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PAKISTANI COMEDY TV SHOWS AS POLITICAL

SATIRE: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Submitted to: Dr. M. Akbar Khan

Head of Department
English Language and Literature
University of Sargodha, Lahore

Submitted by: Farzana Kouser

Registration no: PET01161019

A research proposal submitted to the Department of English Language and

Literature in partial fulfillment for the degree of M. Phil in Applied
Linguistics

Raiwind Road Campus, Lahore Punjab, Pakistan December 2017

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1. INTRODUCTION
Comedy TV shows of Pakistan are based on political satire. Satire is a literary device which

means to attack on one, groups, society and mankind. Hasb e Haal” is a well known Pakistani

political comedy show aires on Dunya News. Junaid Saleem hosts this show with Sohail
Ahmad

in the role of Azizi on different political issues in the get up of different Pakistani politicians

such as Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Maulana Fazlur Rehman,

Javed Hashmi, Yousaf Raza Gillani, Asfandyar Wali Khan, Sheikh Rasheed, Nawaz

Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Imran Khan, Asif Ali Zardari, Donald Trump etc.

Pakistani comedy TV shows are playing an important role in spreading awareness about

different matters on country political and social issues. “ Mazaak Raat”, “Khabarnaak”, “Hasb

e Haal” and” Hum Sab Umeed Se Hain” etc are some of well known comedy TV shows of

Pakistan. But this study will shed light on only two episodes of Hasb e Haal. On 23rd April

2017. Social actors of Hasb e Haal criticize on the current government by integrating the social

practice of 18th Century republics. On 7th December 2017, Azizi as Shahbaz Sharif verses Tahir

ul Qadari is a master piece of political satire.

The whole discourse of the comedy show is based on the social practice in comparison. Social

language of the comedy show is based on old-Urdu language. “Khabarnaak” is another famous

comedy show aires on Geo News playing an important role in spreading awareness among

people about country’s politics. Ayesha hosts this comedy show with other fellow comedians.

On 15th April 2017, comedians represent two political parties as Jiaalay and Matwaalay. They
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use political discourse as satire in order to identify the so called attitudes, behaviors and
relations of politicians of Pakistan.

1.1 Statement Of The Problem

The study focuses on Pakistani comedy TV shows as satire to spread awareness and
knowledge

among people that dominant group of people tend to influence actions of oppressors perception,

beliefs, values and ideologies. Relationship of humoristic discourse with political satire

establishes a very important role in a given social practice, it produces, reproduces and

influences certain stereotypes. A sense of understanding linguistic choices is subject in

Pakistani Comedy TV shows as political satire.

1.2 Research Objectives

The objectives of the study are

 try to evaluate Pakistani politicians’ exercise influence

 try to find out the exact role of political groups or institutions

 to appreciate Pakistani comedy TV shows as a plate form for reformation

 to identify the discourses in which a politician uses his power and ideology

 To identify power in linguistic choices as political satire

1.3 Research Questions

The research questions of the study are

1. How can a satirical discourse bring change in the attitudes and ideologies of people?

2. How Pakistani Comedy TV Shows are utilizing manipulation, persuasion and

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brainwashing of politicians?

1.4 Significance Of Research

Significance of this research is that Pakistani Comedy TV Shows are playing very important
role

in spreading awareness among its viewers. How in Pakistan political and social issues are

brooding rapidly, and this research will find the positive role played by linguistic and

extra linguistic features of satirical discourse. It will show the degree of improvement in

politicians and public with the help of hosts and other fellow comedians as they used satire in

comic manners.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

CDA is a field that is concerned with studying and analyzing written and spoken texts to

reveal the discursive source of power, dominance, inequality and bias. It examines how these

discursive sources are maintained and reproduced within special social, political and historical

contexts. (Van Dijk, 1998) In CDA, ‘C’ stands for “critical” stands for connections and

causes which are hidden in the discourse such as connections between language, power and

ideology. Lemke in 1995, “critical” is the explanation of the ways in which unequal power

relations are produced and naturalized in discourse. Anything beyond sentence is called

“discourse” ( Schiffin, Tanner & Hamilton, 2001)

CDA explores the meanings in abstraction, guided by perspectives and underlining

interests ( Paltridge, 2006). According to Fairclough (1989), the discourse of speech is well
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connected with gestures, facial expressions, movement and posture of the speaker, which on the

whole construe the visuals. Van Leeuwen calls discourses to be multimodal, as they are
realized

through other modes of communication as well as other than text and talk (as cited in Wodak
and

Meyer, 2001) linguistic features like syntax and grammar relates to text and extra linguistic

features such as setting, background, music and imagery are those modes of communication

which belong to talk . kress and Van Leeuwen( 2011) combined the linguistic theory of
Halliday

and constructed a visual grammar.

