Contemporary Comedy Research Articles

LAUGHTER AS A SYMPTOM OF MODERNITY: ANALYSIS OF DEMARCATIONALITY AND INTERPASSIVITY OF LAUGHTER

The author of the article aims to explore the functions and tasks of laughter in the context of modern life, as well as the difficulties that people face today, including stress and the search for identity. She proves this by refuting two common positions that exist in the academic space: 1) the understanding of laughter as a means of destroying hierarchy or as a transgressive force with the destructive potential to expose social ills; 2) the contagious nature of laughter. In the author's opinion, these positions are not able to describe and explain the phenomena taking place in the modern world. Instead of interpreting laughter as a transgression of social roles, the author proposes to understand it as a means of demarcation, that is, as an act that affirms social roles rather than destroys them. According to the author, through the act of laughter, a person demonstrates not only an understanding of the essence of a joke, but also support for the values embedded in it. Using the Lacanian notion of paroisse and the analysis of designated places for laughter, the author argues that agreement with implicit values in a joke makes it possible to identify with a certain group of people, as common values are one of the factors that unite individuals. The joke and the reaction to it with laughter become a way of communication, where the subject identifies himself in the act of laughter. The author concludes that modern people assert their identity through laughter. Using the example of contemporary comedy genres, the author demonstrates the emergence of a new interpassive function of laughter, which is opposed to its contagiousness. The interpassive nature of laughter has emerged due to the need of a modern person to replace their emotions. It can be seen as a symptom of the modern state of the subject, who is under constant stress. Due to the overloaded life, modern subject is forced to push emotions to the background. The culture of consumption and pleasure has become so widespread and accessible that the individual does not refuse certain ways of enjoyment, but transfers this function to other objects. The modern subject no longer has to take on the exhausting role of a laughing person, and thanks to the interpersonal nature of laughter, laughs and enjoys through the Other. The author concludes that such a transfer allows the modern person to feel that the action of laughter has been performed.

KOMUNIKASI PERSUASIF HABIB HUSEIN JA'FAR DALAM MEMANFAATKAN MEDIA BARU SEBAGAI ALAT PENYEBARAN PESAN DAKWAH (Analisis Semiotika Roland Barthes Pada Konten #LogIndiCloseTheDoor Episode 17)

Persuasive communication in delivering da'wah messages is very important to make messages more easily understood by the public. Approaching comedy elements as a communication style can be an interesting and effective approach to reach a wider audience. Habib Jafar's utilization of new media, especially through Youtube channels, has become a well-known figure on social media because of his contemporary material. He uses contemporary comedy elements in his preaching, which can make religious messages more familiar and easily digested by the public. This raises the question of how this impacts religious understanding among viewers. This research uses the concept of persuasive communication examined from the hypodermic needle theory. This theory discusses the influence of messages channeled through mass media and changes the behavior of the masses. This research uses descriptive qualitative research method, Roland Barthes semiotic analysis will be used as the analysis method in this research. This research shows that the da'wah messages delivered in a modern, contemporary style and comedy elements are able to be well received and influence the audience. This can be seen from the lack of bad comments, dislikes, and the large number of good comments and the number of viewers reaching tens of millions. Keywords : Persuasive Communication, Habib Ja’far, Hypodermic Needle Theory, New Media

What's the Deal with Sophists? Critical Thought and Humor in Ancient Philosophy and Contemporary Comedy

Abstract While committed to the argumentative and reasoned discourse recognizable in the work of contemporary professional philosophers, the actual practice that both Socrates and Diogenes routinely engaged in was in many ways more similar to stand-up and other forms of contemporary performative comedy. This paper analyzes the commonalities between Socrates’s and Diogenes's public philosophizing in Ancient Greece and performative comedy in the contemporary world, and emphasizes the subversive rhetorical efficiency and skeptical significance of public irony for their audiences. The paper begins by exploring the ways in which ancient philosophers relied on irony and humor to promote skepticism and critical thinking, analyzes contemporary comic performances that seem similar, and concludes with reflections on the varieties of philosophical activity and experience.

Comedy of tragedies in Nigerian popular culture

The intrinsic consequences of political actions on society become more obvious in a developing state like Nigeria, where consequences of governmental actions or inactions over the years had become tragedies causing severe emotional, mental, and material distress for its citizens, one of which is insecurity. Nigerians have consequently turned to comedy for relief as the country’s comedy content is largely centered on ridiculing politics and inefficiencies of the government. This study, therefore, attempted to ascertain the utility of comedy using as a politically-induced social problem; insecurity as a paradigm. Three (3) politically-induced contemporary comedy shows on YouTube were analyzed using Sentiment Analysis in Nvivo and a search on ‘insecurity’ and/or ‘security’ was initiated. The analysis showed a predominance of neutral comments (53%) followed by negative sentiments (29%) suggesting that most Nigerians remain unperturbed about their tragedies as Comedy remains a tool for comic relief rather than for social change.

