An Analysis of Verbal Humor from the Perspective of the Cooperative Principle—A Case Study of Young Sheldon

Humor is a panacea for life, which can help people face difficulties and facts of life pleasantly. With the development of pragmatics and the popularization of interdisciplinary research, there has been an increasing tendency in integrating verbal humor with pragmatics. From the perspective of Cooperation Principle, this paper studies and dissects the generation mechanism of verbal humor. Taking the American sitcom Young Sheldon as a case study, this paper analyzes the dialogues of Young Sheldon by means of the four maxims of the Cooperative Principle: quantity, quality, relation, and manner, and discusses the reason why characters violate the Cooperative Principle and the way how characters achieve verbal humor by violating the Cooperative Principle. This research can let English learners better understand the generation mechanism of verbal humor, so as to better appreciate verbal humor.