“When a joke's a joke and when it's too much”: Mateship as a key to interpreting jocular FTAs in Australian English

• This study aims at analysing reactions to jocular FTAs in Australian English.
• Laughter and ‘mateship’ are main components of ‘not taking oneself too seriously’.
• The presence of laughter and/or funniness does not indicate the absence of public offence.
• The results show a clear connection between a threat to ‘mateship’ and public offence being taken.
• Immediate offence is not as common a reaction as its manifestation in meta-talk.

This exploratory study focuses on interactions containing jocular FTAs in Australian English in relation to cultural attitudes that are valued in an Anglo-Australian cultural context. ‘Not taking yourself too seriously’ is considered a preference in the English-speaking world, but what seems to make it even more prominent in Australia is not its humorous potential, but rather a strong link with ‘mateship’, i.e. projecting equality. The results of this study show not only a difference between public and personal offence taken at FTAs, but also a clear connection that can be observed between the category of ‘mateship’ and public offence. Furthermore, a distinction between laughter (an omnipresent reaction in the analysed data), funniness and ‘mateship’ in relation to public offence is made. The findings are based on interactions from the television gameshow Big Brother Australia 2012.