Laughing all the Way to the Closed Factory: The Deindustrialization Comedy

This article explores the comedic treatment of deindustrialization in three films: Gung Ho (US, 1986), De frigjorte (Denmark, 1993), and The Full Monty (UK, 1997). Examining the films’ different ways of portraying deindustrialization, the article discusses how symptomatic it is that these films offered their audiences a form of comedic silver lining in an era when deindustrialization was still felt acutely as a crisis. Gung Ho’s comedic take on the 1980s deindustrialization crisis invokes hopeful discourses of reindustrialization, De frigjorte explores a crisis of masculinity after its protagonist is laid off after two decades’ employment at a local factory, and The Full Monty offers a story of men overcoming deindustrialization in a communal way. Reading these films in relation to each other, the article argues that these films offered viewers faced with the realities of deindustrialization a moment of comedic distance to economic hardship.