Bowling them over and over with wit: forms and functions of humor in live text cricket coverage

Academic analysis of sports journalism is typically conducted with reference to its role in issues like national (Beard 1998; Billig 1995; Polley 2004; Smith 2004) and gender (Benwell and Stokoe 2006) identity construction. Consequently much critical attention is given to the disproportionate seriousness with much sports journalism is produced and consumed. However, as written sports journalism has spilled over into the internet, it appears to have acquired a new remit: to simultaneously inform and entertain (Chapman 2012). This brief is largely achieved by virtue of the declaredly humorous manner in which that ‘serious’ subject matter is now mediated. This contribution proposes to analyse the types of humorous writing techniques found in over-by-over commentary on a cricket test match in the online version of a national newspaper. A related focus will be on the social functions underlying the repertoire of techniques used in the accompanying online interactions.