Nigerian Politics

Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies

Volume: 2 – Issue: 3 – July - 2012

The Role of Humor in the Construction of Satire in Nigerian Political Cartoons

Sani, I., Abdullah, M.H., Ali, A.M. and Abdullah, F.S

Department of English, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communications,

University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia

Abstract

The communicative functions of humor and its visual power have made political

cartoons an interesting research field across academic disciplines. The first decade

of the Millennium has witnessed a considerable research on editorial cartoons. This

increasing research demonstrates that editorial cartoons have successfully

constituted a genuine genre within media discourse. Cartoons are used to express

opinions, | construct | valuable | arguments | and | provide | specific | knowledge on | contemporary | social | issues. | The goal | of | the | genre | is | to | provide political | commentary, | address | crucial | issues | and | criticize | political | leaders and | their | contemptible | practices | in an artful fashion. In a nutshell, the genre serves as a | medium | of | political | reporting articulating a particular message from a particular | point of | view using | language as | its | prime tool. | Given their | contents | mostly |

expressed through visual illustrations, political cartoons are best understood through

investigation of incorporated visual rhetoric. This paper | aims at unfolding the nature | and function of humor in Nigerian political cartoons | using theoretical perspectives |

of humor as method of analysis. To this end, content analysis was used to sort out

contents of the cartoons. 35 cartoons texts were extracted from the two most

prominent Nigerian newspapers namely: Vanguard and Daily Trust.

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