Discourse Shifting for Humorous Effect: The Python Method

The linguistic concept of register, while not yet defined to the satisfaction of all, is nevertheless a fairly well used one in describing speakers' shifts in language according to situational nonns or constraints. Inappropriateness of register for context is usually seen as a sociolinguistic or pragmatic error. But in some cases it is done intentionally and creatively, such as in several cases of register-shifting humor in the TV series Monty Python's Flying Circus. This paper gives several examples of humorous register shifting in Monty Python, and analyzes how the shifting has its effect.