Репрезентация безумия в кинокомедиях и сериалах

This article is devoted to analysing humorous strategies and concepts of mental illness representation in contemporary comedy films and television series. It is worth noting that such a study is relevant in Russian discourse, since in the Western scientific literature of the last decade there have been separate interdisciplinary discussions about visualizations of mental pathologies in comedy films. For instance, the comedy film Me, Myself and Irene (2000) and the posters advertising it were subjected to a detailed analysis through the prism of the concept of cultural contextualization of comic madness. Having described the strategies of mental illnesses representation in contemporary comedy films and television series, the author concludes that there is a tendency for a comic interpretation of mental illnesses. Humorous elements appear even in melodramas, thrillers or horror films (for example, in The Shining or in A Beautiful Mind). This, however, can be explained: humorous interpretation of severe ailments makes it easier for viewers to perceive this ambiguous theme. Meanwhile, such an interpretation stigmatizes a disease, making others laugh at the character but not with them. In this regard, in the last decade, comedy films and television series on the topic of mental pathologies have been trying to develop strategies to combat stigmatization and trivialization of psychopathologies. As a result, the attempt to overcome the stigma in the context of visualization of mental pathologies has led to another, more global problem — the construction of cultural images that have turned into clichés.

Comedy, Misrule and the Irish Revival

Abstract By pairing roughly contemporary comedies by two of the Irish Revival’s leading playwrights, this article sets up a case study for comparison, demonstrating how various forms of comedy were received by Dublin audiences during the Revival, and illustrating the ways in which comedy produced, and unsettled, political myths in the context of the nascent Irish theatre. Attending to plays by J. M. Synge and Lady Gregory, alongside the manifestos and political manoeuvring of the directors of the Abbey Theatre and its earlier iterations, the article suggests that, through comedic misrule, the comedies of the Revival challenged the ‘misrule’ of forms of imperialism, capitalism and modernization, clearing the way for new narratives and myths to take shape. In the fraught conditions of the opening decade of the twentieth century, comedy is the genre through which we can most acutely see the parameters of Irishness being tested on stage.

Funny and disturbing: women’s serio-comic performances on the Victorian music hall

This article considers the contributions made to UK comic performance history by women serio-comic performers on the late-nineteenth century British music hall. These women were associated with gritty and witty portrayals of the lives of lower-class Victorians and frequently engaged in ironic representations of ‘acceptable’ versions of female behaviour in performances combining the serious and the comic. Reflecting on the style and content of their characterisations and their direct interactions with audiences, the article examines the varied nature of these largely forgotten acts, and considers the echoes of such serio-comic approaches in contemporary comedy.

Old Age and Italian (Film) Comedy: Why Cry When You Can Laugh?

ABSTRACT This article contributes to an understudied topic in Italian film studies: representations of older people in contemporary comedies. After contextualising Italian cinema’s enduring tendency to employ laughter to cope with tragedy, I cast a spotlight on three of the few Italian film comedies that address the topics of old age and ageing in sustained, purposeful, and original ways. Beginning with an analysis of Fantozzi va in pensione (Neri Parenti, 1988) as a kind of precursor to more recent features, I examine the interconnected themes of work, retirement, intergenerational conflict, and death. Close readings of Metti la nonna in freezer (Giancarlo Fontana and Giuseppe Stasi, 2018) and Buoni a nulla (Gianni Di Gregorio, 2014) follow. These comedies recycle tropes addressed in Fantozzi va in pensione. Yet, when interpreted in the context of contemporary Italy, the latter two films are also innovative in their grotesque depiction of older persons as ‘human capital’.

