Endogami: Jurnal Ilmiah Kajian Antropologi Vol. 6 No. 2: Juni 2023 227 HUMOR IN THE COMIC SERIALS BALADA KAMPUNG RIWIL Mytha Candria 1 1 Departemen Linguistik, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya, Universitas Diponegoro, Jl. dr. Antonius Suroyo, Kampus Universitas Diponegoro, Tembalang Semarang50274 * Corresponding author: mythacandria@live.undip.ac.id Abstract Humor is a universal human phenomenon that is culturally bounded. As an instance of expressive culture, humor communicates a set of beliefs and thoughts held by and shared in a community. This is the reason humor has for recent decades attracted the attention of anthropologists. A lot of humors are expressed in verbal language, and in this way linguistics, particularly pragmatics, provides an analytical tool to understand the meanings of humor. Humorous utterances in this study were taken from episode 118, entitled “Dyah Puspa Jaladri#1”, of a Javanese comic serial Balada Kampung Riwil. The data were analyzed using Grice’s Cooperative Principle to reveal the meanings behind the humor. The result shows that amusing effects arise when Grice’s maxims are intentionally flouted and humor in the serial serves various functions. Keyword: Humour, expressive culture, Javanese, Balada Kampung Riwil Article Info Received: 28 May 2023 Accepted: 12 Jun 2023 Published: 16 Jun 2023 1. Introduction Humor or laughter is a “part of the semantic field of the comic that in turn belongs to the domain of expressive culture” (Driessen, 2015:416). This suggests that humor, like other instances of expressive culture, forms an integral part of human everyday life, which is why humor has the potential to open the gates to understanding the worldviews and practices of a community of people. In other words, humor provides invaluable insights to anthropologists and those interested in studying culture and society. Humor is universal yet culturally bounded (Driessen, 2015; Apte, 1985). Its existence in the lives of people worldwide is unquestionable, but its forms, functions, and meanings differ from one group of people to another, from one culture to another. The cultural-specific nature humor has makes it untranslatable (Driessen, 2015), for, while translation can transfer the meaning humor carries, it cannot transfer the culture that a specific group of people holds. An American joke, for example, may not be amusing or funny for Indonesians, and vice versa, an Indonesian laughter may not make sense for Americans. In general, humor takes “sex, food, health, death, the stranger, and lunatic” as its topics (Driessen, 2015:416). Its functions, however, are not always clear-cut. They range from entertainment, cultural critique, social control, social bonding, social critique, to hidden resistance (Driessen, 2015:416; Kuipers, 2016; Besnier, 2016). Thus, to study humor, a ENDOGAMI: JURNAL ILMIAH KAJIAN ANTROPOLOGI E-ISSN: 2599-1078