Claire Harter

In this paper, I look at three YouTube comedians of Indian heritage. What is interesting about these comedians is their use of code-switching (CS), deploying aspects of Punjabi English and Vernacular American English. These bilingual comedians switch codes as part of their “presentation of self” (Goffman 1959) as a means to present and preserve their ‘Indian’ selves, both in contrast to and in conjunction with their Canadian upbringing and urban environment. CS is an important component of constructing ethnic identity, as others have argued (cf. DeBose 1992 and De Fina 2007, among others). Switches between dialects are crucial to understanding the sociolinguistic “stance” of the speaker towards her audience and towards her own identity (Jaffe 2009). In this study I apply the idea of 'intra-linguistic' CS to the videos of these Indian- Canadian YouTube comedians. The comedians employ multiple codes in their videos as an important element of multi-faceted identity construction.

In this paper, I look at three YouTube comedians of Indian heritage. What is interesting about these comedians is their use of code-switching (CS), deploying aspects of Punjabi English and Vernacular American English. These bilingual comedians switch codes as part of their “presentation of self” (Goffman 1959) as a means to present and preserve their ‘Indian’ selves, both in contrast to and in conjunction with their Canadian upbringing and urban environment. CS is an important component of constructing ethnic identity, as others have argued (cf. DeBose 1992 and De Fina 2007, among others). Switches between dialects are crucial to understanding the sociolinguistic “stance” of the speaker towards her audience and towards her own identity (Jaffe 2009). In this study I apply the idea of 'intra-linguistic' CS to the videos of these Indian- Canadian YouTube comedians. The comedians employ multiple codes in their videos as an important element of multi-faceted identity construction.