Showing papers in "Comedy Studies in 2013"
TL;DR: The Baby Laughter project (http://babylaughter.net) as discussed by the authors uses online surveys and parent submitted videos to study baby laughter, and the results show that the topics of infant laughter track other cognitive developments, that it is an important form of communication and bond between parent and child and a marker of social and emotional engagement.
Abstract: ‘The Baby Laughter’ project (http://babylaughter.net) is a research programme in developmental psychology that uses online surveys and parent submitted videos to study baby laughter. We discuss how infant laughter has been neglected in the study of both humour and of developmental psychology. We describe our surveys and research methodology, together with some of the questions we hope they can address. Some preliminary results are presented together with illustrative comments from parents who took part. These results show that the topics of infant laughter track other cognitive developments, that it is an important form of communication and bond between parent and child and a marker of social and emotional engagement. We conclude by suggesting that the highly important role of laughter in early development has until now been underestimated.
20 citations
TL;DR: Martinez, Cote, Notaro, and Lee as mentioned in this paper proposed that the heteronormatively sexy female comic body can derive or enhance its comic proposal via the incongruity of its designated unfunniness.
Abstract: This article proposes that the heteronormatively sexy female comic body can derive or enhance its comic proposal via the incongruity of its designated unfunniness. Performances by practitioners Ursula Martinez, Olivia Cote, Tig Notaro, and Olivia Lee are analysed in order to illuminate and confound potentially heteronormative conceptions of humour and the comic body. The potentiality of a ‘sexy scatology’ is revealed.
11 citations
TL;DR: The influence of popular comics working in the Vaudeville tradition has been apparent in the work of conceptual artists such as Gilbert and George and Steve McQueen as mentioned in this paper, who were evident in the ethos of art movements such as Dada, Surrealism and Fluxus.
Abstract: Throughout the twentieth and early twenty first centuries, the influence of popular comics working in the Vaudeville tradition has been apparent in the work of conceptual artists such as Gilbert and George and Steve McQueen. Echoes of Vaudeville comedy’s ‘business’ and routines were evident in the ethos of art movements such as Dada, Surrealism and Fluxus. This paper will attempt to trace some of the influences that popular comedy from the Vaudeville tradition has exercised on art and will touch upon the nature of comedy’s troublesome relationship with critical thinking about ‘Art’ The paper will also suggest complementary ways in which, as video artist Martin Creed suggests, ‘comedians seem to look for the absurd and ridiculous, for things that are silly, in the same way that artists do’ (Duguid, 2008: 44).
6 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the extent to which jokes are covered by existing legislation in the United Kingdom and the United States, whether common defenses against accusations of joke theft are liable to hold up in court and what comedians can do to prevent such infringement.
Abstract: Modern comedians are very protective of their material, and those comedians that gain a reputation for using others' gags are liable to find themselves shunned both socially and professionally. Although comedians in the United Kingdom have threatened each other with legal action for joke theft, perhaps the most notable recent case being Jimmy Carr threatening Jim Davison in 2004, there is no precedent of such an incident going to trial in the United Kingdom and very few cases in the United States. Moreover, there is no consensus amongst scholars regarding whether jokes are protected by the law. In this article I will attempt to clarify the situation. Drawing on the work of A. D. Madison, Y. Mikhaylova and D. Oliar and C. Sprigman, I will elucidate the extent to which jokes are covered by existing legislation in the United Kingdom and the United States, whether common defenses against accusations of joke theft are liable to hold up in court and what comedians can do to prevent such infringement.
6 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored how Indian horror-comedy films working through the dialectics of laughter and fear reveal the sociopolitical anxieties of marginalized gendered subjectivities, while some comedies may contain horrific episodes and some horror films may induce unintentional laughter, the present study limits itself to those Indian films that overtly promote themselves as horror-comedies.
Abstract: Horror-comedy films have intrigued viewers for ages, and not without reason one may add, because fear and mirth are generally considered to be diametrically opposite human emotions. If fear induces anxieties, mirth generally mitigates misery by allaying tensions. While the former is generally associated with grief, the latter signals prosperity. And yet when they come together in cinematic productions, more often than not, they set the cash registers ringing. The film scholarship, both Indian and western, has largely ignored the study of Indian horror-comedies. The purpose of this study is to explore how Indian horror-comedies working through the dialectics of laughter and fear reveal the sociopolitical anxieties of marginalized gendered subjectivities. While some comedies may contain horrific episodes and some horror films may induce unintentional laughter, the present study limits itself to those Indian films that overtly promote themselves as horror-comedies. This article will focus in the main...
5 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a trajectory of research about the clown is delineated, starting with the idea of the essential clown and the analysis of the Inner Clown as a fragment of the self, and following the research towards Martin Heidegger's understanding of skilled coping in order to probe the phenomenology of the clown.
