ABSTRACT
Humour is a serious business, and the consequences can be grave for those who use it injudiciously or who are caught out by the strictures of regimes intolerant of criticism. However, in the context of the observations, humour – or at least, the perception of what is appropriate in humour – is clearly very much embedded in relationships of power. This chapter provides some additional illustrations of the intersection between language, humour and power, although the authors anticipate that readers will have no trouble finding similar case histories in other times and places. As in the Halima Aziz case, the use of irony is at the core of this uneasy relationship between the authorities and the language of humour. The incongruity may operate at any level of language, which means that it can be found in the narrower features of vocabulary and grammar, or, in the wider context, in the broader units of discourse organization and social interaction.
