1. STYLISTICS AND VERBAL HUMOUR
Two principles underpin the language of humour:
Humour requires incongruity
Any kind of stylistic twist in the pattern of language
Any situation where there is a mismatch between what is said and what is meant.
Incongruity can be located at any layer of linguistic structure
Therefore stylistics analysis of humour involves locating the incongruity and indicating whereabouts in the language system it occurs.

2. COMMONLY USED STYLISTIC DEVICES FOR HUMOUR
The pun
Parody
Satire

3. THE PUN
Form of word play in which some feature of linguistic structures combines two possible unrelated meanings nor more
See the following names of hairdressing salons:
Shylocks
Curl up and dye
Shear Luck
Streaks Ahead
Hair Affair

4. PARODY Parody on satire play on a particular kind of irony
Irony= situated in the incongruity of what one says and what one means
One is to say opposite of what you mean. You hit someone with something and they say “Thanks a lot!”
Another way is to echo what one says. Eg This is fantastic , echo: Fantastic indeed! It smells great doesn’t it!
Echoing is critical to parodying

5. SATIRE
Parody and satire are related- difference not always easy to make out.
Commonly assumed that satire is aggressive in a way that parody is not necessarily so.
Parody can remain affectionate to their source, not so satire (satire’s aim is to both ridicule and make fun of), parody may be just a little harmless humor.