Hybridization as a form of media “extension”: stand-up technologies in infotainment discourse (a case study of the Jim Jefferies Late night talk show)

Purpose. The article addresses the issue of media discourse hybridization, the latter being the result of discourse-andgenre transgression and the source of new discursive practices, particularly, infotainment. The growing demands of society for information and the increasing worldwide popularity of humorous programs (especially stand-up comedies) have triggered the emergence of a unique media product - The Jim Jefferies Show. The salient feature of the talk show is that its host and producer is a famous stand-up comedian. Jim Jefferies’ versatile, controversial, belief-challenging and thought-provoking satirical comedy has won him admiration and respect across the USA and abroad. Results. Adopting an interdisciplinary, integrated approach, we explore the problem of media discourse technologization and game-ization. The research is based on the premises of theory of discourse, pragma- and sociolinguistic discourse studies, critical discourse analysis, philosophy of discourse and philosophy of play and games. We argue that incorporating stand-up technologies, also referred to as attractions, into informational discourse brings about a powerful discursive shift and comprehensive hybridization manifested in multiple interdiscursivity (with a variety of types and kinds of discourse involved: informational and entertaining, institutional [status bound] and personal [personality bound], existential and habitual; critical, political, comical; simulative), multiple destination (along with information-offering [news] and entertainment [fun], opinion, critique, subversion, shock) and multiple functions (informational, orientational, that of solidarity vs. agonistic, actional, axiological and “ludenic”). Conclusion. The new discursive practice as an extension of media and man, homo ludens , meets demands and values of the consumer society, agrees with the postmodernist Zeitgeist and reveals a carnivalesque media chronotope.