Abstract

The article looks at the assumption of SSTH/GTVH that two fully or partly overlapping semantic scripts in opposition are central to humorous communication. On empirical and technical grounds, it is suggested that the script analysis should be complemented by identifying additional script constellations, i.e. manipulation within one script, the interplay of more than two scripts, and the collision of scripts from different planes of analysis. These suggestions support the idea of multiple incongruities (Attardo et al. 2002: 28), and the category of staggered escalation is put forward for incongruity clusters in addition to Attardo's (2001) strands and stacks.