A Pragmatic Analysis of Humor in the Upside Movie Written by John Hartmere from the Perspective of Flouting Grice’s Maxim

Abstract

The focus of this study is to identify what type of Grice's maxim is flouted to raise humor in a
movie entitled “The Upside” and what types of humor are produced by flouting these maxims.
This study aims at discovering the types of Grice's maxim and how those maxims are floated to
raise humor. The research is conducted by using a descriptive qualitative approach for the data
in the form of words rather than numbers and statistics. The sources of data are taken from
Upside Movie (2017). The study began by watching the film to collect the data. The data are
collected by using a table and analyzed them based on the Grice theory of flouting the maxim. In
the end, the researcher draws the conclusion which is following the research finding. The results
of the analysis show that four types of flouting of maxims are found; maxim of quality (25%),
maxim of quantity (45%), maxim of relevance (10%), and maxim of manner (20%). The types of
humor are found in this research are sarcasm (25%), replies to rhetorical questions (5%), clever
replies to serious statements (10%), overstatement and understatement (10%), irony (5%), pun
(10%), teasing (10%), double entendres (15%), and self-deprecation (10%).