Although we argue that Pratchett’s use of humour is tendentious, that is, it is humour with a purpose, we argue that, contrary to the popular perception, it is actually the absurd that seems more central to Pratchett’s comedy rather than the satiric, and this is because it best serves the subversive desire in Pratchett to question over and over again what is postulated as self-evident, to disturb people’s mental habits to dissipate what is familiar and accepted, to re-examine rules and institutions.

The paper argues that reversal is the key technique employed by Pratchett, and that this technique that is employed in each of the three modes of comedy found in the text, satire, mockage and the absurd.

Using, in broad terms, the theories of humour offered by Sigmund Freud (1905, 1928) and Ted Cohen (1990), I consider the comic techniques, the modes of the comedy, and the pragmatic effects of the comedy in the text as a whole. Pratchett is often described as a ‘satirist’, but this in turn raises the interesting questions of what it actually means to be a satirist in the Fantasy genre, and of whether ‘satire’ is actually an appropriate term for the approach Pratchett takes. Mightily Oats knows he has a prayer, but he wishes he had an axe.This paper examines the effects of the comedy in Terry Pratchett’s vampire thriller, Carpe Jugulum (1998). They're out of the casket and want a bite of the future. And the vampires are intelligent - not easily got rid of with a garlic enema or going to the window, grasping the curtains and saying 'I don't know about you, but isn't it a bit stuffy in here?' They've got style and fancy waistcoats. and Granny Weatherwax, who is big trouble. There's the witches - young Agnes who is really in two minds about everything, Magrat, who is trying to combine witchcraft and nappies, Nanny Ogg who is far too knowing. Now he's caught up in a war between vampires and witches, and he's not sure there is a right side. He thought he'd come to the mountain kingdom of Lancre for a simple little religious ceremony. Mightily Oats has not picked a good time to be priest.

Categories Adult Fiction, Science Fiction and Fantasy

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