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.” ...
Tag: objects
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...
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...
Daniel Fernandes on Comedy as Art
A lot of comics express (perhaps unknowingly) the idea that audiences are passive objects that they “make laugh,” and Daniel Fernandes is another on...
Marlon Wayans on Truth in Stand-Up
I’ve talked a lot on this blog about whether stand-ups tell the truth about their lives. Of course some do, but most fudge a bit. Even among those who g...
Jeff Foxworthy and Tension Release
In an interview with Edward Pevos of MLive (8/22/2017), Jeff Foxworthy describes his theory of humor in a way that resonates with the Relief theory of humor: I ...
Chattoo, The Laughter Effect III. A. 1. Comedy Formats: Satirical News Definitions and Types
In May (2017), Caty Borum Chattoo, co-director of the Center for Media and Social Impact at American University and a comedy fan, released “The Laughter E...
Salma Hindy Wants to Humanize Muslims
It’s good to see comics trying to do something with their power. One such is Salma Hindy. Steven Zhou interviews Salma Hindy for The Globe and Mail (7/2...
Joel McHale Wants to Make Trump Laugh
In an interview with Joel McHale of foxnews.com (7/25/2017), Blanche Johnson talks about “making an audience laugh” in a different way: BJ: Joel McHale&#...
Megan Garber on Comics as Public Intellectuals
This one’s an oldie, but I came across it in some research recently, and it needs to be in this discussion. Megan Garber, in an article for The Atlantic (...