This book argues that recent developments in contemporary comedy have changed not just the way we laugh but the way we understand the world. Drawing on a range of contemporary televisual, cinematic and digital examples, from
Seinfeld and
Veep to
Family Guy and
Chappelle’s Show, Holm explores how humour has become a central site of cultural politics in the twenty-first century. More than just a form of entertainment, humour has come to play a central role in the contemporary media environment, shaping how we understand ideas of freedom, empathy, social boundaries and even logic. Through an analysis of humour as a political and aesthetic category,
Humour as Politics challenges older models of laughter as a form of dissent and instead argues for a new theory of humour as the cultural expression of our (neo)liberal moment.
Cuprins
1. Introduction: Living in Comic Times.- 2. Dissent in Jest: Humour in the Liberal Moment.- 3. Telling Jokes to Power: The (A)Political Work of Humour.- 4. Humour without Anaesthetic: The Discomfort of Reality Comedy.- 5. Humour without Pity: The Scandal of Provocative Humour.- 6. Humour without Reason: The Nonsense of Absurd Humour.- 7. All That is Solid Collapses into Giggles: Examining the Political Aesthetics of Contemporary Humour.- 8. Conclusion: The Last Laugh.
Despre autor
Nicholas Holm is a lecturer in Media Studies at Massey University, New Zealand. He has written widely on the politics and aesthetics of popular culture, in particular contemporary humour. He is author of
Advertising and Society: A Critical Introduction (2016).
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