Keywords
accent
mockumentary
class
face theory
How to Cite
Abstract
The trope of the stupid, and/or disingenuous, media ‘interviewer’ character invented and performed by comedians, from This is Spinal Tap, to Ali G, to Parks and Recreation, has been enormously popular. It also serves a more serious social commentary-satirical role, in ‘setting up,’ humiliating or generally undermining dominant social norms and ‘establishment’ experts. Employing both harmless self-deprecation and biting political mockery, these characters have been examined as major cultural influences who produce significant cultural artefacts. Using linguistic theories of humour studies, this paper analyses the Cunk persona, who, while ostensibly naïve and harmless, satirising and transgressing class-based establishment norms-targets, is actually a safe brand of humour which reflects and reproduces the very establishment it seeks to satirise in a class-based, racially privileged and safe adventure into British elitism and the status quo.
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