Humour and code switching

Prior research has recognised that code-switching (CS) is a linguistic phenomenon that is inherently humorous or potentially conducive to eliciting humour in social contexts. Comedians in stand-up comedy shows often switch codes to enhance the humorous effect of their speeches, cultivating a comedic atmosphere. However, the linguistic features that facilitate the humour of CS are yet to be explored. In Hong Kong, it is common to see stand-up comedians switch codes between Cantonese and English or other languages, such as Japanese and Korean. Drawing upon the Matrix Language Frame model (Myers-Scotton, 1993), this case study focuses on a stand-up comedy show by Jim Chim Sui-man, a popular local stage actor and comedian, examining the morphosyntactic patterns and rhetorical features of humorous CS to elucidate the relationship between humour and the structure of CS. The results show that CS does not guarantee a humorous effect and that classic CS is more frequently used by the comedian than composite CS. Specifically, intra-sentential switches are the only type of CS that evoke humour due to their well-formedness, productivity, and effectiveness. The switches involve more content morphemes than system morphemes, as content morphemes provide the comedian with greater flexibility to switch codes and convey meanings. In addition, puns and transliterations are commonly embedded in humorous CS, as their homophonic nature enables comedians to exploit word meanings to create ambiguous meanings that enhance the humorous effect.