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THE VIOLATION OF POLITENESS PRINCIPLES IN CREATING

HUMOR IN TELEVISION SERIES FAMILY GUY


Fiana Rizki Trianti and Name22
State Islamic University of Sunan Gunung Djati, Indonesia1
Universitas Padjadjaran

Abstract. The television series Family Guy is an American animated sitcom series that is aired
on FOX television channel from United States. This series is being highlighted even prohibited
aired in few countries because this series often raises certain issues or addresses a group and
then turns it into humor. The use of unusual and negative words is quite disturbing, of course,
if this show is watched by children under 13 years old. The result of this research is, what are
the principles of politeness that has been violated in the humor utterances on the series is using
one of the maxims of the principles of politeness, maxim of appreciation / acceptance. Then,
analyze the technique that used in creating the humor, where based on Berger (2005) there are
few techniques, the technique of deceiving by asking a question and a sentence indirectly outwits
the other person, so the humorist looks smarter than his opponent; Mocking technique by directly
criticizing the speaker because his speech sounds weird; And sound-playing techniques by replacing
a phoneme in a word which then creates a different meaning. This study uses pragmatic studies
with qualitative descriptive methods.

Key words: television series, humor, politeness principles

1 Introduction
Television is a telecommunications medium whose function itself is to receive information
based on audio and visual. The main consumers of television are humans. With television,
humans are able to receive and disseminate information efficiently and practically. The
development of television, television itself continues to create things that are certainly liked by
the public. One of them is an animated television series. Animated television series is certainly
enjoyed by children. Talking about animated television series, they also has types of series that
might be worth to be warned. There are animated television series that have content that is not
good for children under 13 years old.

As we know, television as an information media has a strong enough role in the creating
human thoughts. In human thoughts also has a cognition. Myers (2002) states that cognition
refers to all mental activities related to thinking, understanding and remembering, which Chaplin
later explained in his book Dictionary of Psychology (2002) is a general concept that includes
all forms of identification, including observing, seeing, paying attention , giving, thinking,
imagining, estimating, guessing, and judging. So it can be concluded that the shows on television

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can affect our cognition, and even shape our cognition. So then we hope that television could
give the educative and informative side of the contents on television.

One of the animated television series that has a comedy genre and has an aggressive
humor. As Martin and Doris (2003) developed a type of humor in which one type is Aggressive
humor. This television series is titled Family Guy. Family Guy is an Adult animation Animated
sitcom genre, the creator himself named Seth McFarlane. The humor that appears here is so
controversial that the series is banned from playing in some countries. The main character in
this series is, Peter Griffin, he is the head family of the Griffin family; irresponsible, immature,
and also a heavy drinker. Then there is his wife, Lois Griffin, a mother in general and teaches
piano lessons. Brian Griffin, he is a talking dog, he is a smoker, alcoholic, atheist, and he secretly
loves Lois Griffin. Chris Griffin, he is a naive and very emotional second child. Meg Griffin, he
is the older sister of Chris, who is not confident and unattractive. In his family, especially his
own father, he is treated with contempt and is usually the object of abuse. And finally, Stewie
Griffin, he was the last child and a baby, but his behavior was like an adult and also created
jokes using vocabulary that was rude and disrespectful, even insulting others. He also has the
goal to kill his own mother, Lois Griffin. The humor that appears in this series is very improper
for children to follow and emulate.

Based on the above phenomenon, the author wants to discuss violations of the principle of
politeness in the creation of humor in the television series Family Guy through pragmatic
studies. In this research, the writer can formulate the problem that is the focus of this research,
namely the violation of the maxim of appreciation in creating humor in the television series
Family Guy.

The purpose of this paper is to describe what humor violates the maxim of appreciation in
creating humor in the television series Family Guy through pragmatic studies. This research is
also expected to provide understanding for readers to know the humor in a television series can
be very aggressive so dangerous for children because it can affect children's behavior, especially
because this is an animated television series.

2 Literature Review
One of the studies in linguistics that will be discussed here is pragmatics. Pragmatics is a
study in linguistics that examines the relationship between language and the context in which
it is mandated or coded in the language structure. In other words, pragmatics is the study of the
use of language in a context. The word pragmatics itself comes from the Greek language, which
is pragma which means activities, affairs, actions (Trosborg, 1995). Yule (1996) said that
pragmatics is a linguistic study of meaning in terms of its communication context. He also said
that pragmatic studies are also studies of the search for subtle meanings. In pragmatics there

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are also various kinds of theories originating from various experts, one of which is politeness. In
this study, there are several experts who discuss related to politeness, there are Robin Lakoff,
Leech, Fraser, Bowl and Levinson. From various experts, the writer will focus on politeness
principles based on Leech's view.

