Lachen in der Fernsehwerbung

Abstract

This contribution examines the uses and functions of laughter in television commercials. Based on a database containing 4900 television commercials, a corpus of 1769 spots was compiled, and multimodal aspects of laughter were analysed in this corpus. 14 different parameters related to laughter were annotated (properties of the laughing person or persons, the visual and/or auditory presence of the laughter, context of and cause for the laughter, functions of the laughter in relation to the advertising message, etc.). Laughter is not always related to humour or a comical situation. On the one hand, funny situations can be found in many spots where laughter is absent, while on the other hand, laughter often occurs in situations that are not so funny as to justify its presence. The use of laughter in TV spots is therefore less cogent than one might assume. Its primary function is to illustrate joy and to express positive emotions that should be associated with the product.