Implicature of Saputri’s Stand Up Comedy on Kompas TV

Abstract

This study investigates conventional implicature in Saputri’s stand-up comedy performance “Unfinished Work” Part 5 on Kompas TV on 23 October 2019. The study aims to identify the conventional implicatures expressed in Saputri’s utterances and explain their meanings in relation to humor, criticism, satire, and social evaluation. A qualitative descriptive design was employed. The data were obtained through documentation of the YouTube recording, followed by repeated viewing, transcription, selection, categorization, and interpretation of relevant utterances. Data analysis involved data reduction, data display, interpretation, and conclusion drawing. The analysis examined the relationship between linguistic expressions, contextual information, and implied meanings based on Grice’s theory of implicature. The findings identified eleven utterances containing conventional implicatures. These utterances demonstrate that Saputri used indirect expressions, teasing, irony, exaggeration, wordplay, and contextual references to construct humorous meanings while communicating social messages. The implicatures addressed several issues, including multiple ministerial positions, corruption, inappropriate online content, workplace behavior, the influence of personal connections in employment, public figures’ appearances and personalities, and perceptions of professional competence. The findings indicate that Saputri’s humor functions beyond entertainment because it enables criticism and social evaluation to be communicated indirectly without relying exclusively on explicit statements. The study concludes that conventional implicature is an effective pragmatic strategy in stand-up comedy for creating humorous effects and conveying critical messages. This research contributes to pragmatic studies of humor by highlighting how Indonesian stand-up comedy can serve as a medium for indirect criticism and social commentary.