“Your funny don’t land”: impoliteness and resonance in YouTube comments towards a stand-up comedian

Cherish How; Najah  Zainal Abidin; Nur Azwin  Zulkarnain

doi:10.1590/1983-3652.2025.58180

Autores

Cherish How Universiti Malaya, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Department of English Language, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9783-9173
Najah Zainal Abidin Universiti Malaya, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Department of English Language, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8738-573X
Nur Azwin Zulkarnain Universiti Malaya, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Department of English Language, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia https://orcid.org/0009-0009-8976-4747

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-3652.2025.58180

Palavras-chave:

Impolidez, Ressonância, Criatividade, Comédia stand-up, Comentários do YouTube

Resumo

A liberdade expressiva das mídias sociais frequentemente resulta em impolidez. Curiosamente, a impolidez também pode aparecer criativamente por meio da mistura de enunciados originais com palavras ou estruturas reutilizadas para criar ressonância. Este estudo explora duas questões de pesquisa: (1) Como os usuários do YouTube expressam impolidez em relação à performance de uma comediante de \textit{stand-up} asiático-americana, particularmente em relação à Malásia e à tragédia do voo MH370? (2) Esses comentários exibem ressonância e, em caso afirmativo, como a ressonância funciona em suas estratégias de impolidez? Empregando análise temática, este estudo qualitativo categoriza 118 comentários usando os gatilhos de impolidez de Culpeper e o modelo de categorização dialógica de Tantucci para identificar padrões de ressonância. As descobertas revelam que os usuários empregaram predominantemente insultos, perguntas desagradáveis, críticas diretas, sarcasmo e gatilhos de impolidez baseados em forma em resposta à performance. Observou-se ressonância quando usuários ecoaram criativamente o nome da comediante, suas piadas originais e sua nacionalidade para insultá-la e criticá-la. Tais estratégias incentivaram outros a imitar ou intensificar atos de ameaça à imagem. Usuários também disfarçaram linguagem ofensiva alterando a grafia para contornar a moderação de conteúdo, o que permite a disseminação viral da impolidez. Tais atos não apenas fomentam comportamentos online grosseiros, mas também podem influenciar usuários mais jovens a adotar meios semelhantes para evitar repercussões. Assim, este estudo é crucial para compreender como a impolidez e a ressonância contribuem para a disseminação de discurso hostil nas mídias sociais. Sua contribuição reside em destacar a natureza criativa da falta de educação, particularmente em contextos multilíngues. Ao se concentrar no inglês malaio e no malaio, este estudo enriquece o campo da pragmática e da dinâmica sociodiscursiva da comunicação nas mídias sociais.

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Biografia do Autor

Cherish How, Universiti Malaya, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Department of English Language, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Cherish How is currently a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, University of Malaya. Her research interests encompass Pragmatics and Discourse, with a particular focus on speech acts, politeness, and impoliteness studies. Additionally, she has also published research articles in these areas.
Najah Zainal Abidin , Universiti Malaya, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Department of English Language, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Najah Zainal Abidin is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya. Her research focuses on the nuanced ways in which language shapes political, gender, and social constructs. She is particularly interested in analyzing hate speech, impoliteness, giving and taking offenses, incitement, and deception within naturally occurring spoken interactions and online corpora.
Nur Azwin Zulkarnain, Universiti Malaya, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Department of English Language, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Nur Azwin Zulkarnain is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. Her research interests span the Semantics and Pragmatics of English, specifically within the domains of scientific discourse and clinical narratives.

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