On the Art of Dramatic Probability: Elizabeth Inchbald'sRemarks for The British Theatre

In 1806, Longman & Co. publishers commissioned the accomplished actress, playwright, and novelist Elizabeth Inchbald to compose a series of prefatory remarks for the plays to be included in theirBritish Theatreseries. One hundred and twenty-five in all, each of the plays for Longman'sBritish Theatrewas originally published and sold separately at a rate of about one per week. Once the series was complete, the plays were bound together and sold as a twenty-five-volume set. As the surviving diary entries from the two-year period during which she wrote herRemarkstestify, the task proved both arduous and unrelenting for Inchbald, especially as she had no hand in selecting the plays to be included and no control over the order in which she was asked to compose her critical commentaries. Working almost constantly, no sooner had she read one play, drafted her remarks, and copyedited the proof, than she had to turn to the next play sent by Longman, collect her thoughts, and start the process all over again. For the most part, as Annibel Jenkins has noted, “[T]here seems to be no pattern of publishing by date or genre; a tragedy by Shakespeare came out one week and a contemporary comedy the next.” At one point, the strain of this process was so unbearable that Inchbald even tried to renege on her contractual obligations, writing to Longman, “begging to decline any further progress.” This request, as her first biographer, James Boaden, records, Longman “could not be expected to permit; and she was therefore compelled toremarkthrough the whole year.” In the event, and however “dreadful” the task may have been for Inchbald, the widely advertised series proved a “great commercial success,” and Inchbald'sRemarkshave come down to us as one of the first great achievements in English dramatic criticism of the early nineteenth century.

Contemporary Spanish Comedies, “Mirror Films” & European Cinema: Evaluating Ocho Apellidos Vascos/Spanish Affair

In recent years, a series of mainstream popular comedies have been produced in France, Italy and Spain. These films share a key commonality: they exploit regional stereotypes as their fundamental c...

Nicholas Holm. 2017. Humour as Politics: The Political Aesthetics of Contemporary Comedy, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, xi, 215 pp. ISBN: 9783319509495.

Nicholas Holm. 2017. Humour as Politics: The Political Aesthetics of Contemporary Comedy, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, xi, 215 pp. ISBN: 9783319509495.

Театральне мистецтво Маріуполя: сторінки історії та сучасні реалії

The purpose of the research is to review the history of Mariupol's performing arts and to characterize the acting arts technologies (traditional and innovative), which the staff of the Mariupol Drama Theater relies on in its activity. Research methodology. The following methods have been used to achieve the goal of the research: historical is (to study the stages of the theatrical art formation of Donetsk region); analytical is (to identify the basic principles of the acting school as a result of its historical evolution); cultural studies is (to consider the acting school traditions in the context of the contemporary performing arts development in Mariupol); art studies is (in the analysis of acting schools and forms of directing technologies); source studies is (in the study of archival materials related to the theatrical life of the city). The scientific novelty is that the peculiarities of Mariupol contemporary acting art and its relation to the achievements of classical Ukrainian theater of luminaries have been revealed. Conclusions. The center of Donetsk region's theatrical culture is the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater (Mariupol). The analysis of the theater activity at different stages of its functioning makes it possible to confirm that the historical realities of the acting school development of luminaries in Donetsk have fragmentary coverage in the historical, cultural, art and theatrical literature; the formation of repertoire preferences in the actors' troupes was influenced by the touring activities of the Coryphaeus Theater. A special role in this process was played over the principles of artistic images as a central element of the performance, which combines its composition and indirectly affect other components. Despite the period of the so-called "stagnation", in the Soviet theatrical practices in the late 70's we trace the tendency to return to the traditional forms of theatrical expressiveness for the Ukrainian theater, which helped to activate the directing and acting creativity in search of new variants of combining theatrical means of the Ukrainian everyday life inherent in classical and contemporary European drama and comedy theater. The main features of the Ukrainian Acting School of the Mariupol Theater are realistic approach to the creation of stage images; widespread use of music, singing, dance; the productive work of the actor over himself.

Life’s Too Short to be polite: Exploiting impoliteness and rudeness in Gervais And Merchant’s humour about physical difference

What follows is a qualitative analysis of the use of impoliteness for comiceffect in the British comedy series Life’s Too Short written by Ricky Gervais and StephenMerchant. Because each episode centres on Warwick Davis, an actor with restrictedgrowth, or dwarfism, there is a considerable risk of superiority or disparagement-typecomedy about a taboo subject like physical difference, stigmatized in current Britishculture. In this analysis I set out to show that the authors’ use of impoliteness plays animportant role in allowing them to write comedy centred on this sensitive issue.The starting-point of the analysis is Culpeper’s proposal that impoliteness can beentertaining, which in this case is applied to scripted comedy rather than impromptuor semi-spontaneous examples of impoliteness for purposes of entertainment.Referring to aspects of impoliteness applied to entertainment, and with reference tothe concept of face, and to superiority, incongruity, and relief humour theories, thepaper suggests there are at least six techniques by which the authors use impolitenessto reprise physical difference for a contemporary comedy series.

