Humour in Radio Advertisements: in Malaysia

This study examines the language of humor in radio advertisements. The objectives are: a) examine and identify the language of humor in radio advertisements. b) investigate and distinguish the different linguistics techniques in radio advertisements. This study seeks to examine how humor is exploited linguistically to enhance the radio advertisements effectiveness in reaching its target audience. In the analysis it was found that, various linguistics techniques were employed to create humor in radio advertisements such as the violation of Grice Cooperative Maxims and Implicatures, repetition, figure of speech, condensation, word play, punning, and Malaysian English. Other linguistics techniques were also discovered that were not covered in the theoretical framework such as aposiopesis, Shakespearean and Chinese opera. The language of humor is important in the world of advertising. Thus, a research on the language of humor in radio advertisement will reveal how the language of humor can be exploited for advertising. The field of linguistics is rich with infinite phoneme, morpheme, syntax and lexis for advertisements writers to create a distinguished advertising piece.