In All Seriousness: Humour in Adibah Amin’s As I was Passing and As I was Passing II

This paper investigates Adibah Amin’s use of humour in the two volumes ofher occasional writing, As I was Passing (2007). To pursue this objective, the theory ofhumour formulated by John Morreall, a renowned contemporary figure in humour studies,has been used to frame the discussion. However, since Morreall focuses mostly on spokenhumour, the paper also makes references to Dominic Cheetam’s work on written humour.The analysis shows that some elements fundamental to humour that can be found in AdibahAmin’s writing are the presence of cognitive shifts that involve expectations and violationthereof, the play mode that induces practical disengagement, and the sense of enjoymentthat is exhilarating and liberating. Furthermore, Adibah Amin uses humour to promoteintellectual and moral values. Besides making use of incongruities in things, Adibah Aminalso includes some incongruities in presentation in her writing, which deal with her comicaladaptations of linguistic patterns, further proving her astute use of humour.