Showing papers in "Comedy Studies in 2016"
TL;DR: In this article, the use of mimicry in stand-up comedy is analyzed and four comedians were selected based on their extensive use of mimicking in their routines, including verbal and nonverbal mimicry.
Abstract: The goal of this study is to analyse the use of mimicry in Nigerian stand-up comedy. Mimicry is conceived as a strategy in the routines of Nigerian stand-up comedians, who adopt two kinds of mimicry acts: verbal and nonverbal. For comedians to use mimicry, they have to draw from collective beliefs they share with their audience. On their part, the audience find a mimicry act humorous because it relates to their background assumptions. Data for analysis comprised four routines of four Nigerian stand-up comedians purposively selected because of the comics’ extensive use of mimicry. Mimicry activates background assumptions, distorts the collective representation of the target and could be used for articulating voice in stand-up performances.
20 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that overemphasis on the distinction between humour's form and content inhibits attempt to make sense of controversial humour and renders it difficult to assess examples that lack clear formal joke-work.
Abstract: This article interrogates the cultural politics of a 2012 incident in which stand-up comedian Daniel Tosh wished rape upon a female heckler and the substantial online debates that arose in response to his remarks. Through an investigation of the online reaction that followed Tosh's remarks, I illustrate how popular responses to controversial humour frequently follow discursive paths that characterise humour as alternately an aesthetic or ethical form. Drawing on Sigmund Freud's theory of joking, I argue that these discursive paths can be aligned with Freud's distinction between the formal ‘joke-work’ of humour and its potential to give voice to repressed statements of socially forbidden aggression and obscenity. However, rather than accepting this model as an explanation, I then argue that overemphasis on the distinction between humour's form and content inhibits attempt to make sense of controversial humour and renders it difficult to assess examples that lack clear formal joke-work. In order to ...
8 citations
TL;DR: The role of self-documentation plays in stand-up comedy is unique within the performing arts, it intertwines the functions of memory, creation, translation, performance, and archive and transcends the art itself to additionally serve as a representation of self.
Abstract: The role self-documentation plays in stand-up comedy is unique within the performing arts. It intertwines the functions of memory, creation, translation, performance, and archive and transcends the art itself to additionally serve as a representation of self. I am engaged in an ongoing study of comedian's practices in documenting their material and set-lists which involves Practice as Research, Practice as Research in Performance, interviewing comedians of both genders from a broad spectrum of backgrounds, ages and skill levels, and organising and analysing the quantitative and qualitative data that are yielded. At this stage my findings show that while comedians utilise a range of documentation methods and practices, these methods and practices are consistently ritualised and exhibit various mnemonic and hermeneutic elements.
6 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored how United States' politicians characterize late-night television humor, including mentions by Presidents George Bush, George W. Bush, Gerald Ford, and Bill Clinton, in United States presidential remarks.
Abstract: From content analyses to effects studies to rhetorical and critical analyses, we have a growing body of scholarship exploring political humor on United States late night television. The growing body of political humor scholarship reveals how late night comedy characterizes politics and politicians. What has not yet been explored, however, is how United States' politicians characterize late night television humor. Recognizing Saturday Night Live (SNL) as a unique type of late night television political humor in the USA, this essay turns to SNL mentions in United States' presidential remarks, including mentions by Presidents George Bush, George W. Bush, Gerald Ford, and Bill Clinton. Directions for future scholarship in this area are also proposed.
6 citations
TL;DR: A qualitative, linguistic analysis of layered comic techniques used by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant in the British comedy series Life's Too Short can be found in this article, where the writers exploit workplace interactions, service encounters and media interactions in the docu-comedy format to multipl...
Abstract: What follows is a qualitative, linguistic analysis of layered comic techniques used by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant in the British comedy series Life's Too Short. Because each episode revolves round Warwick Davis, an actor with restricted growth, or dwarfism, the likelihood of taboo infringement and of consequent offence is considerable. One of the ways in which this risk is diluted in contemporary comedy is through the process of ‘convolution’, a multiple layering of comic effects that can attenuate offensiveness in two possible ways: either by increasing a sense of ridiculousness, or by being so tangled as to make it difficult for viewers to identify with any certainty the point of the comedy. Referring to aspects of conversation analysis like politeness and facework theory, and to facets of mediated interaction, chiefly participation framework, this paper considers how the writers exploit workplace interactions, service encounters and media interactions in the docucomedy format to multipl...
