American Offensive Funny Riddles: A Critical Metaphor Analysis

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.


Introduction
Although critical discourse analysis is developing fast enough, it has received heavy criticism from different scholars because it lacks attention to some cognitive characteristics of discourse (Guo, 2013). Metaphor is considered an essential cognitive instrument to crystalize reality and it contributes much to the construction of social reality. Giving a unique viewpoint of seeing reality, metaphor constitutes a central part of the entities of the target domain with those in the source domain (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980). Consider example (1): (1) Life is journey.
The correspondences [person-traveler, life purpose-journey, life-location, destination-difficulty, and impediment-travel] are motivated to map the knowledge of the source domain entities with those of the target domain. This can be described as follows: when travelers encounter some difficulty in the course of a journey, they may attempt to overcome them to get along with their journey, or they may be depressed and sooner or later give up. In this view, when people face some difficulty they can, if they have the will, overcome it successfully to realize their dreams; other people, however, may choose to escape and abandon their goals (Lakoff, 1993).
One important point in this regard is that the mapping is fractional and selective; that is to say, only some target domain aspects will be included in the mapping (Lakoff and Johnson 2003). Thus, in example (1) above, one can discover that some significant issues for a journey such as "baggage" are completely overlooked.

The dual approach to critical metaphor analysis
There are two approaches to the analysis of metaphoric expressions in various kinds of text; these are the inductive approach and the deductive approach. However, a kind of combination of these two approaches can be developed. In order to gain a deeper understanding of this dual approach, a comparison is presented below related to the main shared aspects in these approaches.
Deductive Approach Inductive Approach Dual Approach It is top-down approach to metaphor It is bottom-up approach to metaphor It is to pick up metaphor from a context so as to recognize wider conceptual constructions like cognitive models The cognitive models are determined in advance The cognitive models are not determined in advance It is a dynamic approach to metaphor (i. e.) The cognitive models can be determined in advance or later as needed It is associated with the decontextualization of metaphor It is associated with the contextualization of metaphor It is a two-sided approach to metaphor that moves from language to context and vice versa In fact, the deductive as well as the inductive approaches to metaphor analysis have strengths and weaknesses. To get rid of the weaknesses, it is suggested that the two approaches should be combined in a way that enhances the strengths and eliminates the weaknesses of both approaches. The analysis needs to elicit metaphor from a context to identify wider conceptual constructions like cognitive models. Thus, some sort of a cognitive approach from which to operate is required (Benatar, 2014). On the other hand, one cannot handle non-metaphoric language like non-metaphoric entailments of cognitive models. Subsequently, this model needs a starting point which can be offered by some contextualized procedures, such as the "metaphor identification procedure". Hence, a "dual dynamic approach" to metaphor that is based on both projecting (deductive) and elicitation (inductive) procedures is called for. The new suggested mixture, as a result, combines the better of the two approaches (Benatar, 2014).
The steps that are followed in analyzing metaphor using the dual approach can be diagrammed as shown in Figure (

Humor
Hamlyn states that humor is a skill of amusing people and making them laugh (Hamlyn 1995).

