A Textual Analysis of DavidSoComedy's Ugly Girls YouTube Response Video

Abstract

Using positioning theory and Bourdieu’s theories on speaker legitimacy, this article explores the link between identity and speech in the context of a YouTube video entitled Vlog 29: Ugly Girls by DavidSoComedy. By positioning himself as a legitimate speaker of African American Vernacular English (AAVE), Korean-American YouTuber DavidSoComedy effectively changes this form of English from an ethnic identity marker to a social identity marker. The article thus continues in the tradition of more recent researchers that have suggested that identity, and the languages associated with that identity, are fluid and ever-changing, rather than fixed.