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Part of
The Dynamics of Interactional Humor: Creating and negotiating humor in everyday encounters
Edited by Villy Tsakona and Jan Chovanec
[Topics in Humor Research 7] 2018
► pp. 181–204

Chapter 8
“Cool children” and “super seniors” cross into youth language

Humorous constructions of youthfulness in Greek family sitcoms

| University of Western Macedonia
| University of Western Macedonia

This article examines the ways in which the sociolinguistic construction of youthful identities is represented in two popular Greek comedy family sitcoms, considering that youth language has gained a prominent position in TV fictional discourse, being used by characters of all ages. Drawing upon a combined analytical framework from sociocultural linguistics, ethnomethodology and interactional sociolinguistics, as part of a wider research project, our analysis focuses on two interactions in which non-young people (i.e. primary school children, older women) engage in youthful scenarios. We conclude that the humorous construction of youthfulness in these TV series reproduces the (adult) stereotypical views of young people and their speech style, and undermines the marketing discourse of perpetual adolescence (Gennaro, 2013).

Keywords: youthful identity, TV series, childhood, ageing, adolescence discourse, discourse of old age, humorous frame
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical and analytical framework of the study
    • 2.1A combined model
    • 2.2Analyzing humor in fictional discourse
  • 3.The material of the analysis
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1The French Kiss (Το γλωσσόφιλο)
    • 4.2“Bawring” and Ju-Ju-Bungee Jumping («Μπάουρινγκ» και Τζα-Τζα-Μπάτζι-Τζάμπινγκ)
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 5 January 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/thr.7.08cho
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