1 Offensive humor
Humor can be presented by either the spoken or the written form which, in both cases, must be understandable to be funny and laughable. If it is not understandable in this way, it may develop hostility attitude, or hurt one's feelings. In addition, Riyono (1979: 74) believes that humor is one of the communication strategies that involve the highest degree of complexity which may result in unpredicted responses and psychologically thoughtful imitation. Consequently, its values and roles hinge on the intentions of the interlocutors. Similarly, (MacHovec 1988) states that Humor is a multi-colored kaleidoscope of thought and feelings, times and places. What's funny is a complex psychological-emotional phenomenon involving a great variety of interacting variables.
The variables he talks about can be explained as follows: first of all, the listener must be interested taking into consideration that a "dirty joke 2 " is viewed as more interesting to most teenage boys than ordinary jokes like political ones; moreover, the listener's views must not be too sturdy in a way that the joke may go too far, i.e., "go flat", the feeling should appear in a natural way and must not be obligatory or artificial, the punch line should be brought neatly and comprehensibly that the listener strives for 2 A "dirty joke" is that which has "to do with disgusting acts of sexual innuendo or other things people might find grotesque" ( http://www.urbandictionary.com). ideal content and finally, meaning is only content to construct the point that should be used (MacHovec 1988).
Humor theories in general and joke theories in particular depend on either or all of three "explanatory mechanisms". These are: aggression, safety-arousal, and incongruity. Although none of them is comprehensive enough, each one of these approaches elucidates essential features of humor.
Aggression-based theories adopt the principle that jokes set up an attack through the joke-teller on a person or a group. The approach of aggression gains credibility from the tenacious attractiveness of jokes relying on stereotypes concerning certain religious and ethnic groups as well as powerless and/or lower-status groups. Many jokes that are based on gender, ethnic or racial grounds are seen as implying offensive and unpleasant allusions. "Jokes of this nature often serve the dual purpose of excluding the target group and enforcing the social commonality of the joke teller and audience" (Ritchie, 2005).
At any rate, extending the notion of aggression to absurdist jokes needs a significant theoretical contortion. Consider example (2): (2) "-How can you tell if there is an elephant in your bathtub? -By the smell of peanuts on its breath." It can be claimed that such jokes, in one way or another, establish an "aggression" towards the hearer. "Aggression" here, it should be mentioned, has to be metaphorically viewed since it is impossible to interpret a certain "action directed at an ideological target as aggression except metaphorically" (Ritchie, 2005). Sometimes the aggression is symbolically interpreted in the sense that when it is evident, social interpretations are often found at a deeper level (Giora, 2003). Thus, on a surface level, jokes seem to include no aggression, yet it is actually found deep in the intention of the teller against an individual or, more frequently, a group of people.
On the other hand, it should be mentioned that humor is manifestly different from an ordinary discourse in that it violates the pragmatic principles of communication whether interpersonally and/or textually while the normal discourse does not (Nelson, 1990). The numerous perspectives of humor prove the prominence of interpersonal and social behavior which are covered in various mechanisms of humor (Superiority/ disagreement, incongruity, social currency and arousal/ dark humor) (Berger, 1995). In this view, offensive humor superiority theory 3 is essential since such jokes involve social, cultural or invidious comparisons. The tendencies in ethnic jokes, for example, involve making one culture seem superior by comparing or making fun of idiosyncrasies of other cultures including traditions, language and appearance (Berger, 1995). Consider example (3) below; (3) "A class of fifth grade students was sitting studying English in class. The teacher asked, 'Can anyone use the words, green, pink and yellow in a sentence?' The African American child says, 'The colors, green, pink and yellow are seen in the rainbow. This joke makes a comparison between three cultures; each one has a different comprehension of the English language and therefore one is superior to the other in the comparison. Thus, it is clear that the joke makes fun of the Mexican American child who displays a misinterpretation of the English language the matter which leads to conclude that the African and Irish American children are superior to the Mexican American (Berger, 1995).
According to Berger (Berger, 1995) model of analysis, the techniques of humor are classified into four categories; logic, language, identity and visualization.

Figure (2): Techniques of Humor according to Berger`s (1995)
In Figure (2), only the linguistic techniques are listed since they are the sole concern of the current study. These techniques are: -Irony: It is the contrast between what is said and how it is interpreted -Sarcasm: It refers to the praise that carries the meaning of insult (Berger, 1995) -Infantilism: It is "an act or expression that indicates lack of maturity".
-Insult: It means making fun of someone`s ethnicity, religion, gender and sexual orientation or appearance (Laugeso, 2017). -"Satire is the exposure of the vices or idiocies of an individual, a group, an institution, an idea, a society, etc., usually with a view to correcting it.
-Puns: It is the play with words which (Morreall, 1987) claims that just as the witticism brings two very different real objects under one concept, the pun brings to two different concepts, by the assistance of accident, under one word. -Allusion: It is "an indirect or passing reference to some event, person, place, or artistic work, the nature and relevance of which is not explained by the writer but relies on the reader's familiarity with what is thus mentioned" (Baldick, 1990).
-Hyperbole: It is the exaggeration that makes extraordinary demand on the imagination.

Offense in humor
Offensive humor is often about serious subjects in which ethics and moral values (personal and social) are violated for the sake of laughter. In such cases humor must not be taken too seriously. Offense in humor is related to the ethical aspects of the participants (speaker and listener). In this respect, (Benatar, 2014) argues that humor can go wrong in different directions either in relation to: 1) the agent: the moral defect can be either in the speaker or the listener who enjoys the offensive joke; 2) the joke itself 3) the context in which the joke occurs. Here, there are, in turn, two cases: a) contextual criticism; when the joke goes wrong only in the context in which it occurs; b) non-contextual; when the joke goes wrong irrespective of the context it occurs in (the joke is inherently offensive). Figure (2) illustrates this.

