Pagan Rhetoric
More information on Lyotard's pagans and what they can tell us about comics and audiences.
Category: Stand Up Comedy
My academic “wheelhouse.” This site used to be entirely devoted to stand-up comedy, but as I’ve begin to branch out into my other interests, I’ve collected everything to do with stand-up here.
8:46 (pt. 1)
[From Nathan: All of these posts are pretty unrefined, I hope you understand.] The Show Recently, YouTube released 8:46, a 27-minute clip from Dave Chappelle &a...
Michelle Wolf and Shades of Colbert
I’ve been avidly following the aftermath of the White House Correspondents Dinner, as it’s basically where my studies jumped off [i.e. with Stephen ...
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 (...
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...