While answers are constrained by the formal, functional and sequential properties of questions, this does not mean that those answering questions do not seek to respond in ways that resist or push back against those constraints. In this paper, we examine instances where guests on Iranian talk shows respond to a preceding information-seeking question with an incongruous or irrelevant answer that is framed as nonserious. We suggest that non-serious answers are a means by which respondents construe the prior question as improper, but also inoculate themselves against a (potential) charge of being overly-sensitive or too easily offended. However, while nonserious answers construe a prior question as improper, they do not forestall that question-answer sequence. It is only when the question-recipient proffers a subsequent non-answer response that the host admits to the potential impropriety of their line of questioning and moves to close the sequence. In cases where the question-recipient provides a serious answer following the initial non-serious response, the question-answer sequence is extended. We conclude that non-serious answers strike a delicate balance between drawing attention to the impropriety of someone else's question without completely forestalling the overall progressivity of social interaction.

虽然答案受到问题的形式、功能和顺序属性的限制，但这并不意味着那些回答问题的人不会试图以抵制或反击这些限制的方式做出回应。在本文中，我们研究了伊朗脱口秀节目的嘉宾以不协调或不相关的答案回应前面的信息寻求问题的例子，这些答案被认为是不严肃的。我们建议，不严肃的答案是受访者将先前的问题解释为不恰当的一种方式，但也可以让自己免受（潜在的）过度敏感或太容易被冒犯的指控。然而，虽然不严肃的答案将先前的问题解释为不正确的，但它们并没有阻止问答顺序。只有当问题接受者提供随后的非回答回答时，主持人才会承认他们的提问线可能不恰当并开始关闭序列。如果问题接受者在最初的非严肃回答之后提供了严肃的回答，则问答顺序会被延长。我们得出的结论是，非严肃的答案在引起人们注意别人问题的不当之处和完全阻止社会互动的整体进步之间取得了微妙的平衡。