Identification of metaphor
In 2007, ten metaphor researchers collaborated to design a method that can be soundly used to identify metaphors. Using the initials of their names, these researchers are known as the Pragglejaz 4 Group in 2007. This group suggests that their "metaphor identification procedure" (usually abbreviated as MIP) can decide whether certain lexical units in a stretch of discourse viewed with respect to a specific context is metaphorically used or not. The procedure involves the points below (Steen, 2007); 1. Reading the whole text to grasp its main idea. 2. Deciding on words boundaries. 3. Determining the contextual meaning of the word being examined. 4. Identifying the literal meaning of the word. 5. Checking that the literal and the contextual meanings of the word are plainly distinctive. 6. Finding out whether the literal and the contextual meanings of the word are related by some form of similarity.
The present study will adopt these steps in the analysis of its data to find out how the American funny riddles employ metaphor to induce laughter. Besides, this study can provide further evidence for the applicability of these steps or, otherwise, refute them in part or as a whole.

Critical discourse analysis and critical metaphor analysis
Analyzing discourse as a social practice cannot be considered text analysis, nor just an analysis of processes of production and/or interpretation, but also an analysis of the relationship between texts, processes and their social conditions. The social context covers both the immediate situational context and that whose conditions are more remote as institutional and social structures (Fairclough, 1995). Thus, the analysis will involve three stages; these are the description stage (showing the relationship between texts), the interpretation stage (figuring out the interaction between the texts) and the explanation stage (finding out the relationship between the texts and the context(s) in which they occur).
The discursive turn in cognitive metaphor theory matches the cognitive turn in critical discourse analysis, the matter which provides an opportunity to promote interdisciplinary dialogues between them. Although critical discourse analysis makes a significant progress in dealing with social aspects in producing and understanding discourse; yet no sufficient attention has been paid to the its cognitive aspects, especially in the case of figurative language. Thus, the emergence of the new research field (i. e. cognitive metaphor analysis) can provide the necessary integration of the cognitive and the social aspects in discourse analysis in general, and in metaphor analysis in particular (Li, 2016). people prefer to use some metaphors rather than others (when a metaphoric expression is used differently) (Charteris and Black, 2005). It is argued that speaker`s ideologies control such uses. For example, marriage metaphor between countries is used differently in media; it is used in Malaysian media to stand for the roles of husband and wife in terms of power and territories of the two countries while in Singaporean media it is used to stands for political dominance and independence (Guo, 2013).

Data Description and analysis:
Let us descript them as subsections follows

1. Data description
Since this study aims at highlighting the ideological aspects of metaphors used in American riddles, fifteen riddles presented in 2001, 2003 and 2004 successively are selected for analysis. They are downloaded from the following websites: https://www.reddit.com http://vilejoke.com http://www.jokes4us.com, religiousjokes/islamicjokes.html https://top-funny-jokes.com All the riddles chosen from the above mentioned websites are all based on metaphors to create funny situations. These websites label these riddles as "offensive jokes" explaining that riddles are of two types: jokes and conundrum.

2. Method of analysis
To achieve the aim of the study, the following steps are adopted: 1. Identifying metaphoric forms in the texts in terms of the "metaphor identification procedure" of Pragglejaz Group in 2007. 2. Interpreting the metaphors according to the dual approach of metaphors explained in section (3) above. 3. Applying cognitive metaphor analysis to the metaphoric forms which are concerned with the relationship between the interaction and the social context, with the social purpose of the process of presentation and interpretation, i.e., mapping the relation between the source domain and the target domain. 4. Explaining the way metaphors in the selected riddles interact within the context in which they are employed.
In fact, the analysis of metaphor is the main aim in all these stages, but the nature of the analysis differs in each stage. The first stage is restricted to formal evaluation of the form as metaphoric or not. The second stage is the cognitive process of the contributors and their interaction that is concerned with the ideological mind-sets that prompt and control the different choices of one type of metaphor to the other (its context of use). The third stage, however, aims to explain the relationship between social events and power structures that affect those events and are affected by them (that is, their intended effect). The main concern in this study is looking at the connection between the choices of metaphor and social structures and how these choices affect one another in the whole communicative event with the ultimate goal of creating funny situations and consequently inducing laughter.

