Description
Book Synopsis
The question of why we laugh (or don't laugh) has intrigued scholars since antiquity. This book contributes to that debate by exploring how we evaluate screen comedy. What kinds of criteria do we use to judge films and TV shows that are meant to be funny? And what might that have to do with our social and cultural backgrounds, or with wider cultural ideas about film, TV, comedy, quality and entertainment? The book examines these questions through a study of audience responses posted to online facilities such as Twitter, Facebook, review sites, blogs and message boards. Boreâs analysis of these responses considers a broad range of issues, including how audiences perceive the idea of national comedy; what they think of female comedians; how they evaluate romcoms, sitcoms and web comedy; what they think is acceptable to joke about; what comedy fans get excited about; how fans interact with star comedians; and what comedy viewers really despise. The book demonstrates some of the ways in
Trade Review
Screen Comedy and Online Audiences is boldly, brilliantly diverse, offering up a multi-text exploration of how different modalities, hybrids and subgenres of screen comedy are valued (or not) by an equally diverse range of audiences. Inger-Lise Kalviknes Bore also adopts a multi-sited approach, deftly analysing responses and reviews across the likes of amazon.com, Facebook, imdb, Pinterest, reddit, Tumblr, Twitter and YouTube. Brimming with insight, this book shows how indispensable fan/audience studies can be for understanding comedy’s cultural politics and affective resonances.—Professor Matt Hills, University of Huddersfield
At last! A detailed, evidence-based study of the major gap in the study of media and comedy; audiences. Offering a convincing argument for the specificity of comedy as a mode of popular media, this book artfully explores audience responses to a range of humorous media on TV, in film, and online. With chapters on gender, fandom, romcom, offence and comic failure, Bore’s analysis pinpoints the importance of finding out what people do with comedy. As such, it impressively forges an important new direction in the study of media and humour.—Dr. Brett Mills, University of East Anglia
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Comedy and comedian fandom: Parks and Recreation on Tumblr
3. Women in Hollywood comedy: P/reviewing Bridesmaids and Ghostbusters
4. National and transnational comedy: Lilyhammer on NRK and Netflix
5. Black web comedy: Brothers With No Game on YouTube
6. Sitcom audiences and genre developments: Everybody Hates Chris, Miranda and Gavin & Stacey
7. Reviewing romcom: (500) Days of Summer on IMDb
8. Comedy and transgression: Pinning Amy Schumer
9. Unintentional comedy and comic failure: Tommy Wiseau fandom on reddit
