Taking Comedy Seriously

This book explores stand-up comedy as a relevant sociological phenomenon from a contemporary perspective, as both a symptom of neoliberal capitalism and the locus specificus of socio-political critique in the era of Empire. It draws a feasible connection between the conspicuous rise in the art form’s popularity over the past number of years and the dehumanizing and fracturing processes of the current dispensation that are increasingly becoming the defining experience of life in the contemporary era, and to which, understood in terms of the traditional humor theory of relief (of which Sigmund Freud is key), comedy serves as an obvious palliative. More than this, Taking Comedy Seriously: Stand-Up’s Dissident Potential in Mass Culture, in the Context of the Neoliberal Domain of 'Empire' questions the possibility of a contemporary aesthetics of humor, given that much of the art form is disseminated and controlled by the mass media, and as such complicit in its work. In particular, it argues that the ideological situation of global capitalism poses an obvious predicament for the possibility of a socio-politically efficacious stand-up comedy in that ironic and skeptical distance is already characteristic of postmodern cynicism, incorporated into the social fabric itself, effectively rendering the comedic technique of satire (synonymous with so-called ‘political comedy’) altogether appropriated, or at least compromised, and subsequently impotent. From where then does a site of resistance emerge? Through an analysis of a range of contemporary televisual, digital and literary examples from the comedic routines of American comedian and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres, South African satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys, and South African born (and now American comedic talk-show sensation) Trevor Noah, this book argues that a contemporary ‘political comedy’ is reliant on a structuring aesthetic logic built around dissent, disruption and difference.

'Jennalee Donian's book, Taking Comedy Seriously: Stand-Up’s Dissident Potential in Mass Culture, marks a significant step forward in the understanding of (stand-up) comedy in contemporary society, given her interpretation of the comedic phenomenon, not merely in relation to its development as a genre, or its expansion made possible by the Internet. Instead Dr Donian, drawing on Freudian psychoanalysis, neo-Marxist thinking, and the poststructuralist thinking of Jacques Ranciēre, contextualises stand-up comedy in the broad field of economic and political power relations, demonstrating, paradoxically, that its conspicuous rise in popularity cannot be separated from the suffering experienced globally under the neoliberal regime.', A productive and politically-minded extension of contemporary humour theory, Donian's book situates the radical potential politics of stand-up humour in the bleak context of contemporary global capitalism. Drawing on a deep and insightful engagement with philosophy and political theory, Taking Comedy Seriously offers us a new psychoanalytic model of humour for the twenty-first century. Donian’s analysis of stand-up is alert to the ways in which stand-up comedy can not only perpetuate the irony-inflected ideology of neoliberalism, but also potentially assist us to re-examine deeply held social and political assumptions., Donian’s Taking Comedy Seriously: Stand-Up's Dissident Potential in Mass Culture is an impressive theoretical intervention for critical humor studies that significantly reinvigorates psychoanalytic interpretations of comedy. Donian focuses on stand-up comedy not as the antidote to today’s social and political ills but as a communicative form that is conservative and radical, and central to contemporary political life. Popular examples of successful comedy are unpacked for a critique of stand-up comedy, mass culture and neoliberalism that has wide reaching implications for understanding humor as politics.

Jennalee Donian is pursuing postdoctoral research in South Africa, with a focus on political humor and humorous politics.