Humor production through breaches of a pre-allocated turn-taking organization in television talk shows involving interpreters

Abstract

When participants in institutional talk do not speak the same language(s), accomplishing interactional goals may become challenging. Although interpreters can help participants achieve mutual understanding, their involvement may also impose constraints, such as hindering smooth conversation between the participants due to the pre-allocated turn-taking organization. This paper investigates how the English-speaking host of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, an American television talk show, breaches the pre-allocated turn-taking organization to entertain her audience when she is interviewing guests who speak Mandarin Chinese or Japanese. We examine cases where the host, following her guest's turn, takes a turn tentatively pre-allocated to the interpreter. Our analysis demonstrates that this specific sequential position allows the host to undertake various actions, including preempting the interpreter's translation and pretending to understand the guest's turn. Such actions produce humor by making the following explicit to the audience: 1) the host claims or pretends to understand what she is not expected to understand and 2) the host's attitude toward her guests does not comply with the congenial norm relevant in television talk shows. The findings suggest that the lack of a shared language and the pre-allocated turn-taking organization can serve as resources for humor in television talk shows.