| Contents |
Introduction: Laughing out loud: stand-up comedians in the public sphere / Jared N. Champion and Peter C. Kunze -- Mo'nique: con woman and sister citizen in I Coulda Been Your Cellmate / Linda Mizejewski -- Scorched earth comedy: laughing off wounded warriors with the humor of Bobby Henline / Christopher J. Gilbert -- Maria Bamford: a/way with words / Rebecca Krefting -- Awkward embrace: Tig Notaro and the humor of social discomfort / Kathryn Kein -- Comedy from the intersections: Chris Rock on class and race / Philip Scepanski -- White comedians, strategic racist humor, and the (re)normalization of racism: Lisa Lampanelli as a case study / Raúl Pérez -- Leguizamo's comic frame: identity and the art of impersonation / Miriam M. Chirico -- "Of course, but maybe": Louis C.K. and the contradictory politics of privilege / David Gillota -- Jerry Seinfeld versus PC social media: professional dissonanace and the public intellectual as gatekeeper / Timothy J. Viator -- Standing flat-footed and talking: W. Kamau Bell talks race in an age of "post-race" / Monique Taylor -- Smartphone sociology: Aziz Ansari on intimacy in the twenty-first century / Ila Tyagi -- Stewart Huff, P.I.: intellectual at large / Susan Seizer and Aviva Orenstein -- Larry the Cable Guy: the anti-political correctness public intellectual / David R. Dewberry -- "Killer closer": Doug Stanhope and the white liberatarian stand-up tradition / Thomas Clark -- The comedian as preacher: Bill Hicks and the rhetoric of fundamentalism / Rob King. |
| 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. 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"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Issued in other form | Online version: Taking a stand Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2021 9781496835505 |
| Genre/form | Criticism, interpretation, etc. |
| LCCN | 2021036662 |
| ISBN | 9781496835482 hardcover |
| ISBN | 1496835484 hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781496835499 trade paperback |
| ISBN | 1496835492 trade paperback |
| ISBN | electronic publication |
| ISBN | electronic publication |
| ISBN | electronic book |
| ISBN | electronic book |
