Durham E-Theses The Geordie joke: the role of humour in the rearmation of regional identity Barton, Carl How to cite: Barton, Carl (1990) The Geordie joke: the role of humour in the rearmation of regional identity, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6522/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk ABSTRACT THE GEORDIE JOKE: THE ROLE OF HUMOUR IN THE REAFFIRMATION OF REGIONAL IDENTITY CARL BARTON There are two parallel themes involved in the construction of this thesis. One of these themes is the goal of showing the sociological relevance of the study of humour, and the other is the means to achieve the goal, by showing the role of humour in the reaffirmation of the imagery informing the regional identity of the north-east of England. Consequently, the first chapter of the thesis is designed to qualitatively develop the theme of regional imagery. From having decided to use regional imagery to illustrate the significance of humour as a social discourse, the focus on the north-east assumes the characteristic of a case study. This enables the research to expand into detail on the working of humour, by keeping to the scope of the regional frame of reference. Within this regional frame, chapter two shows humour as a social practice on the level of professional performance, rather than on the more private level of conversational expression. This is deemed analytically expedient, insofar as the professional comic text can be assessed in terms of its appeal to the region's public. This is to say, that the appeal of the comic text will depend upon the ability of the comedian to produce humour and laughter. Hence chapters two and three are set to find out what makes a professional comedian successful in the north-east. The findings of chapter two suggest the importance of establishing the complete contextual location of live performance humour in the region. This is to show the influence of audience and setting on the success of humour. Chapter three aims to conclude the thesis, by taking account of the extent to which regional image structures feature in the practice of successful live performance humour in the north-east; and therebv display the communicative value of humour. THE GEORDIE JOKE: THE ROLE OF HUMOUR IN THE REAFFIRMATION OF REGIONAL IDENTITY The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. THESIS PRESENTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS CARL BARTON DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY JUNE 1990 CONTENTS Introduction Chapter One: The Geordie Genre i 6 'Us and Them' 13 Into the Genre 24 Chapter Two: The Geordie Joke Part I 53 The Audience 62 The Setting 68 Chapter Two: The Geordie Joke Part II 80 The Professionals 80 Performance 82 Audience/Setting 98 Chapter Three: The Geordie Act 115 The Little Waster 116 Thompson et. al. 134 Conclusion 147 References Introduction 155 Chapter One 156 Chapter Two (Part I) 158 Chapter Two (Part II) 159 Chapter Three 161 Bibliography Primary Source Material 164 Secondary Source Material 166 illustrations 47 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Declaration None of the material contained in this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree in this or any other university. None of the material contained in this thesis has previously been submitted for publication. None of the material contained in this thesis is the result of joint research. Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Richard Brown. I would like to thank Huw Beynon for his help at the outset of this thesis. I would like to thank Tony Gray, for his tireless search for relevant articles and information in the regional press and media. I would like to thank Dr. Ian Adams for his long-standing help and encouragement. Finally, I would like to thank the professional comedians, the clubmen, and all of the respondents who have given their time to make this research possible. - •] - Introduction It hardly needs to be said, that a student writing a postgraduate research thesis has had the benefit of choice as to the direction of the work, and that the chosen direction will be largely due to a particular interest. I suppose this often gives rise to an idle curiosity, on the part of others reading the thesis, as to the origins of the author's interest. Seeing, for example, a thesis concerned with the regional identity of the north-east, as this one is, could easily be settled to the reader's curious mind by simply pinning a native regional commitment to the author. But, to do so here would be a grievous mistake. Although I am a north-easterner born and bred, the only research commitment I have for this thesis, is to study humour as a significant social practice. The focus on the north-east serves as a vehicle to this study, as it provides a frame of reference which is expedient to the original commitment. Were it not for the methodological advantages of my being from the north-east, any other area of Britain with a recognised regional identity could have been used - London Cockney or Liverpool Scouse for example. This is certainly not to say that the results would have been the same, but it is to say that the north-east is quite literally used for the purpose of research into humour. Given the direction of the thesis, the development of the detail on the regional identity of the north-east becomes essential, as the aim is to show the working of humour within the context of that imagery. As such, there is a mutual dependency between humour and regional imagery within this thesis, which must be accepted if the research objective is to be realised. To ex~lain this, it is necessary to be clear on the definition of humour, or, at least, be clear on the definition as it is applied to this thesis. I add the qualifying remark of applicability - 2 - to the thesis, because there is no single or standard definition of humour. In fact, humour remains an enigma despite its recognised importance to the human condition, as has been conceded by social thinkers from Plato to Freud, and a great many since. The only common ground to the definition of humour is that it is an essentially human activity, which ironically provides the foundation for theoretical diversity. One thing which does surface from the search for detail on humour, is the comparative lack of sociological concern with the subject. Most of the research and writings on humour fall under the auspices of philosophical, literary or psychological endeavour. This is seen to further obscure the possibility of a working definition of humour, as the emphasis of these schools tends toward the individual. To adequaLely justify this statement would be a thesis in itself, but there is no need to dig into such detail for this thesis, as it would serve no purpose. This thesis is not concerned to distinguish between the critical strengths and weaknesses of at least eighty different theories of laughter(1), or to examine and evaluate variant humorous forms, such as satire, sarcasm, irony or pun. Rather, this thesis is concerned with humour as a social practice, and as such, a sociological definition is drawn from the generally accepted interactive characteristics of humour(2). A sociological definition of humour does not mean that the afore­ mentioned literary, philosophical and psychological work on humour and laughter is to be ignored. On the contrary, such a sociological definition means that the findings of those schools of thought can be used tn inform the sociological analysis of humour. For e~ample, awareness of the competing theories on the mechanics of humour allows an u:1derstanding of the factors involved in the activation of those - 3 - mechanics. This means it is possible to appreciate what people are laughing at, so that the cause can be identified. Of course, this would be an extremely difficult position to defend, if the research was geared to explain why one individual laughed at a certain thing. But, because this research is geared to an investigation of collective social laughter in a conventionalised setting for anticipated comic performance, the emphasis is on the analysis of successful comic forms on the public level of a cultural practice, and not on the private level of individual psychology. It is accepted, that within the collectivity of an audience, different people may laugh at the same joke for different reasons, or indeed, may laugh simply because other people are laughing, as a result of the infectious quality of laughter(3).