Spoken language study: Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow
Michael McIntyre is a modern day stand-up comedian, with a wide fan base spreading through various age groups. He’s released three comedy DVDs - Live and Laughing, Hello Wembley and Showtime - as well as judging Britain’s Got Talent, appearing in various episodes of Live at The Apollo and hosting his own TV show on BBC One: Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow. In his comedy roadshow Michael is recognised for his use of comedic and relatable anecdotes. One such is his recalling of a visit to the Gym changing rooms, which is the piece that I will be studying.
Within the first sentence of the piece, which is the declarative statement “have never towel dried my arse in my entire life”, McIntyre uses taboo language. By using the term “arse” the social distance between himself and the audience is removed. The story seems to become instantly more relatable to those listening as he appears to be on the same social standing as them, since taboo language is widely used in everyday life. Furthermore, the use of “arse” adds to the comedic value of the utterance, as is often the case with the use of taboo language within comedy. But dropping the pronoun “I” at the beginning of the sentence McIntyre also successfully creates a relaxed atmosphere that the audience feel comfortable in, as the utterance seems more colloquial and as a consequence more relatable.
This friendly audience relationship is further created through McIntyre’s use of informal pronunciation. For example, he pronounces the second person pronoun “you” as “ya” and uses elision when the pronoun is next to the verb “know” to form “y’know”. This is shown in “They come out of the shower y’know”. In this context the term “y’know” seems to be interrogative in a rhetorical sense, as though McIntyre is asking whether or not the audience are able to relate with