3 citations
TL;DR: This paper analyzed the performance styles present in Monty Python and Kids in the Hall sketches and observed a shift from a camp to a queering sensibility, using Esther Newton's Mother Camp (1972) and Judith Butler's Gender Trouble (1990) during the broadcast of each show.
Abstract: Monty Python (1969–1974) and Kids in the Hall (1988–1994) are two male comedy sketch show troupes well known for performing as women. Through analysis of the performance styles present in Monty Python and Kids in the Hall sketches, we can observe a shift from a camp to a queer sensibility. Esther Newton's Mother Camp (1972) and Judith Butler's Gender Trouble (1990) were released, respectively, during the broadcast of each show and provide a critical framework through which the subversiveness of a given act of drag can be evaluated. Female impersonation in Monty Python's Flying Circus is signified by handbags, permed hair and voices that alternate between shrill and husky. Gender transformation is achieved through the foregrounding of token signifiers that hyperbolically represent femininity, but do not attempt to approximate it. By contrast, the more nuanced female impersonation in Kids in the Hall reconfigures the gender of the performers to achieve a queering effect. Using Newton and Butler to d...
2 citations
TL;DR: This article explored the work of Mable Constanduros (1880-1957) who was a prolific writer and actress for radio, film and theatre, specialising in comedy.
Abstract: This article explores the work of Mable Constanduros (1880–1957), who was a prolific writer and actress for radio, film and theatre, specialising in comedy. Her radio series The Buggins Family (over 250 episodes were broadcast by the BBC between 1928 and 1948) was possibly the first situation comedy, but has never been recognised as such. In this article, I recreate scripts, analyse the structure of Constanduros's most famous Buggins episodes, and evaluate her performance, putting it into context with the wider culture in radio at the time. Frances Gray argues that sitcom is traditionally the preserve of men in her book Women and Laughter (1994), and that until very recently women have been regarded as contributing less to the genre, which could explain the reluctance to give Constanduros her true recognition. It is now commonly acknowledged that women have been victims of sexism in many ways and comedy writing is no exception. The men who were prominent in early radio comedy and drama are well kn...
2 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider actors' documentation of their process and suggest how performers' "reflection-on action" might become more formalised in the study and recording of performance.
Abstract: This article considers actors' documentation of their process and suggest how performers' ‘reflection-on action’ might become more formalised in the study and recording of performance. While ‘autobiographical’ material is generally regarded as being unreliable in providing source material for the documentation of performance, validated documented contributions on what the central producer – the actor – brings to theatre, film or television productions tend to be hard to find. Actors' memoirs provide, at best, fleeting glimpses into the performer's process within the overall play or film. Nonetheless, where documentary examples of performer's input do exist, these can offer valuable insights into the nature of the part that the performer plays in the creation of the artefact. The case for making more formal documentation of process (particularly for performers-in-training) is presented here. The article draws on one brief case study to indicate how, even the most informal documentary evidence that ...
2 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a textual analysis of the comedy of George Carlin in an effort to demonstrate his ‘politically incorrect’ speech actually espoused highly progressive values is presented.
Abstract: In 2015, comedians Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Bill Maher, and several others took to their respective media platforms to voice their frustration with the institution of political correctness. Of course, no one would argue that having less tolerance, understanding, and inclusivity would be a good thing for America or any other nation. Nonetheless, a point appears to be emerging in which a person's taste in humor is becoming an extension of their political identity. In other words, it is not funny unless it meets the taste requirements as prescribed by a political paradigm. Inspired by the ongoing debate started by Seinfeld and Rock, this article offers a textual analysis of the comedy of George Carlin in an effort to demonstrate his ‘politically incorrect’ speech actually espoused highly progressive values. Furthermore, the downside to political correctness is that it sometimes produces impulsive, mechanical reactions to certain key words, phrases, and topics. And these reactions occur at the expe...
2 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a serious lens through which to view what has been a seriously under-scrutinised topic, namely, the condition of being alive.