Humor as Politics: The Political Aesthetics of Contemporary Comedy

Humor as Politics: The Political Aesthetics of Contemporary Comedy

Happily never after: the visual politics of contemporary French interracial romantic comedy

ABSTRACTThe term humour communautaire has been adopted to describe the widely popular genre of ethnic comedy cinema in France, films both praised for their ability to bring together diverse groups through humour while also raising scepticism as to whether a genre reliant upon stereotypes is not simply producing racist rhetoric. Such typecasting is particularly salient when non-European characters are juxtaposed against white counterparts, notably the case in films about interracial marriage. While stereotypes are certainly an important aspect of the representation of race in these films, this paper deviates from this typical reading to examine instead how the mise en scene in Romuald & Juliette (1989) and Qu’est-ce qu’on a fait au Bon Dieu ? (2014) undercuts narrative unity through spatial hierarchies and visual separation of racially marked bodies and white French characters. By interpreting the politics of representation in contemporary interracial comedies through the colonial and postcolonial theories of Albert Memmi and Frantz Fanon, it argues that the films ultimately portray the impossibility of complete cohesion as found in colonial-era cinema.

Nicholas Holm, Humour as Politics: The Political Aesthetics of Contemporary Comedy

<i>Nicholas Holm</i>, Humour as Politics: The Political Aesthetics of Contemporary Comedy

Nihilistic light entertainment and metamorphic linkages: dada and contemporary comedy

ABSTRACTThis article traces the metamorphic linkages between the performances of the early twentieth century Dada movement and their continuation in a form of ‘nihilistic light entertainment’ evident within contemporary comedy. The Dadaists’ preferred style of fusing music and a form of comedy was a key element of their ‘Cabaret Voltaire’. This synthesis was a peculiar performative experiment central to the German Expressionist artistic cabaret. This article posits that the Dadaist cabaret formula has been incorporated into the work of some contemporary comedians. In the UK, the alternative comedy movement in the 1980s spawned a mainstream TV incarnation, the post-modern music hall act of Reeves and Mortimer. Contemporaneously, in the US, the Dada Cabaret's meld of performance art, stand-up comedy and music is evident in the improvisations and apparent spontaneities (the non sequiturs and incongruities) employed by comedians: Zach Galifianakis, Reggie Watts and Eric Andre. In embracing the comedic style of the Cabaret Voltaire, these artists apply music as an artistic device within their performance work. In this article, these metamorphic linkages, along with notions of how improvisation and spontaneity also featured within the Dada's anarchic aleatory art experimentations will be evaluated to position the idea of neo-Dadaist strain within modern comedy.

A Soliloquy That’s Overheard or Spied on? Dramatic Techniques of Involuntary Disclosure of Secrets in The Haunted Manor by Jan Chęciński and Stanisław Moniuszko and its European Contexts

Summary The plot of The Haunted Manor hangs on scenes in which the characters confess their secrets, try to figure out the hidden truth and invent fake secrets. This article analyzes the handling of secrets in Jan Chęciński and Stanisław Moniuszko’s famous opera, paying special attention to the problem of eavesdropping and spying. After examining Chęciński and Moniuszko’s use of the neoclassical model of the overheard soliloquy, the article assesses the relationship between the treatment of the secret in The Haunted Manor and the conventions of contemporary drama. The analysis reveals that the preoccupation with secrets not only has a significant impact on the plot and the construction of individual scenes but is also used to reach out to the world of contemporary comedy. In effect, this study rejects the description of The Haunted Manor as an artless celebration of provincial backwardness and shows that its dramatic handling of secrets is as skilful and sophisticated as one would expect from a classic operatic drama.

The Uncomely Comedy: Celebrating the Divided Subject in Contemporary British Drama

