A Study of Female Audience Reception of Mainstream Female Stand Up Comedies in India a Contribution to Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

Women and funniness have had a controversial past. This thesis investigates the present. Fairclough s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach is of essence here as its first two dimensions Textual and Processing analysis have been utilised here. A lot of women s present-day humor in stand-up comedy is satirical. This satire underscores different facets of their reality, intending to be thought-provoking but carefully wrapped in jokes. This modern-day serving of thoughtful feminist messages that looks like humor is interesting and worthy of investigation. newlineMoreover, such humor when received by scores of women both offline and online, creates a gendered community of sorts, a women s club that connects and relates to these realities. Therefore, a female audience reception helps in discovering the plethora of effects that such humour is creating on their consciousness. newlineThirdly, stand-up comedy laced with satire whether political or feminist is becoming a popular mode of satirical presentation. The nuances of presenting satire through stand-up comedy is also discussed. A major culminating result of these efforts with CDA as the overarching theoretical framework is the emergence of the best model of performing satire through the stand-up format. newline