American Offensive Funny Riddles: A Critical Metaphor Analysis

Abstract

This study aims at applying a critical metaphor analysis of some selected American offensive funny riddles related to particular aspects of offense in race, religion, and physical appearance contexts. In this approach to critical discourse analysis, the cognitive aspect is added for the sake of analyzing figurative forms like metaphor which is considered as an important part of ideology. Thus, critical metaphor analysis covers both social and cognitive aspects. After analyzing the fifteen selected riddles, it is concluded that offensive funny riddles can be used as a tool to measure the aggressiveness towards certain social aspects as those mentioned above. On the other hand, the study finds out that metaphor offers indications of facets of power, inequality and people ideologies in American society.