an attempt to organize / regulate humor? Moreover, is it possible to state that the historical condition of production determines a shift in the meaning of humor and is capable to re-signify the humorous speech? Centered in the field of discursive humor, we are interested in describing the linguistic and discursive forms through which the tension and controversy are established. The everyday speech, the public speech is the space chosen to analyze the function, contrast, mistake and failure is that all discourse that sees crossed by a supposedly "discourse police". In order to reach that purpose, we utilize as the material of our analysis the texts circulating on the press and on the internet. It is in the plot of historical relation, in the contradiction that constitutes those discourses, that we aim to describe some theoretical consequences of the "political" contained in humor.