Description
Book SynopsisReaders 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.
Trade ReviewThis is an incredibly valuable and worthwhile read, because it explores not only the remarkable influence comedy has, but it confronts the biases that can undermined great comics while allowing certain hacks to succeed... The value of charged humor cannot be overstated, especially these days, and neither can insightful tomes like this one. -- Glenn Dallas San Francisco Book Review Krefting (American Studies, Skidmore College) draws on experience working at stand-up, improv, and directing- plus, the jokes she includes are funny... This fresh, thoughtful investigation of the political dimensions in current American stand-up comedy is a must read for those interested in the comic. Choice
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction. The Laughscape of American Humor
1. Making Connections: Building Cultural Citizenship through Charged Humor
2. Twentieth-Century Stand-Up: A History of Charged Humor
3. Laughing into the New Millennium
4. When Women Perform Charged Humor: The (Gendered) Politics of Consumption
5. Robin Tyler: Still "Working the Crowd"
6. Micia Mosely: Humor out of the Mouths of Babes
7. Hari Kondabolu: Performing in the Age of Modern-Day Minstrelsy
Conclusion. How to Avoid the Last Laugh
Notes
Charged Comic Compendium
Index
