Pracmatic Strategy of Subtle Sarcasm in Indonesia Political Discourse and Stand-Up Comedy Kiki Saputri Roasting

Abstract

This study analyzes the pragmatic strategies of subtle sarcasm in Indonesian political discourse and stand-up comedy, using the roasting performances of female comedian Kiki Saputri as a case study. Using Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach, this study aims to reveal how Kiki Saputri utilizes linguistic strategies such as irony, implicature, hyperbole, and presupposition to convey social and political criticism subtly yet effectively. The results show that Kiki Saputri cleverly violates Grice’s conversational maxims (quality, relevance, and quantity) to create humor that functions as disguised criticism, in line with pragmatic theories of humor. This criticism is framed within Leech’s politeness principle, making subtle sarcasm an effective mechanism for delivering non-confrontational criticism, consistent with the Indonesian cultural tendency toward indirect communication. CDA shows that Kiki’s humor functions as counter-discourse that challenges power domination and gender stereotypes. Furthermore, the analysis of discursive practice (discourse consumption) reveals that Kiki’s sarcasm is reproduced by the public through digital media, particularly online comments, strengthening the social criticism function of humor in digital discourse and positioning the public as co-creators of discourse. Overall, this study concludes that comedy is not merely entertainment but also a social practice and an important instrument mediating the relationship between language, power, and ideology, in which laughter functions as a form of symbolic resistance and collective awareness in the modern public sphere.