Art Of Verbal Humor Of The Shanghai-Style Talk Show In The Light Of Relevance Theory

The Shanghai-style talk show of Zhou Li-bo is a verbal art which inherits the style ofspeaking, imitating, acting and singing of the local comic monologue of Shanghai, and spreads agood-humored way of thinking and facetious attitude of life in a fresh and wise manner.Differentiated from the cross talk of Guo De-gang, which adds some innovative elements in thetraditional cross talk, the Shanghai-style talk show combines the quintessence of the local comicmonologue, Beijing comic monologue and Hongkong stand-up comedy. By employingpostmodernist elements and closely related to the current affairs, finance and people’s life, it alsodiffers from the song-and-dance duet, which relies heavily on erotic jokes. It is exemplified in“Talking the30Years Comically”,“Talking the Great Shanghai Comically”,“I am Crazy forMoney” and the Weekly Libo Show produced by Phoenix TV.Based on the complete video and verbal materials of the Shanghai-style talk show of ZhouLi-bo, this dissertation studies the mechanism of the verbal humor of the Shanghai-style talk showand its pragmatics and rhetoric strategies in the light of the Relevance Theory. The dissertationargues that the mechanism of the verbal humor of the Shanghai-style talk show includesemploying the collision of the largest relevancy and the best relevancy, using explicit message tostimulate implicit intention, making additional effects through additional efforts, etc. Thepragmatics strategies include employing the inharmony between the content and the form of words,employing ambiguities of words, homonyms, compounds and abbreviations, etc. The rhetoricstrategies include the sudden failure of expectation, the contradiction between experience andreality, and the artful release of emotions, etc.The Relevance Theory is a new perspective to study the mechanism and strategies of theverbal humor of the Shanghai-style talk show of Zhou Li-bo, which enlarges the application of therelevance theory. This study, while helps audience better appreciate the verbal humor of theShanghai-style talk show, is also instructive and suggestive for the creation of the Shanghai-styletalk show and other verbal comedies.