Humor in the Arabic comedy show, N2O

Figures & data

Table 1. Examples of flouting Grice maxims

Situation	Flouted Maxim	Why
A: Do you know where my bag is? B: Yes.	Maxim of quantity	Speaker B is being less informative than needed.
A: Ahmed did not catch the ball! B: What a remarkable basketball player Ahmad is!	Maxim of quality	Speaker B provided an untrue comment on Ahmed’s abilities, saying he is remarkable in basketball right after he missed the ball. This stresses that Ahmed is bad at playing baseball to evince humor.
A: So, what do you think of Ibrahim? B: I have a dentist appointment at 3 pm!	Maxim of relevance	Speaker B says something that is irrelevant to the current conversation. He flouts the maxim of relevance, implying that he does not want to give his opinion.
Aya: Did you enjoy the party last night? Eman: There was plenty of oriental food on the table, lots of flowers all over the place, people hanging around chatting with each other.	Maxim of manner	Eman says something obscure and ambiguous. She implies either that she had a lot of fun at the party and she is expressing her joy or that she did not enjoy the party at all and does not know how to express her resentment.

Table 2. Frequencies and percentages of flouting Grice’s maxims in N2O comedy

Grice’s Maxims	Frequency of use	Percentage
Quantity	23	26.1%
Quality	50	56.8%
Relevance	11	12.5
Manner	2	2.3%
Quantity + Quality	2	2.3%
Total	88	100%