Taking a Stand: Contemporary US Stand-Up Comedians as Public Intellectuals
Taking a Stand: Contemporary US Stand-Up Comedians as Public Intellectuals
Cite
Abstract
Stand-up comedians have a long history of walking a careful line between serious and playful engagement with social issues: Lenny Bruce questioned the symbolic valence of racial slurs, Dick Gregory took time away from the stage to speak alongside Martin Luther King Jr. , and—more recently—Tig Notaro challenged popular notions of damaged or abject bodies. Stand-up comedians deploy humor to open up difficult topics for broader examination, which only underscores the social and cultural importance of their work. Taking a Stand: Contemporary US Stand-Up Comedians as Public Intellectuals draws together essays that contribute to the analysis of the stand-up comedian as public intellectual since the 1980s. The chapters explore stand-up comedians as contributors to and shapers of public discourse via their live performances, podcasts, social media presence, and political activism. Each chapter highlights a stand-up comedian and their ongoing discussion of a cultural issue or expression of a political ideology/standpoint: Lisa Lampanelli’s use of problematic postracial humor, Aziz Ansari’s merging of sociology and technology, or Maria Bamford’s emphasis on mental health, to name just a few. Taking a Stand offers a starting point for understanding the work stand-up comedians do as well as its reach beyond the stage. Comedians influence discourse, perspectives, even public policy on myriad issues, and this book sets out to take those jokes seriously.
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Front Matter
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Introduction
Laughing Out Loud: Stand-Up Comedians in the Public Sphere
Jared N. Champion andPeter C. Kunze
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1
Mo’Nique: Con Woman and Sister Citizen in I Coulda Been Your Cellmate
Linda Mizejewski
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2
Scorched-Earth Comedy: Laughing Off Wounded Warriors with the Humor of Bobby Henline
Christopher J. Gilbert
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3
Maria Bamford: A/Way with Words
Rebecca Krefting
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4
Awkward Embrace: Tig Notaro and the Humor of Social Discomfort
Kathryn Kein
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5
Comedy from the Intersections: Chris Rock on Class and Race
Philip Scepanski
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6
White Comedians, Strategic Racist Humor, and the (Re)Normalization of Racism: Lisa Lampanelli as a Case Study
Raúl Pérez
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7
Leguizamo’s Comic Frame: Identity and the Art of Impersonation
Miriam M. Chirico
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8
“Of Course, But Maybe”: Louis C.K. and the Contradictory Politics of Privilege
David Gillota
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9
Jerry Seinfeld Versus PC Social Media: Professional Dissonance and the Public Intellectual as Gatekeeper
Timothy J. Viator
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10
Standing Flat-Footed and Talking: W. Kamau Bell Talks Race in an Age of “Post-Race”
Monique Taylor
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11
Smartphone Sociology: Aziz Ansari on Intimacy in the Twenty-First Century
Ila Tyagi
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12
Stewart Huff, P.I. Intellectual at Large
Susan Seizer andAviva Orenstein
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13
Larry the Cable Guy: The Anti–Political Correctness Public Intellectual
David R. Dewberry
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14
“Killer Closer”: Doug Stanhope and the White Libertarian Stand-Up Tradition
Thomas Clark
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15
The Comedian as Preacher: Bill Hicks and the Rhetoric of Fundamentalism
Rob King
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End Matter
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