One of my favorite American TV series is ‘The Big Bang Theory’. The show is about four genius men who are socially awkward and their social awkwardness results in many humorous situations. Sheldon and Leonard, the main characters who also happen to be roommates, are the one who usually creates the humor. While rewatching several episodes, I noticed that most of the humor comes from the flouting of Grice’s cooperative principle. Thus, in this language journal entry, I would like to give several examples of the situations found in ‘The Big Bang Theory’ that illustrates the flouting of the maxim of quantity, maxim of relevance, maxim of manner, and maxim of quality.
A. Maxim of Quantity
This principle requires the interlocutors to provide only the necessary information to be able to understand each other (Finegan, 2015). One example of a situation where Sheldon violates this maxim is when Penny, the beautiful waitress who lives across the hall, asks Sheldon to teach her ‘some’ physics because she wants to show Leonard who is her boyfriend that she is interested in his work. What Penny wanted was just to know what Leonard was currently working in his lab. However, Sheldon couldn’t resist to give a whole lecture about physics, even going as far back to 600 BC to explain the origins of the word physics (Lorre, Rosenstock, Holland, & Cendrowski, 2009).
As the audience, we know that Sheldon is giving too much information, thus violating the maxim of quantity.
Another example is when Leonard requested his mother’s advice on his relationship. It is important to know that Leonard’s mother is a distinguished psychologist. Thus, as the audience we expect that she will be able to give some really good advice. However, instead of doing that, she just said “Buck up”. Leonard then pointed out her status as a distinguished psychologist and that she should be able to give better advice. This didn’t change anything however, as she just said “Buck up sissy pants” (Lorre, Rosenstock, Holland, & Cendrowski, 2009).
This time, Leonard’s mother as one of the interlocutors failed to provide enough information and thus violated the maxim of quantity.
B. Maxim of Relevance
In this principle, interlocutors are expected to give relevant responses based on the context of the discourse (Finegan, 2015). An example of the violation of this maxim in the show is when Penny told the four men that she needed some ‘guinea pigs’ to test her bartending skills on. Sheldon immediately suggested that Penny use white mice instead if her ‘research’ was to have human application because white mice have similar brain chemistry to humans (Goetsch, Molaro, & Wass, 2007). Of course as the audience we know that Sheldon is taking Penny’s utterance too literally and thus his response is not relevant to the context that Penny had meant.
C. Maxim of Manner
This principle requires interlocutors to be systematic and avoid ambiguity in their utterance (Finegan, 2015). One situation that illustrates the violation of the maxim of manner, is when Leonard attempts to bond with Penny’s friends by watching a football game. Sheldon stops by Penny’s apartment where they were watching the game and asked “So Leonard, how goes the mimesis?”. Naturally Leonard was confused by this question. Sheldon attempted to explain by giving the definition of mimesis, “You know. Mimesis. An action in which the mimic takes on the properties of a specific object or organism. Mimesis.”. This of course did nothing to help Leonard understand. In the end Leonard said “What the hell are you talking about?” (Prady, Molaro, & Cendrowski, 2009).
D. Maxim of Quality
In this principle, interlocutors must not tell lies (Finegan, 2015). A clear example of the violation of this maxim in the show is when Leonard lied about going to a symposium to avoid having to watch Penny sing in the play. Sheldon, who agreed that Penny’s voice was terrible, however didn’t see the need to lie (Lorre & Cendrowski, 2008). Thus, the humor came from Sheldon’s inability to participate in Leonard’s lie and nearly exposed it.
References
Finegan, E. (2015). Language: Its structure and use (7th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Goetsch, D., Molaro, S. (Writers) & Wass, T. (Director). (2007). The grasshopper experiment. In C. Lorre & B. Prady (Producers), The big bang theory. Burbank, CA: Warner Bros. Studios.
Lorre, C. (Writer), & Cendrowski, M. (Director). (2008). The Loobenfeld decay. In C. Lorre & B. Prady (Producers), The big bang theory. Burbank, CA: Warner Bros. Studios.
Lorre, C., Rosenstock, R., Holland, S. (Writer), & Cendrowski, M. (Director). (2009). The gorilla experiment. In C. Lorre & B. Prady (Producers), The big bang theory. Burbank, CA: Warner Bros. Studios.
Prady, B., Molaro, S. (Writer), & Cendrowski, M. (Director). (2009). The cornhusker vortex. In C. Lorre & B. Prady (Producers), The big bang theory. Burbank, CA: Warner Bros. Studios.
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