XIV Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2022

Vague English humor is not always clear to the inhabitants of the continent,whereas in England it is truly considered the property of the nation. Legends are made up about subtle English humor, while often ridiculing it for notesof snobbery and pretentiousness. National humor is a method self-expression of a creative personality, on the basis of which works of comic genres are created. Noting the comicality inherent in any national flavor, it is worth bearing in mind that the concept of comic is divided into two components: satire and humor. Satire is characterized by exposing human vices, humiliating a negative phenomenon, showing it in a ridiculous, ugly light. Humor, on the other hand, is aimed at cognizing the world by sharpening life's inconsistencies, evaluating it and comprehending the comical hidden in it. The task of humor is to create an effect and inspire the addressee with a new look on familiar things. Humor is a very multifaceted phenomenon associated with the mental, social and cultural aspects of being. Humor is a universal phenomenon, which, of course, is characterized by a national flavor. Speaking of the national flavor of the British, it should be noted that their humor in the world is considered to be subtle and aristocratic. However, one of the weighty reasons for misunderstanding true English humor is an elementary lack of knowledge in the field of grammar, as well as vocabulary, since the English are inherent in playing jokes with the use of hyperbolization, wordplay, repetition, hint, paradox and even absurdity. In the process of learning English, it is important to pay attention to subtle English jokes, because it is through humor that English culture and the authentic mentality of the English are revealed. Studying the peculiarities of British humor is also important because English has long played an important role in international communication and its norms, encoded in the English-speaking picture of the world, are actively being introduced into the collective consciousness of all native speakers of English as a foreign language. It helps deeper to penetrate into the essence of someone else's culture against the background of a better awareness of the peculiarities of their own culture. Thus, the special national traits of the British often include prudery and restraint on emotions and manifestations of feelings, but it is impossible not to mention their special subtle sense of humor. In relation to themselves, to their homeland, as well as to the whole world, the English are characterized by irony, it is quite natural for them to laugh at themselves and at others. This property of the British has been cultivated for centuries, being considered the most important human dignity. Irony, by according to the English, it is the main ingredient of real English humor. For the inhabitants of Albion there is no taboo on topics for jokes, because they do not shy away from ridiculing even what has been considered sacred from time immemorial: the government and the royal family. This special gift of the nation is evidenced by the voluminous baggage of humorous literary works, starting with Geoffrey Chaucer and his "Canterbury Tales", the genre of household comedy created by Benjamin Jones, comic heroes, situations in Shakespeare's plays, Jonathan Swift's political satire in the work "Journey Gulliver", Lewis Carroll, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Jerome Klapk Jerome and special humor in the plays of Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde and ending with today - Stephen Fry, Douglas Adams and Tom Sharp Humor should be viewed as a prism through which writers, and not only English speakers, look at the world as a whole and at any individual phenomena that attract their attention. As vivid examples of English humor, we will give some quotes from the works of S. Fry "Hippopotamus" and P.G. Wodehouse "Keep it up, Jeeves!". It is worth noting that Stephen Fry is today one of the national treasures of Britain, the owner of the perfect pronunciation and the master of the word. Pelham Granville Woodhouse is also a famous writer XX century, known for a large number of humorous stories, for the entire time of his creative career, he wrote 96 books. As Stephen Fry said in an interview, the main type of comedic British heroes are losers who are trying to change his life for the better, well, or, at least, just to survive. Similar heroes can be found both in the above-mentioned work of P.G. Wodehouse, where Bertie Wooster, the main character, getting involved in new adventures, could not cope without the clever advice of his servant Jeeves, and in S. Fry, where the main character, the poet Ted, was fired from the newspaper because of his scandalous behavior and problems with alcohol. To describe comical situations, both S. Fry and P.G. Wodehouse use the following key humorous techniques. So, in the work "Keep it up, Jeeves", P.G. Wodehouse uses wordplay. Wordplay is a creation comic effect due to the semantic difference of the main structural units of the language. This technique is also called "charades", which are often found in the dialogues of Bertie and his servant Jeeves. The speech of the hero Jeeves, which consists of complex sentences, is saturated with terminological and bookish vocabulary that sounds ridiculous and artificial in everyday life. It sounds especially contrasting in comparison with Bertie's vocabulary, which is famous for its meager intellectual baggage. Note that Bertie often cannot remember a word or expression, but only gives a "fragment", according to which Jeeves restores the searched word: "Who was that lad they used to try to make me read at Oxford? Ship-Shop-Schopenhauer". It is worth noting that the structure of the English language has an evolutionary advantage + alliterative rhyme. This rhyme of English versification affects the way of remembering in English culture. The English type of versification can serve as a factor that influenced the principle of recollection, since words rhyme by the initial letter. The English writer Wodehouse also applies hyperbolization (the most typical scene of the reunion of lovers under the pen of Wodehouse acquires an exaggeration to comically great significance): "We had come back within view of the cottage, and there in front of is stood six children, a nurse, two loafers, another nurse, and the fellow from the grocer s. They were all staring. Down the road came galloping five more children, a dog, three men and a boy, all about to stare" ("While talking, we quietly approached our cottage, which was crowded with six children, a babysitter, two curious, another babysitter and a grocery boy. They stared at the veranda without taking their eyes off it. Five more children, a dog, three men and a teenager rushed to the scene of the incident, not wanting to lose an attractive sight"); and a repetition: "It then remained me to find Ocean Rest. And eventually, after visiting Ocean View, Ocean Prospect, Ocean Breeze, Ocean Cottage, Ocean Bungalow, Ocean Nook and Ocean Homestead, I trailed it down". According to O.K. Ilyina, "hyperbolization is the creation of a comic effect based on the amplification of meaning"; "repetition is the technique of creating a comic effect by repeating words or utterances." Analyzing Stephen Fry's novel "Hippopotamus", we distinguish the following humorous techniques: paradox ("Sounds a reasonable idea. Probably more appropriate than a restaurant, say, or a football stadium" — "A sound idea, as it seems to me. It's better than take her to a restaurant or, say, a football") and ridiculous ("Given our

the respective weights, it would probably be fairer if the horse got me back on road and me" — "When our weight ratio, — I answered, — will perhaps fairer to allow the horse to climb on my back and to explore a little"). O. K. Ilyin gives the following definitions of the above concepts: "the paradox is that a surprise, inadequate response to the statement"; "the absurdity that lies in a situation that contradicts common sense and life experience." So, S. Fry and P.G. Wodehouse in their works fully reflect the spectrum of English humor: from harmless irony to caustic sarcasm and self-irony, because the main feature of such humor is ridicule

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