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IST 605: Stand-Up Comedy as Social Commentary

This guide has been designed for undergraduate students interested in comedy studies, and the role of stand-up comedy as a form of social commentary.

References

References

American Humor Studies Association. (n.d.). Home. To Wit: The Newsletter of the American Humor Studies Association. https://towitahsa.wordpress.com/

Attardo, S. (Ed.). (2014). Encyclopedia of humor studies. SAGE Publications, Inc. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483346182

Birbiglia, M. (Host). (2020-present). Mike Birbiglia’s working it out [Audio podcast]. Reality Testing, Inc. https://www.birbigs.com/working-it-out-pod

Chandler, D. & Munday, R. (2020). A dictionary of media and communication (3 ed.). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780198841838.001.0001

Fox, J. D. (Host). (2017-present). Good one: A podcast about jokes [Audio podcast]. Vox Media Podcast Network. https://podcasts.voxmedia.com/show/good-one

Fox, J. D. (2023). Comedy book: How comedy conquered culture — and the magic that makes it work. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Källstig, A. & Death, C. (2021). Laughter, resistance and ambivalence in Trevor Noah’s stand-up comedy: Returning mimicry as mockery. Critical African Studies, 13(3), 338-355. https://doi.org/10.1080/21681392.2020.1743191

Krefting, R. (2014). All joking aside: American humor and its discontents. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Lockyer, S. & De Benedictis, S. (2023). Performing pregnancy: Comic content, critique and ambivalence in pregnant stand-up comedy. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 26(3), 343–361. https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779231166444  

Lintott, S. (2020). Introduction: Standā€up comedy today and tomorrow. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 78(4), 397–400. https://doi.org/10.1111/jaac.12759

Mundy, J. & White, G. (2012). Laughing matters: Understanding film, television and radio comedy. Manchester University Press.

National Comedy Center. (2020). Welcome. National Comedy Center Anywhere. https://anywhere.comedycenter.org/catalog

Scown, N. & Seabaugh, J. (Directors). (2021). Too soon: Comedy after 9/11 [Video File]. Hazy Mills Productions.

Valenta, D. J. (2020). Pointing and laughing: Stand-up comedy and anti-mental-illness-stigma advocacy (Publication No. 27739470) [Doctoral dissertation, Southern Illinois University Carbondale]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.

Zinoman, J. (2022, November 22). How can standup succeed in a fragmented culture? Nurse Blake has one answer. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/07/arts/nurse-blake-new-york-comedy-festival.html?searchResultPosition=2

Additional Resources

Britannica Academic

Communication and Mass Media Complete

Dissertations & Theses Global

Feminist Media Histories

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA)

Sociological Abstracts

Studies in American Humor