Analysis of the Kung Flu Incident
* By Samuel Bourgeois, Derek Ernest Bousfield, In book: Pragmatics in Contested Interpretation, January 2026 *
Abstract
This chapter focuses on Donald Trump’s controversial kung flu nickname for COVID-19, uttered during a political rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on 20 June 2020, within the polarised 2020 US presidential election. The analysis reveals kung flu as a phrasal portmanteau blending “kung fu” and “flu” that leveraged intertextual humour to shame China while fostering rapport with Trump’s own supporters. Critics labelled it a racist slur, while supporters found it entertaining, highlighting its humorous and playful nature. Drawing on Archer’s (2011a, 2015) face aggravation scale, the chapter positions kung flu as a creative yet spiteful insult that is thinly veiled as jocular mockery. The analysis shows that kung flu blends strategic ambivalence with intentional impoliteness that enables plausible deniability. The chapter underscores how Trump’s creative insults, akin to jocular mockery, manipulate audience perceptions, setting verbal traps for detractors and reinforcing supporter identity.
About the author(s)
Samuel Bourgeois: “I am a Lecturer at the University of Neuchâtel. Previously I was a visiting Research Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2024 and Lancaster University in 2023, having received the SNSF Postdoc.Mobility Fellowship. My main research interests include pragmatics with a focus on (im)politeness studies focusing primarily on political rhetoric and entertaining impoliteness.”
Derek Ernest Bousfield is a Reader in Pragmatics. He was formerly the head of the department of Languages, Information and Communications, at Manchester Metropolitan University (2013-2023). Derek does research in Sociolinguistics, Discourse Analysis, Stylistics and Pragmatics. He’s working on the Language of Gaslighting.