Dans le théâtre britannique traditionnel, la comédie, qu’elle se donne comme comédie de mœurs ou plus tard comme pièce « bien faite », se caractérise par son aspect divertissant allié à une légèreté de ton. Péripéties et rires francs se succèdent pour culminer en un dénouement heureux et festif (bien souvent un mariage). Mais la Seconde Guerre mondiale a constitué un tournant décisif pour le genre comique, confrontant les dramaturges à un questionnement éthique autour de la possibilité même de rire dans ces nouvelles conditions. La comédie n’est pas sortie indemne de l’épisode de l’Holocauste, comme le révèlent les mises en scène de fêtes, devenues de pâles reflets spectraux voire lugubres de cette légèreté qui caractérisait jadis le genre. Les rassemblements festifs, désormais mornes voire inquiétants, n’ont plus vocation à célébrer le dénouement heureux de la pièce ni à faire valoir un quelconque retour à l’équilibre. En nous intéressant à un corpus de pièces contemporaines britanniques mettant en scène des fêtes de Noël ( Absurd Person Singular d’Alan Ayckbourn, Harry’s Christmas de Steven Berkoff et In the Republic of Happiness de Martin Crimp), nous analyserons le statut du comique dans ces festivités bien particulières où l’épuisement et la destruction ne sont jamais loin, où l’excès vient paradoxalement célébrer le rien. Nous nous attacherons à montrer que ces fêtes ( part-ies ) paradoxales s’efforcent de faire advenir sur scène un nouveau sujet contemporain, essentiellement divisé. L’exaltation et la célébration de cette division contribuent dès lors à un renouvellement de la forme dramatique et engendrent un nouveau type de comédies.

A Philosophy of Comedy on Stage and Screen: You Have to Be There by Shaun May

Reviewed by: A Philosophy of Comedy on Stage and Screen: You Have to Be There by Shaun May Rachel E. Blackburn A Philosophy of Comedy on Stage and Screen: You Have to Be There. By Shaun May. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2016. Paper $32.99. 218 pages. Shaun May's A Philosophy of Comedy on Stage and Screen: You Have to Be There, is a strong exploration of how the philosophical writing of Martin Heidegger and others may be interwoven with our interpretation of comic performances. The result effectively illuminates comic engagement, Heidegger's writing in particular, and ultimately, how jokes and laughter may be thought of as intrinsic to what makes us human. More specifically, May uses Heidegger's concept of "Dasein," an ontological concern with those experiences that are particular to human beings, toward illustrating the hermeneutic conditions of humor. May states, "I consider myself to be raising questions about the fundamental grounds of comic intelligibility" (4) and asks, "What makes us the kind of beings that can 'get' the joke?" (7). May has constructed his book in two parts: two chapters which focus on the theoretical foundations his work relies upon, and four chapters devoted to the phenomenological exploration of dysfunctional objects, anthropic objects, anthropic animals, and physical impairment. May's work is unique within a recent crop of books released in humor studies, in that it explores the philosophical conditions that ground us in how we relate to humor. Recent works, such as Rebecca Krefting's All Joking Aside: American Humor and its Discontents, Rick DesRocher's The Comic Offense From Vaudeville to Contemporary Comedy: Larry David, Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, and Dave Chappelle, Sophie Quirk's Why Stand-Up Matters, and Off the Mic: The World's Best Stand-Up Comedians Get Serious About Comedy by Deborah Frances-White and Marsha Shandur, all ground themselves in developing both previous and new theoretical applications to (mostly) current stand-up comedy. May's work further departs from these works by including case studies that represent a fuller cross-section of performances spanning genre: everything from the stand-up comedy of Dylan Moran and Stewart Lee, to the cinematic work of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, to theatre productions such as Beckett's Endgame and The Table, a 2012 production by UK-based puppetry company, Blind Summit. By including such an array of performance styles, May convincingly demonstrates the broad implications of Heidegger's "Dasein" to more thoroughly unpack specific comedic moments, genre aside. This is but one of several great strengths of May's book. Additionally, while May tussles with developing the hermeneutic conditions of humor intrinsically bound to humans, he does so in a clear, straightforward manner. May's language adeptly fosters accessibility, without sacrificing the complexity of his subject. This book is impressive in its ability to deepen many subjects which are perhaps more casually taken for granted by scholars of humor studies, including but not limited to puppetry, wordplay, and even television shows already cemented in the pantheon of comic television history, such as Fawlty Towers [End Page 155] and The Inbetweeners. I also commend May on the occasional use of his own dry humor, which sparingly peppers his writing and is a welcome inclusion in a work about the nature of comedy. One could even argue that the subtitle of his book, You Have to Be There, is a prime example of such an occasion. "You had to be there," was a frequent catchphrase suggesting that one had to be present for the original construction of a joke in order for the comic value to be meaningful for an audience when later recalled in conversation. Used here, however, it is May's clever reinterpretation to encapsulate the central notion of his book, which is that you, i.e. the human reader, must be present within a conscious mode of being for not only receiving the joke, but in order to construct humor whatsoever. Descartes might have described this mode of consciousness as "I joke, therefore I am." In May's own words, "We need to understand that we only develop the capacity to make jokes once we have developed experientially—once we are...