Making Stand-Up More Sensitive
Audrey Carleton writes in an Opinion piece for McGill Tribune.com (9/4/2017) that audiences and comics should be more sensitive, not less. Carleton begins with...
Tag: Superiority
George Lopez on Being a Truthsayer
George Lopez gave an interview to NPR’s Stacey Vanek Smith for All Things Considered (8/5/2017). in which he talks about the limits on his comedy. The ex...
Sigmund Freud’s Jokes part A. I. a. – Introduction
This is the first of several installments on Sigmund Freud’s Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (1905; free eBook) – and the reactions to i...
Chris Crespo, Comics with “Disabilities”
Inclusion [I’ve added this to my piece on “hot” funny women as the problem of inclusion is felt by People of Color and the differently-abled a...
Problems with Satiric Irony
I’m still talking about Bill Maher’s 2007 HBO stand-up showcase, Bill Maher: The Decider, where, after greeting the Boston crowd, Maher begins with ...
Satire (and Litige)
In his 2007 HBO stand-up showcase, Bill Maher: The Decider, after greeting the Boston crowd, Maher begins with a critique of President George W. Bush. Only 50 ...
Irony: Traditional Verbal Irony
Irony has been studied since at least Classical Greece. There are a few different types of irony, including dramatic irony, where the words or actions of the c...
Tragedy Plus Time
In my analysis of Mike Birbiglia’s Thank God for Jokes, I included this blurb about how, in an off-hand way, Birbiglia mentions that “Comedy equals ...
Carnival I: Simple Inversion
It’s fairly common, when talking about humor, to use the word carnivalesque (see for instance Fiske; Gilbert; Miller). The concept was most famously used...
Mike Birbiglia on Jokes
I’ve been a fan of Mike Birbiglia for a long time now, bought his merchandise, watched all his specials and both his movies (Sleepwalk with Me, 2012 and D...