Description
Book SynopsisA 2022Best Comedy Book,VultureA rousing call for liberals and progressives to pay attention to the emergence of right-wing comedy and the political power of humor. Why do conservatives hate comedy? Why is there no right-wing Jon Stewart? These sorts of questions launch a million tweets, a thousand op-eds, and more than a few scholarly analyses. That's Not Funny argues that it is both an intellectual and politically strategic mistake to assume that comedy has a liberal bias. Matt Sienkiewicz and Nick Marx take readersparticularly self-described liberalson a tour of contemporary conservative comedy and the right-wing comedy complex. In That's Not Funny, complex takes on an important double meaning. On the one hand, liberals have developed a social-psychological complexit feels difficult, even dangerous, to acknowledge that their political opposition can produce comedy. At the same time, the right has been slowly building up a comedy-industrial complex, utilizing the humorous, irony-l
Trade Review"Provocative. . . . Progressives will want to take notice."
* Publishers Weekly *
"Astute and accessible. . . . As Sienkiewicz and Marx convincingly argue, comedy’s power can be used to shift the ideological and political needle in any direction depending on who is telling the jokes. We should be paying attention lest we ignore an entire ecosystem working to accumulate not just fans but political power." * New Review of Film and Television Studies *
"Sienkiewicz & Marx have produced a very significant book that will shift the view of the relationships between humor, comedy, the media (including especially new media), and the political landscape. Their book is easy to read, devoid of jargon, and very clearly presented." * Humor *
"The most fascinating and haunting comedic book of an academic nature in years." * Vulture *
"A timely examination of an important contemporary cultural phenomenon…certainly likely to encourage class discussion." * Studies in American Humor *
"
That’s Not Funny is a fast, informative read and approaches political and cultural questions with curiosity and aplomb. . . .A great introductory text for researchers looking to delve into the alt-right underground, particularly to understand its connections to other demographics and the mainstream itself." * U.S. Studies Online *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: Right-Wing Comedy
1. Fox News and Mainstream Right-Wing Comedy
2. Making Comedy Great Again: Paleocomedy
3. Religio-Rational Satire: Owning the Libs One Faulty Syllogism at a Time
4. The Legions of Libertarian Podcasters
5. Trolling the Depths of the Right-Wing Comedy Complex
Conclusion: Performing Right and Left
Notes
Bibliography
Index
