Abstract:
The talk show hosted by Udom Taepanich is considered as a highly successful stand-up comedy show that has received the most attention from the audience as of present. Although some researchers had integrated Udom Taepanichs talk show in their researches, none of these studies emphasized on examining the use of verbal irony, which was a notable linguistic strategy employed by Udom Taepanich. Accordingly, this research had the objectives to analyze the characteristics of verbal irony, as well as the non-verbal composition of verbal irony and functions of verbal irony as reflected in Udom Taepanichs stand-up comedy show. The data were elicited from Udom Taepanichs stand-up comedy show DVDs, comprising of 6 episodes: 7, 7.5, 8, 9, 9.5, and 10. The results indicated that Udom Taepanich used verbal irony in his shows for a total of 272 times, which can be categorized into 15 characteristics. The data were analyzed from two perspectives in terms of characteristics and speech act. The types of verbal irony that were analyzed according to the characteristics can be further divided into 4 categories, consisting of: contradictory adjacent expressions, irrational expressions, over exaggerate expressions, and echoic irony. The characteristic that was most frequently used by Udom was the irrational expressions. Alternatively, upon analyzing the type of verbal irony in terms of speech act, it was found that Udom intentionally violated the sincerity condition of a total of 11 speech acts in order to convey irony. The type of verbal irony that was most common was the ironic speech act of asking. Upon the study of non-verbal composition in verbal irony, it was evident that Udom used non-verbal language for a total of 311 times in his shows in order to convey irony. These non-verbal languages play various important roles, which include: 1) to enable the audience to see the conflict with speech act or co-text; 2) to emphasize verbal irony and make it more conspicuous than other co-texts in order to gain attention from the audience; and 3) to express negative emotions and attitudes. In addition, according to the study of the functions of verbal irony, the results illustrated that Udoms use of verbal irony had the primary objectives to create sarcasm and humor, while reduce stress and relieve frustrations. The verbal irony that he had chosen was a prominent linguistic strategy that made him successful in his stand-up comedy show. In addition, his adopted strategy fulfilled the elements of a stand-up comedy in terms of expressing sarcasm on various social and political issues, while making the audience laugh at the same time. Thus, it is apparent that Udoms stand-up comedy show was able to invoke a unique sense of humor that differs from other comedy shows.