American Humor

American Humor PDF Author: Constance Rourke
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 9781590170793
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Stepping out of the darkness, the American emerges upon the stage of history as a new character, as puzzling to himself as to others. American Humor, Constance Rourke's pioneering "study of the national character," singles out the archetypal figures of the Yankee peddler, the backwoodsman, and the blackface minstrel to illuminate the fundamental role of popular culture in fashioning a distinctive American sensibility. A memorable performance in its own right, American Humor crackles with the jibes and jokes of generations while presenting a striking picture of a vagabond nation in perpetual self-pursuit. Davy Crockett and Henry James, Jim Crow and Emily Dickinson rub shoulders in a work that inspired such later critics as Pauline Kael and Lester Bangs and which still has much to say about the America of Bob Dylan and Thomas Pynchon, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

American Humor

American Humor PDF Author: Constance Rourke
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 9781590170793
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Stepping out of the darkness, the American emerges upon the stage of history as a new character, as puzzling to himself as to others. American Humor, Constance Rourke's pioneering "study of the national character," singles out the archetypal figures of the Yankee peddler, the backwoodsman, and the blackface minstrel to illuminate the fundamental role of popular culture in fashioning a distinctive American sensibility. A memorable performance in its own right, American Humor crackles with the jibes and jokes of generations while presenting a striking picture of a vagabond nation in perpetual self-pursuit. Davy Crockett and Henry James, Jim Crow and Emily Dickinson rub shoulders in a work that inspired such later critics as Pauline Kael and Lester Bangs and which still has much to say about the America of Bob Dylan and Thomas Pynchon, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Encyclopedia of Modern American Humor

Encyclopedia of Modern American Humor PDF Author: Bennett Cerf
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 688

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Book Description


A Subtreasury of American Humor

A Subtreasury of American Humor PDF Author: Elwyn Brooks White
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American Wit And Humour
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


An American Comedy

An American Comedy PDF Author: Harold Lloyd
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Actors
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description


All Joking Aside

All Joking Aside PDF Author: Rebecca Krefting
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421414295
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
A professor of American Studies—and stand-up comic—examines sharply focused comedy and its cultural utility in contemporary society. Outstanding Academic Title, Choice In this examination of stand-up comedy, Rebecca Krefting establishes a new genre of comedic production, “charged humor,” and charts its pathways from production to consumption. Some jokes are tears in the fabric of our beliefs—they challenge myths about how fair and democratic our society is and the behaviors and practices we enact to maintain those fictions. Jokes loaded with vitriol and delivered with verve, charged humor compels audiences to action, artfully summoning political critique. Since the institutionalization of stand-up comedy as a distinct cultural form, stand-up comics have leveraged charged humor to reveal social, political, and economic stratifications. All Joking Aside offers a history of charged comedy from the mid-twentieth century to the early aughts, highlighting dozens of talented comics from Dick Gregory and Robin Tyler to Micia Mosely and Hari Kondabolu. The popularity of charged humor has waxed and waned over the past sixty years. Indeed, the history of charged humor is a tale of intrigue and subversion featuring dive bars, public remonstrations, fickle audiences, movie stars turned politicians, commercial airlines, emergent technologies, neoliberal mind-sets, and a cavalcade of comic misfits with an ax to grind. Along the way, Krefting explores the fault lines in the modern economy of humor, why men are perceived to be funnier than women, the perplexing popularity of modern-day minstrelsy, and the way identities are packaged and sold in the marketplace. Appealing to anyone interested in the politics of humor and generating implications for the study of any form of popular entertainment, this history reflects on why we make the choices we do and the collective power of our consumptive practices. Readers will be delighted by the broad array of comic talent spotlighted in this book, and for those interested in comedy with substance, it will offer an alternative punchline.

American Wit and Humor

American Wit and Humor PDF Author: Joel Chandler Harris
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American wit and humor
Languages : en
Pages : 374

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Book Description


Encyclopedia of 20th-Century American Humor

Encyclopedia of 20th-Century American Humor PDF Author: Alleen Pace Nilsen
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN:
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
Review: "This unique encyclopedia treats the concepts, persons, themes, and media of 20th-century American humor and humor studies. More than 100 alphabetically arranged entries highlight a broad range of humor-related topics from wit, understatement, and ambiguity to late-night talk shows and the Internet."--"Outstanding Reference Sources," American Libraries, May 2001

Cracking Up

Cracking Up PDF Author: Paul Lewis
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226476995
Category : Current Events
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
What do Jon Stewart, Freddy Krueger, Patch Adams, and George W. Bush have in common? As Paul Lewis shows in Cracking Up, they are all among the ranks of joke tellers who aim to do much more than simply amuse. Exploring topics that range from the sadistic mockery of Abu Ghraib prison guards to New Age platitudes about the healing power of laughter, from jokes used to ridicule the possibility of global climate change to the heartwarming performances of hospital clowns, Lewis demonstrates that over the past thirty years American humor has become increasingly purposeful and embattled. Navigating this contentious world of controversial, manipulative, and disturbing laughter, Cracking Up argues that the good news about American humor in our time—that it is delightful, relaxing, and distracting—is also the bad news. In a culture that both enjoys and quarrels about jokes, humor expresses our most nurturing and hurtful impulses, informs and misinforms us, and exposes as well as covers up the shortcomings of our leaders. Wondering what’s so funny about a culture determined to laugh at problems it prefers not to face, Lewis reveals connections between such seemingly unrelated jokers as Norman Cousins, Hannibal Lecter, Rush Limbaugh, Garry Trudeau, Jay Leno, Ronald Reagan, Beavis and Butt-Head, and Bill Clinton. The result is a surprising, alarming, and at times hilarious argument that will appeal to anyone interested in the ways humor is changing our cultural and political landscapes.

We Killed

We Killed PDF Author: Yael Kohen
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0374287236
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Kohen assembles America's most prominent comediennes to piece together an oral history about the revolution that happened to (and by) women in American comedy.

Best American Humor 1994

Best American Humor 1994 PDF Author: Moshe Waldoks
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0671899406
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
A collection of humorous essays, articles, short stories, excerpts, and miscellaneous writings. Includes contributions by Conan O'Brien, Douglas Coupland, and Wendy Wasserstein.