SARCASM IN THE AMERICAN SITCOM TV SERIES SAM AND CAT

Sarcasm is typically defined as ironic or satirical wit used to mock, offend, or
entertain. Sarcasm can appear in many various forms, but understanding it is
crucial for natural language processing to prevent sarcastic utterances from being
taken literally. The Greek term sarkazein, which means to speak venomously and
shred flesh like dogs, is where the word "sarcasm" originated (Lee & Katz, 1998).
Sarcasm has replaced the concept of irony in modern American use, particularly
among young speakers, and is now used to denote anything upsetting (Attardo,
2014). This study aims to analyze the sarcasm used in sitcom TV series Sam and
Cat by using Camp‟s and Attardo‟s theory. The objectives of this study were to
identify the types and the purposes of sarcasm. The data of this study are 40
sarcastic utterances collected from Netflix by watching the sitcom. The method of
this study is the qualitative method where the utterances in sitcom were analyzed.
Through the analysis, the types and purposes were identified. In terms of sarcasm
types, there were 22 data of propositional sarcasm, 3 of lexical sarcasm, 5 of likeprefixed
sarcasm, and 10 of illocutionary sarcasm. Regarding the purposes of
sarcasm, there were 4 data of group affiliation, 6 of sophistication, 16 of
evaluation, 10 of politeness, 3 of persuasive aspect, and 1 of retractability. After
analyzing the data, the results show that propositional sarcasm is the type of
sarcasm frequently used in the series which means the characters like to directly
targets or aims to be straightforward which speaks with a very strong implicature
that runs counter to the meaning they are trying to convey. Sarcasm which served
as an evaluation was most frequently used by the characters in order to hide the
negative effects of their criticism and also to create the positive effects of their
sarcastic praise towards their interlocutors.