Abstract: This article delineates a trajectory of research about the clown. It begins with the idea of the Essential Clown and the analysis of the Inner Clown as a fragment of the self, it then follows the research towards Martin Heidegger's understanding of skilled coping in order to probe the phenomenology of the clown. The central hypothesis of the article is that we should understand the clown as a misfit by profession. It attempts to show that how the clown gets absorbed and involved in performing a task is fundamental to understanding the concept of misfitness, and therefore, to grasping what is involved in the practice of ‘being a clown’. It will be suggested that the clown proposes an alternative approach to, and unique understanding of, cultural and theatrical norms and thus create their own principles of practice. The analysis of the principles of practice for clowns requires a critical analysis of what the clown does or his attitude in the world, or better his behaviour while performing. Clown's ...
5 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a model of comedy as social conscience as a generic classification within political comedy based on the function of comedy within the society in which it is produced and consumed.
Abstract: Building on S. Critchley's notion of humour as Superego II, this article proposes a model of comedy as social conscience as a generic classification within political comedy based on the function of comedy within the society in which it is produced and consumed. Considering Aristophanic comedy in terms of its function within Athenian society and extrapolating to Terry Pratchett's Discworld as a contemporary equivalent, this article defines comedy as social conscience as a comedic text in any medium, that is popular and accessible, that creates intertextual relationships and mobilizes contemporary discourses to create a reflexive awareness in the audience, recognizing the self as part of the society requiring growth and transformation.
4 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify the origins of one of the more important roots of this comedy phenomenon to a jazz club in Manchester, Band on the Wall in the run down northern quarter of Manchester in 1976 that first played host to the key inspirations for character-led improvised sketch comedy.
Abstract: There have been many articles but too few rigorous critiques detailing the naissance and flowering of alternative comedy — a rather loose and undefined term for the brand of ‘non-racist, non-sexist’ comedy — of the 1980s. The descriptions that do exist of the formation, growth and continued influence of this ill-defined ‘genre’ tend to be rather uncritical and more often than not, factually incorrect. The articles are often London-centric and rarely identify the origins of one of the more important roots of this comedy phenomenon to a jazz club in Manchester. For it was Band on the Wall in the run down northern quarter of Manchester in 1976 that first played host to one of the key inspirations for character-led improvised sketch comedy. This brand of performance, which also tends to be under-discussed, transferred to the comedy clubs in the late 1970s and 1980s, including the original Soho Comedy Store and The Comic Strip. Formed by the author Lloyd Peters in March 1976 whilst studying B.A. Drama ...
4 citations
TL;DR: The Asperger's Are Us troupe as discussed by the authors is a comedy troupe based in Massachusetts comprised of four individuals with Aspergers, three of which have developed a sense of humour that differs from that of a neurotypical person.
Abstract: In this interview I talk with Noah Britton, Jack Hanke and Ethan Finlan, three members of Asperger's Are Us, a comedy troupe based in Massachusetts comprised of four individuals with Asperger's. The fourth member, ‘New’ Michael Ingemi, joined the interview just as we were wrapping up. Since its first description by Hans Asperger, many clinicians have suggested that Asperger's is characterized by deficits in humour comprehension.1 This view has been challenged by V. Lyons and M. Fitzgerald but there is still surprisingly little empirical literature on the topic, and this myth seems to persist despite much anecdotal evidence to the contrary. I would suggest that the very existence of Asperger's Are Us undermines that persistent myth. In our discussion the group talk about their sense of humour, how it might differ from that of a neurotypical person and what they think about popular representations of the condition. Furthermore, I would suggest that their views, and their work more generally, are bes...
4 citations
TL;DR: One part fly-on-the-wall documentary, one part cook-off, Come Dine With Me (2005-present) capitalizes on persisting audience appetites for neighbourhood voyeurism and culinary competition as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: One part fly-on-the-wall documentary, one part cook-off, Come Dine With Me (2005—present) capitalizes on persisting audience appetites for neighbourhood voyeurism and culinary competition. Yet, its real pleasures, I suggest here, are comedic ones; and the show's ascension from cult student watch to mainstream success may be due in no small part to its mobilization of incongruity and witty observation, strategies more common to outwardly comedic texts. A recipe of kitchen mishaps, food-related innuendos, alcohol-induced banter, cringeworthy dinner party entertainment, and, most significant, I contend, the voice-over of Dave Lamb — no longer documentary's composed and objective narrator, but excitable and mocking audience avatar — ensures a serving of the distinctly comedic kind. Appropriating Come Dine With Me within the realm of comedy studies, I propose, may usefully intersect and illuminate analyses of reality, lifestyle and food programming, as well as the voice-over.
4 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored the centrality of conflict to the slapstick comedy of Commedia dell'Arte and examined the relationship between narrative, status, conflict and comedy, and found that comic violence may have been used both to confirm and to subvert the usual status relationship between Pantalone and Arlecchino.
Abstract: This article will explore the centrality of conflict to the slapstick comedy of Commedia dell'Arte. Commedia flourished for over 200 years in Italy and throughout Europe. At its heart was the relationship between Pantalone, the wealthy old man, and Arlecchino, his poor servant. The conflict between the two arises from a series of social, physical and intellectual binary oppositions: wealth versus poverty; high status versus low status; intelligence versus stupidity and age versus youth. Drawing on a number of scenarios, this article will examine the relationship between narrative, status, conflict and comedy. What are the situations that give rise to conflict and to what extent are they resolved through either word play or through comic violence? A consideration of common lazzi centred around violence will also reveal the ways in which comic violence may have been used both to confirm and to subvert the usual status relationship between Pantalone and Arlecchino. In many ways Pantalone and Arlecchi...