Abstract: an ‘old comedy’ vaudevillian playfulness). At any rate, May’s erudition and scholarship presents us with another way of thinking about comedy and crucially, he offers us a serious lens through which to view what has been a seriously under-scrutinised topic. I also think that May helps to connect some of the missing elements within Bergson’s bodily misalliance theory in his account of the dysfunctional and anthropic objects and in his consideration of physical impairment, extrapolated from the areas of comic performance that he focuses mainly upon here, i.e. clowning, puppetry and physical, visual and verbal acts and routines. May’s book adds admirably to the philosophies of comedy that have exercised so many great philosophers before us. The analysis places comedy at the forefront and discusses it as something important, fundamentally humanising and informative about the condition of being alive. In summation, both these titles persuade us that, as Quirk shows us, nothing is ‘only a joke’ (190) and are highly recommended for anyone interested in comedy studies.
1 citations
TL;DR: The one-day conference on "Rhythm as pattern and variation" as discussed by the authors was held at Goldsmiths in April this year, which was attended by Paola Crespi, whose own research interests lie in the ar...
Abstract: I attended the one-day conference on ‘Rhythm as pattern and variation’ held at Goldsmiths in April this year. The conference was convened by Paola Crespi, whose own research interests lie in the ar...
TL;DR: In their scripts for the television and radio shows of Hancock's Half Hour, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson formulaically employed prolepsis to enable rapid composition of an ironic twist for each episode's ending.
Abstract: In their scripts for the television and radio shows of Hancock's Half Hour, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson formulaically employed prolepsis to enable rapid composition of an ironic twist for each episode's ending. For each denouement, a moment from earlier in the episode was revisited and amplified, sometimes explicitly, but more often because, one senses, the writers sought inspiration by looking over what they had already written to see if a suitable candidate moment could be reworked. By the beginning of the second radio series (April–July 1955), the expectation of an ending that recapitulated an antecedent moment was firmly established, and in the finest episodes, Galton and Simpson show an ironic self-consciousness about formulaic writing and the sense of an ending. The self-consciousness is most apparent in the celebrated television episode called ‘The Missing Page’.
TL;DR: In this article, a comic actor becomes over-associated with a particular, celebrated comic character can lead to problems, not merely in terms of type-casting, but in creating confusions for the actor's own perception of self.
Abstract: When a performer becomes over-associated with a particular, celebrated comic character can this lead to problems, not merely in terms of type-casting, but in creating confusions for the actor’s own perception of self? In instances where a comic creation is perceived to be an extension of the performer’s actual ‘self’, what dissonances in self construct may arise between the comic actor’s created persona and his/her own presentation of self? This article considers the nature of tensions created through the permeation of persona and person which can beset comedians who become closely identified with their particular mediated role. Can, indeed, over-association with their successful ‘signature’ comic role be seen to prove psychologically destabilising for certain performers whose own fragile, sense of identity becomes further compromised by presentation of their own most familiar and definitive, comic creations? Drawing specifically upon the career and comedy of Phil Silvers (aka ‘Sergeant ‘Bilko’), this article attempts to evaluate the forms of crises of identity that can arise between presentations of public and private selves for those performers who become, in effect, ‘public comic property’.
TL;DR: The authors take Matthew Reason's theoretical "Archive of Detritus" as the starting point for a written archive of detritus in which my memories of an academic presentation and an audience's drawn and written responses are included together.
Abstract: I take Matthew Reason's theoretical ‘Archive of Detritus’ as the starting point for a written archive of detritus in which my memories of an academic presentation and an audience's drawn and written responses are included together. It becomes an account of the type of subjective, embodied material which is often left out, both of research about comedy and performance archives. Accounts of the performance function as alternative memories of the event and the way in which official archives compete to become official memories of live performances is critiqued. I explore the possibilities of performance auto/ethnography and creative audience response methods for giving new insights into stand-up comedy as a dialogic form and look ahead to research methods which might give both audience and performer more of a voice in stand-up research.
TL;DR: Handley as discussed by the authors pointed out that "dying is easy, comedy is hard" is a chestnut attributed to Edmund Kean on his death bed when he coined the immortal line. But it is true we all intuitively nod in agreement when this wonderful aphoristic chestnut is rolled out.
Abstract: Any one worth their comedy salt knows the oft-quoted line attributed to Edmund Kean on his death bed when he coined the immortal line ‘dying is easy, comedy is hard.’ And yes, it is true we all intuitively nod in agreement when this wonderful aphoristic chestnut is rolled out. Like the members of Spinal Tap gawping at Elvis's grave in Graceland, it puts ‘too much perspective’ on the whole question of what the hell is comedy? Someone who might have another insight into this often mysterious world is aspiring and professional stand-up comedian Jay Handley.
