The uses of laughter in epideictic radio interviews

Abstract

A number of researchers have dealt with laughter as a strategic device in broadcast interviews and press conferences. I consider how laughter works in a genre in which part of the purpose is to praise the interviewee – what I call epideictic interviews. These interviews have interactional problems around presenting and accepting praise. Laughter can be placed so that it acknowledges and mitigates these problems. Typically, interviewee laughter comes in response to interviewer praise, or in the performance of humorous material. Interviewer laughter often marks for the audience that material is to be taken as non-serious. Analysis of laughter tells us both about the peculiarities of interaction in this broadcast genre, and about the difficulties in performing and listening to praise.