Pub Date : 2022-09-01DOI: 10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0404
Zsófia Anna Tóth
met Groucho Marx and got invited to the famous club, the first one for Jewish people in Los Angeles, regaling his readers with the tales that tickled him when he first heard them from George Burns, Jack Benny, and Danny Thomas, but the movement from 1969 to 1987 is almost instantaneous, and it is unclear exactly why he goes back to the 1960s and early 1970s before closing out this chapter. The rest of the book follows the same pattern—recollections of specific moments in history in the context of a thematic overview. Though Steinberg’s groupings are logical and the tales throughout his memoir are captivating, the narrative moving around in time confuses, like a joke that does not land well. The problem is understandable, especially when considering that David Steinberg has been active since the 1960s, has met many of the most highly regarded Canadian and American comedians since the 1930s, and tells stories from across almost a century of comedy. Nevertheless, arranging all the chapters either thematically or chronologically would have made this valuable memoir easier to follow. Overall, this book is a must read if one wants to learn more about not only David Steinberg but also the many brilliant, talented people he has known over the course of his life. He clearly treasures the many friendships he has with those still living as well as the memories he made with those who have passed on. For anyone who wishes for stories from behind the scenes, reading the memoir is worth the time.
{"title":"Becoming Carole Lombard: Stardom, Comedy, and Legacy","authors":"Zsófia Anna Tóth","doi":"10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0404","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0404","url":null,"abstract":"met Groucho Marx and got invited to the famous club, the first one for Jewish people in Los Angeles, regaling his readers with the tales that tickled him when he first heard them from George Burns, Jack Benny, and Danny Thomas, but the movement from 1969 to 1987 is almost instantaneous, and it is unclear exactly why he goes back to the 1960s and early 1970s before closing out this chapter. The rest of the book follows the same pattern—recollections of specific moments in history in the context of a thematic overview. Though Steinberg’s groupings are logical and the tales throughout his memoir are captivating, the narrative moving around in time confuses, like a joke that does not land well. The problem is understandable, especially when considering that David Steinberg has been active since the 1960s, has met many of the most highly regarded Canadian and American comedians since the 1930s, and tells stories from across almost a century of comedy. Nevertheless, arranging all the chapters either thematically or chronologically would have made this valuable memoir easier to follow. Overall, this book is a must read if one wants to learn more about not only David Steinberg but also the many brilliant, talented people he has known over the course of his life. He clearly treasures the many friendships he has with those still living as well as the memories he made with those who have passed on. For anyone who wishes for stories from behind the scenes, reading the memoir is worth the time.","PeriodicalId":53944,"journal":{"name":"Studies in American Humor","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87801016","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}
Pub Date : 2022-09-01DOI: 10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0252
A. Aghapour, Samuel Gates, Michelle Robinson
ABSTRACT:This conversation addresses the social meanings and aesthetic role of the N-word in stand-up comedy, where its power, utility, and relation to Blackness are hashed out in performances and in dialogues among artists. We turn our attention to stand-up comedy as a vital cultural space for deconstructing and repurposing the N-word. We discuss how the stand-up comedian, as a sociopolitical commentator who subverts audiences’ expectations and calibrates sets through ongoing exchanges with the audiences, uses humor to wrestle with discomfort surrounding the N-word. Our dialogue focuses on the work of Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Wanda Sykes, and Sam Jay, with some consideration of Louis C. K., George Carlin, and Hasan Minhaj. We make the case that to discuss the N-word in stand-up comedy is to engage with public understandings of Blackness and humanity.
{"title":"Chitlins and Dry Bones: A Conversation About the N-Word in Stand-Up Comedy","authors":"A. Aghapour, Samuel Gates, Michelle Robinson","doi":"10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0252","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0252","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This conversation addresses the social meanings and aesthetic role of the N-word in stand-up comedy, where its power, utility, and relation to Blackness are hashed out in performances and in dialogues among artists. We turn our attention to stand-up comedy as a vital cultural space for deconstructing and repurposing the N-word. We discuss how the stand-up comedian, as a sociopolitical commentator who subverts audiences’ expectations and calibrates sets through ongoing exchanges with the audiences, uses humor to wrestle with discomfort surrounding the N-word. Our dialogue focuses on the work of Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Wanda Sykes, and Sam Jay, with some consideration of Louis C. K., George Carlin, and Hasan Minhaj. We make the case that to discuss the N-word in stand-up comedy is to engage with public understandings of Blackness and humanity.","PeriodicalId":53944,"journal":{"name":"Studies in American Humor","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82597457","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}
Pub Date : 2022-09-01DOI: 10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0402
Kyle Smith
{"title":"Inside Comedy: The Soul, Wit, and Bite of Comedy and Comedians of the Last Five Decades","authors":"Kyle Smith","doi":"10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0402","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0402","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53944,"journal":{"name":"Studies in American Humor","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81299192","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}
Pub Date : 2022-09-01DOI: 10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0337
Diego A. Millan
ABSTRACT:This article takes up the centrality of jokes in Chester Himes’s If He Hollers Let Him Go and analyzes them in ways that push on the limits of social protest fiction, a genre understood as anything but comedic. Tracing a relationship between interiority, what I call “the frictions of social laughter,” and deferment in Himes’s novel shows how pockets of life are made possible within inhospitable environments produced by racist power structures. Ultimately, by exploring the challenges of laughing together, this article shows that the role that laughter and joking plays in the novel’s expanded vision for Black life is larger than previously understood, going beyond the merely instrumental.
