The Audiovisual Architecture of Musical Pauses, Punchlines, and Jablines: Paddington’s Punctuation

Abstract

This chapter highlights aspects of audiovisual synchronisation that move beyond a basic understanding of what has traditionally been called mickey-mousing in order to draw attention to the ways in which the audiovisual ecosystem of rhythm, gesture, punctuation, phrasing and flow impact comedic effectiveness. Building on linguistic humour theories, including the semantic-script theory and the structural identification of jablines and punchlines, audiovisual punctuation is analysed through a direct comparison between the official trailer for Paddington and a corresponding scene from the film itself (2014, dir. Paul King). This shows how audiovisual rhythm and, especially, musically phrased punctuation are articulated in different ways to support, respectively, the promotional discourse structure of the trailer and the cinematic narrative structure of the film sequence. This chapter ultimately shows how interactions between different synchronous states and their role in a kinetic audiovisual architecture are especially important in the creation of audiovisual humour.