Realization Of The Anticipated Ironic Effects On The Arab Spring Political Cartoons’Recipients

People are familiar with political cartoons but generally think of them as a form of comic art meant to entertain. In addition to entertainment, political cartoons are thought-provoking and strive to push the viewers to think or act politically. Indeed, they are drawn by cartoonists who desire to evoke some specific effects in the minds of the viewers and intended only for those who do the meaning-making. It is believed that the linguistic investigation of political cartoons to date has been decontextualized and has not taken into account how their viewers interpret their implied message successfully. Actually, this requires contextual information and inferential abilities on the part of the viewers. Converging upon the theory of indirect speech acts, the present study attempts to investigate the realization of the anticipated ironic effects on the Arab Spring political cartoons’recipients.