Overview

The Routledge Comedy Studies Reader is a selection of the most outstanding critical analysis featured in the journal Comedy Studies in the decade since its inception in 2010. The Reader illustrates the multiple perspectives that are available when analysing comedy. Wilkie’s selections present an array of critical approaches from interdisciplinary scholars, all of whom evaluate comedy from different angles and adopt a range of writing styles to explore the phenomenon. Divided into eight unique parts, the Reader offers both breadth and depth with its wide range of interdisciplinary articles and international perspectives. Of interest to students, scholars, and lovers of comedy alike, The Routledge Comedy Studies Reader offers a contemporary sample of general analyses of comedy as a mode, form, and genre.

Full Product Details

Author:   Ian Wilkie
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.820kg
ISBN:  

9780367175948

ISBN 10:   0367175940
Pages:   418
Publication Date:   24 October 2019
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Foreword by Ian Wilkie Acknowledgements Part I: Back to Basics: What is Comedy and Where Does It Come From? 1. Against Comedy Chris Ritchie 2. Thoughts on the current state of humour theory Peter Marteinson 3. The origins of comic performance in adult–child interaction Ian Wilkie and Matthew Saxton 4. The science of baby laughter Caspar Addyman and Ishbel Addyman Part II: Old Comedy: Taproots and Tropes 5. The time-travelling miser: Translation and transformation in European comedy Rachel Kirk 6. Conflict and slapstick in Commedia dell’Arte – The double act of Pantalone and Arlecchino Louise Peacock 7. Clowns do ethnography: an experiment in long-distance comic failure Barnaby King and Richard Talbot Part III: Class, Gender, Race: Reading Comedy’s Issues 8. ‘To what base uses we may return, Horatio!’ – Hamlet, Comedy and Class Struggle Isaac Hui 9. No other excuse: Race, class and gender in British Music Hall comedic performance 1914–1949 David Huxley and David James 10. 'Women Like Us?' Gilli Bush-Bailey Part IV: Doing Comedy: Giving, Receiving, Causes and Effects 11. Pretty funny: Manifesting a normatively sexy female comic body Hannah Ballou 12. No greater foe? Rethinking emotion and humour, with particular attention to the relationship between audience members and stand-up comedians Tim Miles 13. The roots of alternative comedy? – The alternative story of 20th Century Coyote and Eighties Comedy Lloyd Peters 14. Life memory archive translation performance memory archive life: textual self-documentation in stand-up comedy Christopher Molineux Part V: New Comedy? Interviews with Practitioners 15. Not the definitive version: an interview with Ross Noble Oliver Double 16. Scenes in the House of Comedy: Interview with Stewart Lee Tony Moon 17. Up and down with Barry Cryer: From an interview conducted on 22 July 2011 Tony Moon 18. Interview with Charlie Hanson Gary Turk 19. ‘Words are my weapons’: Tiffany Stevenson interview Tony Moon 20. Russell Kane: Comic chameleon Sam Friedman 21. Les Dennis: Man out of time Sam Friedman 22. ‘Not a funny place to live’: An interview with Chris Rock Kara Hunt 23. A series of ghastly mistakes that turned out right in the end Tony Moon interview with John Lloyd (comedy producer) 24. Interview with Kate Fox - stand-up poet Ian Wilkie Part VI: Critical Angles: Essays on a Joan Rivers’ Routine 25. From toothpick legs to dropping vaginas: Gender and sexuality in Joan Rivers’ stand-up comedy performance Sharon Lockyer 26. Joan Rivers – Reading the meaning Louise Peacock 27. ‘A pleasure working with you’: Humour theory and Joan Rivers Brett Mills Part VII: The World of Comedy: Culture and Satire 28. Obscenity, dirtiness and licence in Jewish comedy Debra Aarons and Marc Mierowsky 29. Satire in a multi-cultural world: a Bakhtinian analysis Grant Julin 30. Silly meets serious: discursive integration and the Stewart/Colbert era Amanda Martin, Brbara K. Kaye and Mark D. Harmon 31. The comedian, the cat, and the activist: the politics of light seriousness and the (un)serious work of contemporary laughter Ian Reilly 32. Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen, and the seriousness of (mock) documentary Cate Blouke Part VIII: New Comedy? Emerging Platforms and Forms of Expression 33. A book and a movie walk into a bar Kyle Meikle 34. Kidding around: children, comedy, and social media Peter Kunze 35. A new economy of jokes?: #Socialmedia #Comedy Rebecca Krefting and Rebecca Baruc 36. Comedy meets media: how three new media features have influenced changes in the production of stand-up comedy Jillian M. Belanger 37. The animated moving image as political cartoon Lucien Leon 38. Is vlogging the new stand-up? A compare/contrast of traditional and online models of comedic content distribution Matthew McKeague Index

Reviews

Praise for A Comedy Studies Reader, ed. Ian Wilkie An important resource for those bent on taking comedy seriously, this collection gathers disparate studies from the innovative Journal of Comedy Studies and elsewhere to illuminate contemporary performative comedy. It should prove invaluable for students in Comedy Studies and also remind many in Humour Studies about the importance of the relationship between a piece of humour and its mediator, whether professional or or amateur, as a creator of amusement and laughter. Jessica Milner Davis FRSN, University of Sydney

Praise for A Comedy Studies Reader, ed. Ian Wilkie An important resource for those bent on taking comedy seriously, this collection gathers disparate studies from the innovative Journal of Comedy Studies and elsewhere to illuminate contemporary performative comedy. It should prove invaluable for students in Comedy Studies and also remind many in Humour Studies about the importance of the relationship between a piece of humour and its mediator, whether professional or or amateur, as a creator of amusement and laughter. Jessica Milner Davis FRSN, University of Sydney

Author Information

Ian Wilkie is a Lecturer in Performance at the University of Salford, specialising in the Comedy Writing and Performance degree. His PhD is in Comedy and he is the author of Performing in Comedy: A Student’s Guide. Wilkie has been articles editor of Comedy Studies since 2013 (becoming main editor in 2015), and occasionally works as a comic actor.

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