Comedy and the Politics of Representation

This edited collection explores the representations of identity in comedy and interrogates the ways in which humorous constructions of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, class and disability raise serious issues about privilege, agency and oppression in popular culture. Should there be limits to free speech when humour is aimed at marginalised social groups? What are the limits of free speech when comedy pokes fun at those who hold social power? Can taboo joking be used towards politically progressive ends? Can stereotypes be mocked through their re-invocation? Comedy and the Politics of Representation: Mocking the Weak breaks new theoretical ground by demonstrating how the way people are represented mediates the triadic relationship set up in comedy between teller, audience and butt of the joke. By bringing together a selection of essays from international scholars, this study unpacks and examines the dynamic role that humour plays in making and remaking identity and power relations in culture and society.

Takes an interdisciplinary approach by including contributions from researchers in the fields of literature, media, film and sociology Discusses a broad range of comedic forms, such as stand-up, television sitcom, radio broadcast and film, that covers a time period spanning from the early 20th century right up to present day Focuses on identity politics and the intersections of identity which shape the power relations invoked in comedy

Auteur
Helen Davies is Head of English and Creative Writing at Newman University, UK. She is the author of Gender and Ventriloquism in Victorian and Neo-Victorian Fiction: Passionate Puppets (Palgrave, 2012) and Neo-Victorian Freakery: The Cultural Afterlife of the Victorian Freak Show (Palgrave, 2015).
Sarah Ilott is Lecturer in Literature and Film at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She is the author of New Postcolonial British Genres: Shifting the Boundaries (Palgrave, 2015).

Contenu

1. Introduction: Mocking the Weak? Contexts, Theories, Politcs, Helen Davies and Sarah Ilott.- 2. Taking Liberties? Free Speech, Multiculturalism and the Ethics of Satire, Anshuman A. Mondal.- 3. Openness, Otherness, and Expertise: Uncertainty and Trust in Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle , Rob Hawkes.- 4. British Multiculturalism, Romantic Comedy, and the Lie of Social Unification, Sarah Ilott.- 5. Parodying Racial Passing in Chappelle's Show and Key & Peele, Janine Bradbury.- 6. Blackness and Banal Whiteness: Abjection and Identity in the Italian Christmas Comedy, Alan O'Leary.- 7. Sexual and National Difference in the high-speed, popular surrealism of Tommy Handley and Ronald Frankau's double acts, 1929-1936, Neil Washbourne.- 8. From Terry and June to Terry and Julian : June Whitfield and the British Suburban Sitcom, Rosie White.- 9. Saintly Cretins and Ugly Buglys: Laughing at Victorian Disability in Hunderby, Helen Davies.- 10. Standing Up to False Binaries in Humour and Autism: A Dialogue, Kate Fox.- 11. Comedy and the Representation of the British Working Class from On the Buses to This is England '90, Tracy Casling.- 12. Theorising Post-Socialist Sitcom: Imported Form, Vernacular Humour and Taste Boundaries on the Global Periphery, Dejan Jontes and Andreja Trdina.- 13. Smile, Hitler? Nazism and Comedy in Popular Culture, Jason Lee.- 14. POTUS Stand-up: The White House Correspondents' Dinner, Sheryl Tuttle Ross.