Cognitive strategies for the humour comprehension of a cartoon

Abstract

We aim at enumerating cognitive strategies required to the comprehension of meanings involved in humor, specifically in little comics. We briefly summarize studies in the construction of humoristic comics. Afterwards, we present studies about sociocognitive approach (VAN DIJK, 2012; KOCH, 2011) of text comprehension), presenting our problem. We present and analyze a text from Níquel Náusea comics series, by Fernando Gonsales. Our results underline the need of interpreting verbal and non-verbal elements, identifying the comicalness character of semiologic elements, recognizing the humoristic comics genre, evocating situations from verbal and non-verbal elements and, finally, identifying plausibility. We conclude that these cognitive operations have different grades of importance for the humor comprehension of humoristic comics, remarkably the evocation of scenes through semiologic elements.