3. Data analysis
The offense that is found in the selected funny riddles is related to the social aspects of race, religion, and physical appearance. However, the analysis of the data is restricted to race, religion, nation and physical appearance. Although most of these aspects fall in the scope of racism, color is highlighted rather than other aspects because a great number of American jokes focus on this aspect. Moreover, the three aspects that are selected above are the most frequently employed ones in data taken from the four selected websites dealing with American riddles and jokes. Because of the aim of the study, all these jokes represent one form which is riddles. Riddles are funny texts which grammatically consist of two parts: question and response. The first represent the story while the second stands for the punch. The analysis is carried out according to these two parts in terms of the three stages mentioned in the methodology (section 7 above).

Race
This section analyzes five riddles that are based on race issues and it will thus be mainly concerned with the notorious discrimination white Americans make against the black (African) Americans.

"What happens when I paint my laptop black, hoping it would run faster? It doesn't anymore!" The source domain= Men of color The target domain= Black laptop
The question (story) is what happens if one paints his laptop black to make it work better. The response that is the laptop stops working. In fact, the joke is based on famous American metaphor which is the metaphor of black color. This color stands for African Americans who suffer a lot from racial discrimination. However, the question here is why the black color is linked to a laptop that stops working? The answer is that men of color are viewed as lazy persons who cannot lead the group in the work and even make any success. This aggressive viewpoint is utilized in this text to mock men of color in various ways.

2-"What's the difference between cancer and Black people? Cancer's got Jobs."
Source domain: Black people Target domain: cancer The black people are compared to the worst disease at all times which is cancer. Cancer leads patients to ultimate death after a sever journey of torture. The funny part which carries the unexpected response (punch line) entails that black people are worse than cancer because the latter has a job (killing people) while the black people do not. The same feature is used again to make fun of racial difference.

3-"What's the difference between a black man and a pizza? A pizza can feed a family of four." Source domain: A black man Target domain: A pizza
The comparison here is between something which is too simple (has very little value) that is a kind of cheap food (pizza) and a human being (a black man). Even this thing with a very little value is better than a black man because it feeds four or more persons but a black man (as it is implied here) cannot feed himself. He is too lazy, useless and workless.

-"What's the difference between dog shit and a black man? When dog shit gets old it turns white and quits stinking." Source domain: black man Target domain: dog shit
This example about the race is the most aggressive one because here a black man is compared to a dog shit. In fact, the joke suggests that dog shit is better than a black man for two reasons. First, dog shit becomes white when it gets old but a black man does not. Second, dog shit becomes cleaner when it becomes older while a black man increases dirtiness habits with time.

5-"Women are just like fine wine: I only like the white ones!"
Source domain: women Target domain: wine The comparison between women and wine in this joke is not positive because women are said to be nothing more than fine wine; moreover, not all women are preferred, but only the white ones. In fact, this joke seems satiric rather than funny. First of all, there is apparent gender discrimination and inferior view to women since they are seen as something passionate just like wine. Second, men do not like all women but they prefer the white women only. It seems that the black women are evaluated as not beautiful and unattractive. Thus, two aspects are the sources of offense here; a viewpoint against women in general and another viewpoint which is against the black women in particular (gender and color).
To sum up, in the examples above different ugly images of the black are employed to mock them. These images reflect the white ideologies about the black. The white look down at them and treat them as idle, indolent, useless, jobless and bad looking persons who cannot be made equal to the white and, accordingly, never desire to get the company of the white.

Religion
This section analyzes five riddles that are based on issues related to religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

1-"A Jew, a black, and a Muslim are on a frozen lake, not talking to each other, what is to do? I would go over there and break the ice."
Source domain: a Jew, a black and a Muslim Target domain: ice In this joke two kinds of racial discrimination is used to evoke laughter; race (a black) and religion (a Jew and a Muslim). They are all compared to icy or cold persons. This is not considered very offensive humor because the feature of being cold is not defective to the degree of insult.

2-"What's the difference between dollars and Jews? I'd give a shit if I lost 6 million dollars." Source domain: Jews Target domain: dollars
In the punch line, a completely unexpected response to the question of "what is the difference between dollars and Jews?" is presented. That is, the loss of six million dollars deserves to be angry but the loss of six million Jews does not. Too much exaggeration always means a greater offence. The offense here is not related to a ‫المجلد‬ ‫االنسانية،‬ ‫العلوم‬ ‫بابل،‬ ‫جامعة‬ ‫مجلة‬ 62 ‫العدد‬ ، 4 : 6102 Journal of University of Babylon, Humanities, Vol(26), No(2): 2018 particular feature in Jews but emphasizes that a Jew person as human being means nothing to the whole humanity; moreover, the world is better without them to the extent that one does not give a shit to six millions of them.

