Lauren Berlant and Sianne Ngai’s description of the ‘comic alibi’ evoked by certain comedians is reminiscent of the discourse that emerged after Jimmy Carr’s His… Read More »Emily Taylor- Jimmy Carr’s Racism vs. Stewart Lee’s Anti-Racism
Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper’s assertion that ‘as laughter dulls the supernatural threat of undead predators, the social commentary the characters… Read More »Emily Taylor- The Social Commentary of ‘Addams Family Values’
Elif Batuman argues that awkwardness is the ‘consciousness of a false position’.[1] Contending that capitalism depends on ‘a certain degree of hypocrisy to function… Read More »Emily Taylor- Peep Show’s False Positions
Jack Babuscio describes ‘camp’ as an expression of ‘gay sensibility’, a ‘creative energy reflecting a consciousness that is different from the mainstream’.[1] I… Read More »Emily Taylor- Camp Aesthetics in Advertising
Tim and Eric’s ‘D Pants’ (2009) embodies (pardon the pun?) Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of grotesque degradation as associated with the carnivalesque. In late-stage capitalist society,… Read More »Emily Taylor- Tim and Eric’s World of Grotesque Degradation
Pursuing the ‘basal element’ in the laughable, Henri Bergson proposes a ‘mechanical elasticity’ in place of typical human ‘adaptability’ and ‘living pliableness’.[1] The character of… Read More »Emily Taylor- The Comedy and Horror of Automatism
Tom Gunning speaks to the ‘operational aesthetic’ of mischief gags in early cinema, describing a fascination with the ‘process and functioning’ of machines.[1] However, what… Read More »Emily Taylor- Stewart Lee as Rascal Engineer