An Analysis of Talk Show Humor Based on Politeness Principle: A Case Study of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

Humor is an art of communication and plays an indispensable role in interpersonal communication. Talk show is a popular program form nowadays and the important means to achieve its comic effect is the use of humorous language. This paper takes the verbal humor in the talk show The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, which is suitable for all ages in the United States, as the research object, and takes Politeness Principle as the theoretical framework to explore the humorous effect in the interactions between the host and guests, as well as the influence of the choice of humorous pragmatic strategies on the talk show. Through quantitative analysis and qualitative research, this paper finds that social status, face and age are the important factors that affect the choice of humor strategies. On this basis, it summarizes the role of verbal humor played in talk show based on Politeness Principle, that is, it has a positive impact on establishing the host's own image, constructing the program brand and meeting the audience's needs. This paper further enriches the theory and application of talk show humor, and plays a positive role in helping the audience better extricate themselves from the topics and thoughts of talk show.