According to Leech (1993) the principle of politeness has six maxims, maxim as defined
by the rules of language in lingual interaction; the rules governing his actions, the use of his
language, and his interpretations of the interlocutors' speech and speech. Six maxims according
to Leech are tact maxim, generosity maxim, approbation maxim, modesty maxim, agreement
maxim, sympathy maxim. maxim). These maxims aim to be always polite and polite in
expressing utterances. But the focus of this research is the maxim of appreciation /
acceptance. In the maxim of appreciation it is explained that a person can be considered polite
if in speaking he always tries to give appreciation to other parties. With this maxim, it is hoped
that the speech participants will not mock one another, berate one another, or demean one
another. Speech participants who mock one another in their utterances will be said to be
impolite. It is said so because the act of mocking is an act of disrespect for others.

Arthur Asa Berger (1998) says that there are 45 techniques for creating humor that can be
classified in four categories, including: language or language (the humor is verbal), logic or
logic (the humor is ideation), form or identity (the humor is existential), movement or action
(the humor is physical). In this study, the authors only used humor creation techniques that
created through the words and its meanings, utterances, and the action. There are 11 techniques,
which are:
1. Bombast: talking in a grandiloquent and/or rhetorical manner
2. Infantilism: playing with the sound of words
3. Irony: saying one thing and meaning something else or exactly the opposite of what
you’re saying
4. Misunderstanding: misinterpreting situation
5. Pun: playing with the meaning of words
6. Repartee: verbal banter, usually in a witty dialogue
7. Ridicule: making a fool of someone, verbally or nonverbally
8. Sarcasm: biting remark made with a hostile tone; sarcasm is always a verbal put-
down
9. Satire: Making a fool of or poking fun at well-known things, situation, or public
figures
10. Sexual allusion: Making a reference or insinuation to sexual or naughty matters
11. Outwitting: Outsmarting someone or the establishment by retort, response, or
comeback

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Also in Anastasya (2013), creation of humor Berger can be identified as follows: satire,
deceit, definition, exaggerating, ridicule, irony, misunderstanding, sound play, word play,
sarcasm, satire.

3 Method
This study used descriptive qualitative method. The data source of this research is a
transcript of the conversation from the television series Family Guy itself, which is season 4,
which aired on one of the United States television channels FOX. The data obtained will be
analyzed again. The data found in the form of violations will be matched with one of the
maxims on the principle of politeness, namely, the maxim of appreciation by Leech then
analyzed using Arthur Asa Berger's humor theory.

4 Results
On the literature review the authors have explained that the data from the transcript will
be analyzed by using violation of maxim appreciation from politeness principles by Leech
and theory of creating humor by Berger. Based on the data that being taken to analyze, they
mostly used satire and sexual allusion to create the humor, and obviously also by violating
maxim of appreciation. To find out the research more comprehensively, it will be discussed
as follows.

1. Data 1
In this conversation, The TV Guy asked Peter about some interesting stories that their
family has, Peter tell the stories about how his wife getting stitched after give birth.

The TV Guy: “You have any interesting stories?”


Peter: “Tell them about the stitches thing when Chris was born.
I'll tell it. Lois' vagina was so wrecked they had to sew it up open up a new
vagina next to it. Like when they build a bridge next to the old bridge. Like, "I
can't believe I used to use the old one. It looks unsafe.”

Analysis:
We could see that Peter violates maxim of appreciation because he mocked his own
wife. How Peter explained about his wife’s vagina, including mocking about it makes it not
proper for a husband to talk about that to others. Thus, from this conversation also there are
techniques they used to create the humor that is sexual allusion, which making a reference
or insinuation to sexual or naughty matters.

2. Data 2

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In this conversation, Brian talked to Jeremy and Gordon regarding his pilot. He
mentioned Hitler to define some kind of jokes that only not Jewish would know. He shocked
when Jeremy and Gordon look shocked, turned out that both of them were Italian which
means Italian are not Jewish.

Brian: “Ha-ha-ha. I felt like Hitler just then.”


