Comical as a Сomponent of Argumentation in a Pop Sci short-short film

Abstract

This article considers the comical as a component of argumentation in the popular science short-film whose rhetoric schema, combining picture (video sequence) and verbal dialogue, allows us to refer it to as a typical example of multimodal discourse. The film called «A quand le sabre laser?» (When’s the Lightsaber?) represents the French culture of scientific thinking. It relies on the comics of a French artist and caricaturist Marion Montaigne and is a part of the series produced and broadcast since 2016 by the French-German company ARTE. The title of the series is also typically French – «Tu mourras moins bête» (“You will die less stupid”) – and its purpose is to invite the learning folk in such a funny – and slightly American – form to some optimism, promising not to bore them beyond measure. Analysing the comic of this film, we rely on its conceptualization suggested by the French philosopher Henri Bergson in his essay “Laughter” in which he considers the comic as a reaction to the funny, peculiar only to humans. According to him, the comic represents "the fun of the human mind, mental contrast and perceived absurdity" (H. Bergson). The purpose of the microfilm is to combine fascinating form and entertaining effect in order to expose scientifically some tricks from the “Star Wars” relating to the use of lasers. The contrast between the films is what attracts the audience’s attention by creating intrigue.

The video sequence provides a good example of functional differences between visual and verbal presentation of the information. What is shown on the screen is not necessarily evidence or even reality, and the picture (unlike a statistical table or graph) is not an argument. The pictures are needed in this multimodal text to formulate a kind of visual logical emphasis, to highlight a point, not to supply a correct answer, while understanding is achievable only with the help of a word, through rational physical argumentation. The discursive role of Fig. 4, 5, 6, for instance, which illustrate “commonplace stupidities and fantasies” – something that could not happen in reality – is to entertain not to inform.

The study obviously showed that due to its form of communicating the meaning based on the “dialogue” between fictional characters, comic video sequence and real science, the audience understand physical truths better. It encourages better comprehension and acquisition of information by collective recipient/viewer which will not trust blindly any more the “truths” about laser sabers from “Star Wars”.

Keywords: the comical, scientific discourse, short films, argumentation, film dialogue, video sequence, popular science genre