{"title":"Laugh Lines: Humor, Genre, and Political Critique in Late Twentieth-Century American Poetry by Carrie Conners (review)","authors":"Kylen Smith","doi":"10.5325/studamerhumor.9.1.0192","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.9.1.0192","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53944,"journal":{"name":"Studies in American Humor","volume":"370 1","pages":"192 - 194"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77852823","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Last Laughs: Perspectives on Women and Comedy ed. by Regina Barreca (review)","authors":"M. Stetz","doi":"10.5325/studamerhumor.9.1.0185","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.9.1.0185","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53944,"journal":{"name":"Studies in American Humor","volume":"40 1","pages":"185 - 188"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78048974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Playing with the (Gendered) Rules of Stand-Up: Alternative Aesthetics of Power in Kristen Schaal: Live at The Fillmore","authors":"Luise Charlotte Noé","doi":"10.5325/studamerhumor.9.1.0051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.9.1.0051","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:Why are female stand-up performers more likely to be viewed favorably if they are designated “alternative” rather than “mainstream”? Herein this article explores answers to this question while adding to the scholarship on alternative comedy in the United States, which emerged in the late 1990s and early aughts. Focusing on stand-up comedian Kristen Schaal, this article explains the connection between aesthetics and gender by arguing that the alternative style aims to subvert previous notions of performative power. By decentering masculine codings of power, alternative comedy evades the gender expectations that alienated mainstream audiences from female performers in the past, allowing female performers further avenues to success.","PeriodicalId":53944,"journal":{"name":"Studies in American Humor","volume":"94 1","pages":"51 - 70"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83555040","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lisa M. Beringer, Terrence T. Tucker, Joseph Litvak, Derek C. Maus, Juniper Ellis
{"title":"On Second Thought","authors":"Lisa M. Beringer, Terrence T. Tucker, Joseph Litvak, Derek C. Maus, Juniper Ellis","doi":"10.5325/studamerhumor.9.1.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.9.1.0004","url":null,"abstract":"Editors: Reading Grace Heneks’s analysis of the Black satirical critique of the white embrace of postracialism in “‘We Cool?’ Satirizing Whiteness in Obama-Era Black Satire” made me think of Richard Pryor’s lament in his 1976 routine Bicentennial Prayer: “How long will this bullshit go on?”1 Heneks’s article documents the practices of casual racism, drawing on Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s concept of new racism, thereby pointing to the fine line between white liberalism and white supremacy: the white liberal fears being called racist; the white supremacist fears a truly postracial and pluralistic society. Both choose silence to maintain the status quo. White claims that we have entered an era of postracialialty—white claims, because Black folks know the idea is “bullshit”—shut down needed discussions of ongoing racial hierarchy and seek to make invisible the harm done by racism to those deemed “other” to whiteness. Heneks’s analysis of Key & Peele’s “Apologies” sketch and Black-ish’s scenes from the episodes “Lemons” and “Gap Year” offer an exploration of the fantasy that exists in white minds that underlies the white liberal fear of being called racist. By centering the subjectivity and humanity of Black people in these vignettes, the satirist is able, Heneks argues, to flip the narrative and deconstruct the fantasy of white liberalism, which is often (un) wittingly supportive of white supremacy. Most intriguing to me about “Apologies” is that in it Key and Peele are trying to have a conversation about Game of Thrones—a fantasy about white nobility and power structures—but they are repeatedly interrupted by white people trying to assert their “coolness.” I wish Heneks had pushed harder","PeriodicalId":53944,"journal":{"name":"Studies in American Humor","volume":"65 1","pages":"12 - 4"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84417441","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hollywood Screwball Comedy, 1934–1945: Sex, Love, and Democratic Ideals by Grégoire Halbout (review)","authors":"Olympia Kiriakou","doi":"10.5325/studamerhumor.9.1.0181","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.9.1.0181","url":null,"abstract":"by Colbert’s serious monologue. Indeed, a lot of viewers might have been upset if he made jokes about a hugely serious threat to American democracy. More significantly, I do not think that the authors sufficiently substantiate their concluding argument that right-wing comedy serves as “the blowtorch that welds together contemporary right-wing politics” (187). Lacing right-wing invective with comedic elements may make it more digestible for some individuals and seeing conservative comics and performers may provide audiences with validation of their views, given the paucity of mainstream comic forms with an overtly conservative perspective. Nonetheless, it is a huge leap to say that comedy, rather than racialized grievances, nostalgia, or the increase in economic inequality over the last forty years, is the glue that binds all the different elements of the right. Despite the book’s flaws, That’s Not Funny: How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them could be constructively utilized in graduate courses on media, popular culture, politics, and comedy. It is a timely examination of an important contemporary cultural phenomenon and is certainly likely to encourage class discussion.","PeriodicalId":53944,"journal":{"name":"Studies in American Humor","volume":"5 1","pages":"181 - 184"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90119682","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“A Punch Back, . . . a Contagious Guffaw”: Feminist Humor in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and the Professionalization of the Rebellious Laugh","authors":"Shuhita Bhattacharjee","doi":"10.5325/studamerhumor.9.1.0031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.9.1.0031","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:In depicting the fraught journey of a woman stand-up comedian in the late 1950s and 1960s, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel portrays stand-up as an ethical medium of truth telling and of sociopolitical protest that challenges systemic hierarchies of gender and sexuality. In this article, I show that stand-up’s foundational subversion is in its professionalism and in its departure from other forms of art. In the show, female stand-up comic Midge Maisel learns to function first as a seasoned professional and then as an ethical crusader who ultimately mounts a two-pronged attack on the sexist underpinnings of American humor and the patriarchal structure of stand-up, substantially influencing the way we receive this liminal genre of cultural expression and reframing it as an empowering vehicle of the marginalized.","PeriodicalId":53944,"journal":{"name":"Studies in American Humor","volume":"22 1","pages":"31 - 50"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86161737","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Who’s Laughing Now: Feminist Perspectives on Humour and Laughter ed. by Anna Lise Frey (review)","authors":"Jordan Hansen","doi":"10.5325/studamerhumor.9.1.0197","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.9.1.0197","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53944,"journal":{"name":"Studies in American Humor","volume":"24 24 1","pages":"197 - 199"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88700817","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Played Out: The Race Man in Twenty-First-Century Satire","authors":"Owen Cantrell","doi":"10.5325/studamerhumor.9.1.0194","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.9.1.0194","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53944,"journal":{"name":"Studies in American Humor","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83676539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dispatches from the Farm: The Literary Craft of John Gould’s Maine Humor","authors":"David B. Raymond","doi":"10.5325/studamerhumor.9.1.0071","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.9.1.0071","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53944,"journal":{"name":"Studies in American Humor","volume":"22 1","pages":"71 - 83"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80388323","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}