Jeremy and Gordon: “What?”
Brian: “It was a joke. I just said I felt like Hitler. What? Nobody here's Jewish,
right?”
Jeremy: “Uh, gee, I don't know. Are you Jewish, Gordon?”
Gordon: “Gee, I don't know, Jeremy. Are you? I had no idea.”
Brian: I'm sorry.
Jeremy and Gordon: “Hey, Brian. We're both Italian.”
Brian: “Ha-ha-ha!”

Analysis:
We could see that Brian violates the maxim of appreciation where he made a joke out
of other’s religion. Thus, the way Brian creates the humor is using satire, because satire is
a humor when someone mocked well-known things which religion is one of the well-known
things.

3. Data 3
In this conversation, Brian wanted to full Quagmire, but he talked about it to Stewie.
Stewie said that the plan that Brian planned to ruin Quagmire’s date is wonderful yet would
be such a disappointment for Quagmire.

Brian: “I tricked him, sent him a phony card. He thinks he's going on a date
with an old girlfriend.”
Stewie: “But instead, you're going to show up.”
Brian: “You got it.”
Stewie: “Yikes! That's a recipe for disappointment, like walking a floral
arrangement through an office full of fat women.”

Analysis:
We could see that they violates maxim of appreciation because Stewie mocked a fat
women is a disappointment. Thus, from this conversation also there are techniques they
used to create the humor that is sexual allusion, which making a reference or insinuation to
sexual or naughty matters. The character Brian used “fat women” to giving comparison “a
recipe for disappointment” which means fat women is a recipe for disappointment.

4. Data 4

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In this conversation Mort Goldman is on his pharmacy store and the four black man
showed up.
Mort Goldman: “Well, at least I didn't get robbed. And what can I do for you
four fine, black gentlemen today?”

Analysis:
Mort Goldman facing a four black man, where he define the four black man with “fine”,
the way he said “fine” and also “black gentlemen” refers to something negative, which
means mocking that four man because of their races. We could say that being racist could
lead into mocking others which violates the maxim of appreciation. The humor that being
created here used satire, because they mocked well-known things which is races.

5 Conclusion
From the discussion above, about the violation of politeness principles which is maxim
of appreciation by Geoffrey Leech (1993) in creating the humor by Arthur Asa Berger (1998)
to analyse the animated series Family Guy, the writer taken the data from season 8 of the
series.
In this shows there are so many utterances that being violated to create the humor from
each characters. From the analysis we could see that how each characters utter the humor is
not really enjoyable in general for the audience because the uses of such an awful words. It
may found exasperating for some audiences of the show, the reader of this paper, or any
individuals. The characters in this shows tend to creating humor by violates the maxim of
appreciation and using satire and sexual allusion as they thought it would be humorous for
the audience of the show. There are a few suggestions for future study and research. In the
future, the study would probably focus on other way to create humor, like the humor is
existential which form or identity, or the humor is ideation which the humor is create by
logic or logic. It might be from any other sources, like novel or animated books which its
genre is a comedy.

6 Affiliations
Name, Surname1 : Fiana Rizki Trianti
Institution : Universitas Padjadjaran
Address : Gg. Haji Nena, RT03 RW04, Cikeruh, Kab. Sumedang
E-mail : fiana.rizki@gmail.com

Name, Surname2 :
Institution :
Address :
E-mail :
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7 References
Anastasya, Sicilia. (2013). Teknik-teknik Humor dalam Program Komedi di Televisi
Swasta Nasional Indonesia” dalam Jurnal E-Komunikasi Vol. 1 No. 1. Surabaya:
Universitas Kristen Petra
Berger, A. (1998). An anatomy of humor. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
Irfariati. (2015). Prinsip Kesopanan Dalam Wawancara Langsung Kompas TV pada
Program "Kompas Petang" Dengan Gubernur DKI Jakarta. Metalingua, 13, 1–12.
Kincaid, D. Lawrence & Wilbur Schramm. 1987. Asas-asas Komunikasi Antar Manusia.
Jakarta: LP3ES
Leech, Geoffrey. (1983). Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman
Majid, Abdul. Pengaruh Televisi pada Anak (2008) Retrieved from
http://majidbsz.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/pengaruh-televisi-terhadap-anak/
Rija, Mustakim. (2016). Positive Politeness Strategies in the Novel “The Client”: A
Sociopragmtic Study. Metalingua, 14, 1-16.

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