“ you can tell a lot about a person’s character by what they laugh at”.

Humor refers to the way of understanding the political satire. Satire explains unequal power

relations and ideological agendas in politics. Humoristic discourse lacks the maxim of quality

and bases upon the ambiguity of words. Being ambiguous in nature, it constructs deep political

relations. Humor in Urdu language is not difficult than English language due to linguistic

differences.

Imran Khan, a political leader of Pakistan wrote his famous book “Pakistan A Personal
History”

on political satire. Imran Khan critically evaluated PPP (Pakistan People’s Party) statement

which was spoken by a member of that political party in one session of National Assembly in

2013, “Pakistan has become failed state”. In text, the characteristic of this discourse is

inclusion ‘agents’ engaged in corruption of processes of social events. The naming process for
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‘agents’ of government have the connotations of ‘cruelty’ and ‘corruption’. For this cause

concentrate objects ‘power wielders’ have been mapped on abstract values ‘loot, plunder’ etc.

power wielders are perceived same as ‘ruling oligarchies’ and ‘ruling elite’, ‘bureaucracy’,

‘feudal’, ‘the lumbering giants’, and ‘crooks’. These attributes ‘vested interest’ and ‘hungry for

money and power’ enhances the negative impression of Pakistani politicians, “hatred towards

minorities and Muslim sects” was mapped out as ‘worst aspect’. Thus ‘equality, tolerance and

legitimacy’ are worst aspects in Pakistani politics.

(Imran Khan)

CDA and Political Ideology

CDA refers to the way of understanding the social world drawn from critical theory. Within the

critical discourse analysis, reality is understood constructed by various social forces. ‘critical’ is

the explanation of the ways in which unequal power relations and ideological agendas are

produced and naturalized in discourse. Political discourse is sub-category of discourse in

general. Political discourse is not only concerned with the political text structure but also with

the political context . “political actors are not only meant to speak in certain ways, rather there
is

a need for cognitive collaboration between situations, and talk or text that is a context”. Thus,

CDA becomes a useful research method in the domain of political science in order to explore

ideology of particular political group.

( Lemke, J. (1995) Textual politics Discourse and social dynamics, London)

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
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Fairclough’s framework will be applied to analyze Pakistani Comedy TV shows as political

satire. There are three stages involved in his modal

1. Description – deals with the linguistic property of the text.

2. Interpretation – deals with the relationship between the discursive process of

production and interpretation and the text.

3. Explanation – deals with the relationship between the processes (production and

interpretation) and the social conditioning.

This research is qualitative research and relates to linguistic political issues which is

faced by the people of Pakistan. Audience of these programs who watch these TV shows will
be

the population and sample of the research will be purposive. Data will be collected from

Pakistani Comedy TV shows. For data analysis is the modal of Fairclough has been selected.

3.1 Discourse

According to Gee (2010), human beings propagate their views through their discourse, that

discourse does not base upon language alone but employs a range of other modes. Gee

further notes that this linguistic, non linguistic ‘stuff’ breeds specific identities, power

sources and social practices.

3.2 Purposive Sampling

Purpose of the study is to evaluate Pakistani politicians’ lust for power and domination through

Critical Case Sampling. Two episodes of Pakistani TV Comedy show “Hasb e Haal” are

presenting as political satire that how Pakistani politicians are trying to make fool to their
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nation.

3.3 Research Tool

The tool of observation will be used for data collection. Pakistani comedy TV shows are the

central resource of the study.

TENTATIVE CHAPTER OUTLINE

1. Introduction

2. Literature Review

3. Research Methodology

4. Data Collection And Analysis Of Data

5. Conclusion

REFERENCES

Dunya News. (2017). Hasb e Haal – Azizi as Nizam Saqqa and Shahbaz Sharif VS Tahir ul
Qadari

Retrieved from https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNcUzy2vo6o

Gee, J, & Handford, M. (2014). The Routledge handbook of discourse analysis (1st ed.).
London

Halliday, M., & Matthiessen, C. (2004). An introduction to functional grammar (3rd ed.)

New York: Oxford University Press Inc.

Van Leeuwen, T. (2008). Discourse and practice (1st ed.). New York: Oxford University Press

Hadi, A. (2017). Khabarnaak vs Hasb e Hall vs Mazaaq Raat Rating- Web. PK. Web . PK

Kaur, K., Arumugam, N. and Mohammad Yunus, N. (2013). Beauty product advertisements.