3-"What do you call a nun in a wheelchair? A virgin mobile."
Source domain: nun Target domain: virgin mobile This joke makes fun of a nun in a wheelchair who is compared to mobile that is new and has never been used before (virgin). The image of the nun in a wheelchair is a satiric metaphor which makes fun of nuns (who are by definition virgin) that sit on wheelchairs (which is mobile).

4-"What's the similarities between a Jew and a stiff nipple? They both disappear after a hot shower."
Source domain: a Jew Target domain: a stiff nipple This comparison between a Jew and stiff nipple has nonsense unless the punchline shows that both disappear after a hot shower .The stiff nipple is gone due to physical reasons but a Jews is gone because "it" is just a piece of dusty rubbish. This sever evaluation of Jews stands for how down the Americans look at them. In addition, describing Jews as very dirty (unclean) persons is a very tough and it generates something menial and slavish about Jews.

5-What do you call a terrorist attack in the Middle East? A: a Selfie! Source domain: a terrorist attack in the Middle East Target domain: a selfie
The comparison in this joke is between a terrorist who makes an attack in the Middle East and a selfie. The word selfie is a recent lexical item related to the development and technology of cellphones. This term refers to having a photograph for oneself by the cellphone. It is a phenomenon noticed more among teenagers and young people. However, the meaning here is that when a terrorist makes an attack in the Middle East as if he has a selfie because all the terrorists are form the Middle East. Nonetheless, this is not true because terrorists are from various countries; moreover, some of them are from America itself. This exaggeration reflects the tendency to restrict this negative phenomenon to this part of the world. Therefore; the aggressive attitude towards it is manifested in this comparison.

Physical Appearance
It can describe as:

1-Relationships are like fat people. Most of them don't work out.
Source domain: fat people Target domain: relationships Fatness is one of the most complex problems people suffer from because, in addition to spoiling the individual's appearance and changing it from attractive to forsaken and rejected; it makes the person too heavy to work or to be active .In this metaphor fat people are compared to relationships in that both do not work out. This is obviously harmful criticism to fat people who are judged as unable to make any success or fruitful results, i.e. they are failures. Source domain: Ethiopians Target domain: Twix Twix is a kind of cookies whose form is two thin and long biscuits covered with chocolate lain together. Actually, the description of Ethiopians as black thin and long persons exactly as Twix is funny but it seriously hurts feelings. In fact, what makes this aggression very immoral is that these people are born with this color; moreover, the bad economic conditions of their country (famine and poverty) result in thin and skinny persons. People in this position tend to show sympathy towards them rather than making fun of them. However, certain frames are created from certain ideologies related to Africans are always reflected in jokes and conversational humor in general.

3-When deaf people fight, they let their fists do the talking.
Source domain: deaf people fits Target domain: talking fists (tongues) The comparison here shows how the quarrel of deaf people takes place. Since the deaf cannot talk, they use their fists to express their feelings and attitudes, therefore, they talk by hitting and beating.

4-"What does a cannibal call a wheelchair user? Meals on wheels." Source domain: wheelchair users Target domain: meals on wheels
The comparison is between a handicapped person; namely, a wheelchair user and a meal on wheels. The meaning of this comparison is that a cannibal whose food is a human flesh prefers to have wheelchair users because they are served better. The advantage that cannibals prefer is that the flesh already sits on wheels. The utilization of this linkage between how food is served and this kind of disability is humorously creative but is evaluated socially as highly aggressive. This kind of humor mirrors the way in which society sees them: they are subject to satire and fun rather than sympathy or respect.

5-"What's the difference between Stephen Hawking and the computer he's hooked up to? -The computer runs." Source domain: Stephen Hawking Target domain: a computer
Stephen Hawking is an "English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge. He has an exceptional early-onset slow-progressing form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) that has gradually paralyzed him over the decades" (Wikipedia). This man is viewed as a symbol of the genius handicapped person whose illness cannot prevent him from making great achievements in physics and to enjoy a good family life. However, he is not described like this in this joke but his defect is utilized to make fun of him. The meaning of the joke is that both Hawking and his computer are intelligent but the computer he is hooking up runs but he does not. Hawking is used a symbol of scientists whose achievements cannot hide his defective appearance. This echoes how the American society considers such appearance funny even if the disabled person was a scientist or an effective citizen in the society.