TL;DR: The authors argue that examples of Jewish comedy, concerned as they were with taboos and boundaries, offer insight into how Jewishness functioned as a cultural code that structured everyday experience, and they argue that such examples of "Jewish" comedy offered a revealing glimpse of the ways "Jewishness" shaped society.
Abstract: In early twentieth-century public discourse, ‘Jewishness’ was a taboo topic in polite conversation, and so it remained, albeit for different reasons, in the post-World War II period When ‘Jewishness’, normally ‘below the threshold of articulation’ occasionally exploded through comedy, it offered a revealing glimpse of the ways ‘Jewishness’ shaped society The article argues that examples of ‘Jewish’ comedy, concerned as they were with taboos and boundaries, offer insight into how ‘Jewishness’ functioned as a cultural code that structured everyday experience
TL;DR: The International (1999) and Number 5 (2003) novels as discussed by the authors cover the period of the beginning of the Northern Ireland Troubles in the 1960s until the present day, and depict how the often silent and unwritten majority use humour and joking as both a way of preserving the increasingly threatened "everyday" and also challenging the increasingly polarized and hegemonic political viewpoints around them.
Abstract: Much of Glenn Patterson's work is set against the backdrop of the Northern Ireland Troubles. However, rather than focusing directly on the main players of the violent upheaval in the region, Patterson's work highlights the day-to-day lives of ‘ordinary’ people. His novels The International (1999) and Number 5 (2003) cover the period of the beginning of the Troubles in the 1960s until the present day. The narratives depict how the often silent and unwritten majority use humour and joking as both a way of preserving the increasingly threatened ‘everyday’ and also challenging the increasingly polarized and hegemonic political viewpoints around them. Just as the novels exploit a liminal point in time and space, so the humour contained within them exploits the malleable and liminal nature of joking itself.
TL;DR: The authors argue that there is amusement to be found in seeing the inanimate animated, which is similar to the pleasure found in incongruous humour, and that the fundamental collaboration required for an audience to appreciate a puppet performance lends the form a particular comic specialism which may help explain why puppets appear to thrive in comic contexts.
Abstract: Many of the studies that explore the fascination audiences have with puppets have focused largely on the relationship between the operator and the object and the illusion engendered through performance. Those that attend to the issue of humour, such as Dina and Joel Sherzer’s Humour and Comedy in Puppetry in 1987, tend to address generic comic components of specific puppet practices, and only minimally engage with the more fundamental concerns about how the object may be viewed humorously by audiences. This article intends to bridge this gap in scholarship by exploring the similarities between spectatorship and humour in relation to puppet practices. Drawing links between the incongruities inherent within puppet forms, particularly those revealed through the juxtaposition of object and human operator, and theories of humour, I argue that there is amusement to be found in seeing the inanimate animated, which is similar to the pleasure found in incongruous humour. While not all puppets are used for comic purposes, my argument suggests that the fundamental collaboration required for an audience to appreciate a puppet performance lends the form a particular comic specialism which may help explain why, historically, puppets appear to thrive in comic contexts.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors look at Johnstonian improv as exemplified by Theatresports, and how the broad structure of these performances creates a range of centrifugal forces.
Abstract: This article looks at Johnstonian improv (those forms of improv devised and influenced by Keith Johnstone) as exemplified by Theatresports, and how the broad structure of these performances creates a range of centrifugal forces. It discusses the ways in which these forces bring a range of comedy theories into play in a particular combination and explores the comic effects of this. Finally, this article makes the assertion that the centrifugal forces at work within Johnstonian improv are the result of a reaction to a number of centripetal forces against which Johnstone was reacting.
TL;DR: Styles as mentioned in this paper first came across the character through a working apprenticeship spent in a theatrical supply shop in London that sold second-hand magic tricks, ventriloquist's dummies and somewhat inevitably Punch and Judy puppets.
Abstract: Magician, comedy performer and cultural historian, John Styles is an internationally regarded authority on all aspects of the enduring comedic persona of Mr Punch. John first came across the character through a working apprenticeship spent in a theatrical supply shop in London that sold second-hand magic tricks, ventriloquist's dummies and somewhat inevitably Punch and Judy puppets. John was initially drawn into this arcane world through a youthful fascination with magic, which endures to this day, however, the owner of the shop was a ‘punchman’ — a puppeteer and it was to be only a matter of time before John was to succumb to the emotive powers of Mr Punch and his entourage and start performing his own shows. That was the start of it all. John has been a ‘Punchman’ now for over 50 years. He has performed around the world in such diverse places as Broadway in New York City, Hollywood, The National Theatre and the Houses of Parliament. His work has been featured in numerous films, TV commercials an...