IST 605: Stand-Up Comedy as Social Commentary

This guide has been created to support undergraduate student research in the growing academic field of comedy studies. The resources found here will assist users in locating authoritative information about stand-up comedy as a lens through which to explore social issues such as politics, mental health, race, gender & sexuality, and more. While several of the resources here provide an historical overview, as well as global or international perspectives, this guide focuses primarily on the work of contemporary American stand-up comedians, and their role both as artists, and as drivers of social change.

Because the study of comedy continues to develop as its own academic field, users of this guide will find that they must take an interdisciplinary approach to locating resources related to this topic. As such, the resources in this guide will draw upon the studies of theater, communications, linguistics, media arts, art criticism, sociology, political science, and more. 

How to Locate Resources

Consider the interdisciplinary approach to comedy studies. Seek resources in the areas of linguistics, communications, theatre arts, sociology, political science, gender studies, American Studies, and media studies.

Make use of general databases. Consider using databases that contain resources from a multitude of disciplines, such as Academic Search Ultimate, JSTOR, and Directory of Open Access Journals.

Search for journals and databases by subject. If you are looking for resources about comedy and how it intersects with a specific academic field, you can browse journals or databases by subject. For example, you might find articles about the role of stand-up comedy in presidential elections if you search for databases or journals under the subject heading of “Political Science.”

Seek out publications that offer criticism. Scholarly discussions of comedy are likened to those of theater or literature. When browsing journal titles, be on the lookout for terms like “criticism” or “review.”

Know the value of dissertations and theses. Comedy studies is still an up and coming academic field. Much of the research that is synthesizing work from different disciplines to speak critically about comedy is being done at the student level.

Consider unconventional sources of information about comedy.  Although not the focus of this guide, know that journals in the areas of education and medicine contain many articles about stand-up comedy as a teaching tool.

Finding the Right Search Terms

Is it stand-up comedy, or standup? Or maybe stand up? Publications will have different conventions. Try different variations of terms with hyphens.

Use a wildcard character where needed. A wildcard character will allow you to return results for multiple variations of a word or phrase with a single search. For example, a search for “stand*up comedy” will return results containing the terms stand-up, standup, or stand up. You can check the help page of a database or search engine to identify the correct wildcard character to use.

Consider alternative spellings. Wildcard characters can also be used if there are multiple accepted spellings of a word. A British resource may contain articles about “humour” as opposed to “humor.” A search for “humo*r” will return results for both.

Use truncation to capture different forms of a word. Truncation will allow you to search for a root word with various endings. A search for comed* will return results containing comedy, comedian, comedienne, or comedic.

Explore relevant subject headings in bibliographic records. If you find a resource relevant to your area of research, take a look at the subject headings and keywords identified in the catalog entry for the item. Often, they will be links you can click on to conduct a subject search for additional resources.

Boolean Operators

Limit search results by joining search terms with AND. Use terms such as "humor" or “stand*up comedy" with the Boolean operator AND to seek resources related to how comedy intersects with specific social issues. For example: “stand*up comedy” AND “marriage equality”

Broaden your search with the use of OR. Depending on the field of study, a resource may be more likely to refer to humor or comedy. You can use the Boolean operator OR to gather search results for either term. For example: (humor OR comedy) AND politics

Use NOT to exclude terms from results. If your initial search primarily returns results about a specific performer, or a specific location, and that’s not what you’re looking for, try adjusting by adding a “NOT” operator to your search. For example: (comedy AND autism) NOT “Hannah Gadsby”