{"title":"Joking at the Limits of Protest in Chester Himes’s If He Hollers Let Him Go","authors":"Diego A. Millan","doi":"10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0337","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0337","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This article takes up the centrality of jokes in Chester Himes’s If He Hollers Let Him Go and analyzes them in ways that push on the limits of social protest fiction, a genre understood as anything but comedic. Tracing a relationship between interiority, what I call “the frictions of social laughter,” and deferment in Himes’s novel shows how pockets of life are made possible within inhospitable environments produced by racist power structures. Ultimately, by exploring the challenges of laughing together, this article shows that the role that laughter and joking plays in the novel’s expanded vision for Black life is larger than previously understood, going beyond the merely instrumental.","PeriodicalId":53944,"journal":{"name":"Studies in American Humor","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88434976","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}
Pub Date : 2022-09-01DOI: 10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0237
Darryl Dickson-Carr
{"title":"Introduction: Black Laughs Matter","authors":"Darryl Dickson-Carr","doi":"10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0237","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0237","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53944,"journal":{"name":"Studies in American Humor","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73167899","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}
Pub Date : 2022-09-01DOI: 10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0234
Mike Reiss
{"title":"Spit Takes: The Algebra of Jokes","authors":"Mike Reiss","doi":"10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0234","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0234","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53944,"journal":{"name":"Studies in American Humor","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72520914","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}
Pub Date : 2022-09-01DOI: 10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0275
Grace Heneks
ABSTRACT:This article explores Obama-era whiteness by examining two television shows of the period: Comedy Central’s Key & Peele (2012–15) and ABC’s Black-ish (2014–22). Focusing my analysis on the sketch “Apologies” from Key & Peele and select scenes from two Black-ish episodes, I analyze the relationship between whiteness and postraciality as well as the consequences this relationship has on Black subjectivity today. I argue that in the postracial era, liberal white people have remained complicit in white supremacy through a fear of being labeled racist. Both shows suggest that overt racists and liberal whites alike partake in white supremacy, making it crucial to talk about how whiteness functions. By fostering conversations about race, both shows work against the US’s entwinement with white supremacy.
{"title":"“We cool?”: Satirizing Whiteness in Obama-Era Black Satire","authors":"Grace Heneks","doi":"10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0275","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0275","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This article explores Obama-era whiteness by examining two television shows of the period: Comedy Central’s Key & Peele (2012–15) and ABC’s Black-ish (2014–22). Focusing my analysis on the sketch “Apologies” from Key & Peele and select scenes from two Black-ish episodes, I analyze the relationship between whiteness and postraciality as well as the consequences this relationship has on Black subjectivity today. I argue that in the postracial era, liberal white people have remained complicit in white supremacy through a fear of being labeled racist. Both shows suggest that overt racists and liberal whites alike partake in white supremacy, making it crucial to talk about how whiteness functions. By fostering conversations about race, both shows work against the US’s entwinement with white supremacy.","PeriodicalId":53944,"journal":{"name":"Studies in American Humor","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88979609","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}
Pub Date : 2022-09-01DOI: 10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0381
Bruce F Michelson
{"title":"Irony and Sarcasm","authors":"Bruce F Michelson","doi":"10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0381","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0381","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53944,"journal":{"name":"Studies in American Humor","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85313799","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}
Pub Date : 2022-09-01DOI: 10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0399
Winifred Morgan
{"title":"The Outsider, Art, and Humour","authors":"Winifred Morgan","doi":"10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0399","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0399","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53944,"journal":{"name":"Studies in American Humor","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85319270","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}
Pub Date : 2022-09-01DOI: 10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0317
Adriana Wiszniewska
ABSTRACT:This article focuses on race and humor in Fran Ross’s satirical novel Oreo, about a half-Black, half-Jewish young woman named Oreo, who goes on a quixotic quest to find her absentee father. I argue that Oreo blends high and low forms of comedy, the intellectual and the grotesque, into a complex and irreverent sense of humor that highlights the absurdity of racial and gender hierarchies. I demonstrate how the novel uses representations of animated, mechanized bodies as a site for much of its comedy and as commentary on the racial and gender politics of its moment. The novel’s comedic sensibility finds its parallel in Oreo’s hybrid identity, which allows her to traverse boundaries and situates her as a cyborg-like figure that resists being sexualized, discriminated against, or humiliated. Ross takes these issues up further on the level of form and aesthetics, creating a carnivalesque world in which racial stereotypes are inverted and structures of power are destabilized. In the end, Ross’s simultaneous mastery and bastardization of the comedic form of the satirical novel destabilizes the rigid binaries typically associated with race, gender, and comedy.
{"title":"“Half a wit is better than none”: Race, Humor, and the Grotesque in Fran Ross’s Oreo","authors":"Adriana Wiszniewska","doi":"10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0317","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0317","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This article focuses on race and humor in Fran Ross’s satirical novel Oreo, about a half-Black, half-Jewish young woman named Oreo, who goes on a quixotic quest to find her absentee father. I argue that Oreo blends high and low forms of comedy, the intellectual and the grotesque, into a complex and irreverent sense of humor that highlights the absurdity of racial and gender hierarchies. I demonstrate how the novel uses representations of animated, mechanized bodies as a site for much of its comedy and as commentary on the racial and gender politics of its moment. The novel’s comedic sensibility finds its parallel in Oreo’s hybrid identity, which allows her to traverse boundaries and situates her as a cyborg-like figure that resists being sexualized, discriminated against, or humiliated. Ross takes these issues up further on the level of form and aesthetics, creating a carnivalesque world in which racial stereotypes are inverted and structures of power are destabilized. In the end, Ross’s simultaneous mastery and bastardization of the comedic form of the satirical novel destabilizes the rigid binaries typically associated with race, gender, and comedy.","PeriodicalId":53944,"journal":{"name":"Studies in American Humor","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80728993","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}
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