The Lexical Ambiguity and Humor in Digital Discourse: A Pragmatic Analysis of Dad Jokes on YouTube

Abstrak

Dad jokes are short-simple forms of humor that rely heavily on puns and lexical ambiguity to create incongruity and surprise. With the rise of digital platforms such as YouTube, dad jokes have become increasingly popular, especially in unscripted and dialogic video content. This study investigates lexical ambiguity as a key linguistic and pragmatic strategy in dad jokes featured on the YeahMad YouTube channel. Using a descriptive qualitative method, 109 dad jokes were analyzed, with 29 jokes (26.6%) identified as containing lexical ambiguity, including homophones, homonyms, and puns. Data were transcribed and examined through content and discourse analysis, informed by Incongruity Theory and the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH). The findings show that lexical ambiguity functions not only as a structural linguistic feature but also as an effective strategy for humor in digital interaction. However, humor success depends on audience linguistic competence, shared cultural knowledge, and contextual appropriateness, as some jokes fail due to vagueness or sensitivity. This study contributes to humor linguistics and digital pragmatics by highlighting the role of audience-context alignment in online humor.