TL;DR: In this paper, the British Newspaper Library was used for research into music hall performers in the early twentieth century magazine the Red Letter, which led to uncovering much more information previously unknown, particularly in relation to the rise to prominence of Charlie Chaplin.
Abstract: The authors undertook research in the British Newspaper Library into music hall performers in the early twentieth century magazine the Red Letter. The magazine uniquely gives details of various acts and the audiences' reaction to them. However, due to lax record-keeping on their part, it was necessary to return to the library, which accidentally led to the uncovering of much more information previously unknown, particularly in relation to the rise to prominence of Charlie Chaplin. The authors are now looking at producer Mike Craig's comedy archive, maintained at the University of Salford.
TL;DR: The Land Green Plums by Herta Muller as mentioned in this paper was the winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize for literature and is generally known to be voicing the pains of victims of totalitarian regimes.
Abstract: The winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize for literature, Herta Muller is generally known to be voicing the pains of victims of totalitarian regimes. Unlike previous Mullerian studies, we focus on comic elements in her most widely read novel The Land Green Plums. The paper starts with giving a brief introduction of the impact of Aristophanes on visual as well as obscene comedy in the sociopolitical context and then develops the mentioned concepts in the novel. We also highlight the totalitarian militarism using certain scenes of Charlie Chaplin's pictures which depicted failure of both capitalism and communism. Finally, discussing the reverberation of black humor in the work, we compare the novel with Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels on the ground of depiction of a reverse world, significance of death, state of welfare, and languish of plebeians' vision.
TL;DR: This article argued that comic hypnosis is an artistic performance that flirts with the uncanny but runs the risk of being overwhelmed by it, and argued that the uncanniness of the content of performance can run counter to the humorous intent of the activity.
Abstract: Drawing from the art of stage hypnotism, in this article, I contend that there are certain aesthetic practices in which the uncanniness of the content of performance can run counter to the humorous intent of the activity. Comic hypnotism is an artistic performance that flirts with the uncanny but runs the risk of being overwhelmed by it. I argue here that comedy hypnosis must do something more than succumb to uncanniness. Looking at the work of Guy Michaels I consider the work of a performer who emphasizes the comedic over the degrading, and harnesses positive experiences of sociality and laughing with others over negative experiences of exploitation and laughing at others. This article considers ways in which a successful performer navigates the razor's edge between being comical and being creepy.
TL;DR: A new-found boost in the value assigned to clown training and its practitioners has also visibly filtered into the public arena, via tributes paid by household names such as Sacha Baron Cohen, or Edinburgh Perrier award-winner Phil Burgers (Dr Brown) and others, to master clown teachers such as Philippe Gaulier as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Over the last half-century, clown workshops and training, since Jacques Lecoq's experiments teaching clowning in the early 1960s, have gained considerable status within the field of performer training. A new-found boost in the value assigned to clown training and its practitioners has also visibly filtered into the public arena, via tributes paid by household names such as Sacha Baron-Cohen, or Edinburgh Perrier award-winner Phil Burgers (Dr Brown) and others, to master clown teachers such as Philippe Gaulier. However, clown training remains a relatively isolated niche in the wider worlds of acting or comedy and, outside the confines of the clown workshop, very little is known about just what the value of clown training might be, or indeed what it is. Are the experiences of students and teachers of clowning alike, which are often reported to be ‘life-changing’, destined to lie neglected as traces in the personal memories of participants? Or can they be documented and disseminated in such a way tha...
TL;DR: In this paper, a close reading of a sequence of jokes from a live performance by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr, recorded at the Sands Hotel, Las Vegas in September 1963, is presented.
Abstract: This article offers a close reading of a sequence of jokes from a live performance by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr, recorded at the Sands Hotel, Las Vegas in September 1963. The uneasy, racial motivation of this humour is complex, fraught and historical. The analysis of the three jokes proposes that the documented material of the event opens up their complexity by contextualising them within Erik Exe Christoffersen's notion of the performance text. The audio recording allows an opportunity to examine the jokes in relation to integral performance elements, including the persona of each speaker; the style, pace and tone of the verbal delivery; the configuration of the stage; the performers' non-verbal interactions and the audience responses. Each joke can be read as a discrete unit, according to the spatial dimension of the performance text, or as part of an unfolding sequence, according to its linear dimension. While the spatial dimension proposes each joke as a closed statement, t...