Phil Wang Isn’t Trying to Be Political
Question: Can a comic talk about politics without it being political? What about race? Class? Sex? Gender? Sexuality? What differentiates jokes on a political (...
Month: September 2017
Collin Williams on Jokes and Outrage
A lot of ink & pixels is given to the question of what is or is not an appropriate topic for humor. Collin Williams, in an interview with Rachel Jensen of S...
Jesse David Fox on the Age of a Persona
I talk a lot on here about a comic’s persona, how they create it, whether or not it differs from their person/self, if so, in what ways, and whether or no...
Jay Willis on the Limits of Humor in Politics
I write a lot here on the value of addressing political ideas through humor, it’s pretty much the sole purpose of this blog. Well, GQ‘s Jay Willis ...
Aakash Mehta’s Sometimes Contradictory World
Full disclosure: I find fodder for this Blog via both my stand-up persona’s Facebook feed, and a Google Alert for the term “stand-up comedy.” ...
Alex Stypula on Pushing the Envelope
It’s a common theme in discussions of comedy, which I haven’t yet gotten around to addressing here: Is comedy all about pushing the envelope, and at...
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...
Sense of Humor (soh) and Insult Comedy
Daniel Wickberg, in his book, The Sense of Humor, talks about the importance of having one. In Western culture, it has only been since the mid-eighteen hundreds...
Leighann Lord on Relief and Laughter
It’s sad when I picture it. As some describe it, there are vast masses of people living in a state of constant psychological and emotional pressure, on t...
Tig Notaro on Comedy and Release
Though she gives a brilliant interview to Ashley Hoffman of Time (8/25/2017), Tig Notaro only briefly mentions something that touches on my theme here: the idea...