Acknowledgments

Volume Introduction: Comedy as Theory, Industry, and Academic Discipline, Nick Marx and Matt Sienkiewicz

1. The Carnivalesque

Introduction: The Naked Gun

A: Rabelais and His World, Mikhail Bakhtin

B: “The Frames of Comic ‘Freedom,’” Umberto Eco

C: “Sacred Catastrophe, Profane Laughter: Family Guy's Comedy in the Ritual of National Trauma,” Philip Scepanski

2. Comedy Mechanics & Absurdity

Introduction: Man Seeking Woman

A: Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic, Henri Bergson

B: The Logic of the Absurd, Jerry Palmer

C: “Pie and Chase: Gag, Spectacle and Narrative in Slapstick Comedy,” Donald Crafton

D: “The New Logic of the Absurd: The Eric André Show,” Evan Elkins

3. Psychoanalyzing Comedy

Introduction: Archer

A: Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, Sigmund Freud

B: “Humor,” Sigmund Freud

C: “Lacan’s Harpo,” Paul Flaig

D: “Revenge of the Nerds: Failure, Laughter, and Liberation on The Big Bang Theory,” Andrew J. Owens

4. Irony

Introduction: Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner 2006

A: Irony’s Edge, Linda Hutcheon

B: “Speaking Too Soon: SNL, 9/11, and the Remaking of American Irony,” Matt Sienkiewicz

C: “Welcome to the Clickhole: The Economics of Internet Parody and Critique,” Amber Day

5. Genre

Introduction: 22 Jump Street

A: Popular Film and Television Comedy, Steve Neale and Frank Krutnik

B: “Comedy Verité? The Observational Documentary Meets the Televisual Sitcom,” Ethan Thompson

C: “Inventing the Situation Comedy: Jack Benny, the ‘Fall Guy,’ and the Making of a Genre,” Kathryn Fuller-Seeley

6. Race & Ethnicity

Introduction: Key and Peele

A: Watching Race, Herman Gray

B: “The Culture Behind Closed Doors: Issues of Gender and Race in the Writers' Room,” Felicia D. Henderson

C: "Naturalizing Racial Differences Through Comedy: Asian, Black, and White Views on Racial Stereotypes in Rush Hour 2," Ji Hoon Park, Nadine G. Gabbadon, and Ariel R. Chernin

D: “‘Indians on TV (and Netflix)’: The Comedic Trajectory of Aziz Ansari,” Bhoomi K. Thakore and Bilal Hussain

7. Gender & Sexuality

Introduction: Inside Amy Schumer

A: The Unruly Woman, Kathleen Rowe Karlyn

B: Pretty/Funny, Linda Mizejewski

C: “Generic Closets: Sitcoms, Audiences and Black Male Gayness,” Alfred L. Martin Jr.

8. Nation & Globalization

Introduction: Klovn and Curb Your Enthusiasm, Peter Kragh Jensen and Matt Sienkiewicz

A: A National Joke, Andy Medhurst

B: “Transnational TV Comedy Audiences,” Inger-Lise Kalviknes Bore

C: “Transgressing Boundaries as the Hybrid Global: Parody and Postcoloniality on Indian Television,” Sangeet Kumar

D: “Comedy and the Nation in The Trip,” Brett Mills

Index