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The Rhetoric of Humor by Kirk Boyle - First Edition, 2017 from Macmillan Student Store
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The Rhetoric of Humor

First  Edition|©2017  Kirk Boyle

  • Format
Paperback C$37.99

ISBN:9781319020132

Read and study old-school with our bound texts.

C$37.99
  • About
  • Contents
  • Authors

About

Brief. Inexpensive. Compelling.

The Bedford Spotlight Reader series brings critical topics to life in a portable, cost-effective reader. In this volume, you’ll explore these questions: What takes place when we laugh? When and where does humor occur? Who (or what) is a comedian? What is the function of satire in a democratic society? How do you write a comic argument?

Readings by psychologists, philosophers, comedians, scholars, journalists, cartoonists, and others take up these questions and more. This book helps you form your own questions and responses as you investigate this popular and intellectually rich topic. Visit macmillanlearning.com/spotlight.

Contents

Table of Contents

Preface for Instructors  

Contents by Discipline  

Contents by Theme  

Introduction for Students   

Chapter 1: Act: What Takes Place When We Laugh?  

Leon Rappoport, What Makes Us Laugh  

John Morreall, From Lucy to "I Love Lucy": The Evolution of Humor   

Joel Warner, One Professor’s Attempt to Explain Every Joke Ever  

Sigmund Freud, Humor   

Jeffrey Klassen, He Looked into the Grim Reaper’s Eyes and Nervously Laughed  

Chapter 2: Scene: When and Where Does Humor Occur?   

Caitlin Flanagan, That’s Not Funny!   

Simon Critchley, Foreigners Are Funny: The Ethicity and Ethnicity of Humor  

Daniel Harris, How Many Light-Bulb Jokes Does It Take to Chart an Era?  

Katherine Leyton, Laughing It Off  

Michael V. Tueth, Breaking and Entering: Transgressive Comedy on Television  

Aleks Krotoski, What Effect Has the Internet Had on Comedy?  

Ian Crouch, Is Social Media Ruining Comedy?  

Chapter 3: Agent: Who (or What) Is a Comedian?    

Matt Buchanan, Why Twitter Parody Accounts Should Stay Anonymous   

Chris Bachelder, The Dead Chipmunk: An Interrogation into the Mechanisms of Jokes   

Tamar Jeffers McDonald, Romantic Comedy and Genre  

Amanda Lynch Morris, Native American Stand-Up Comedy  

Alan Shain, Perspectives on Comedy and Performance as Radical Disability Activism  

Karley Sciortino, Why Amy Schumer Is an Amazing Feminist  

Jennifer Reed, Sexual Outlaws: Queer in a Funny Way  

Chapter 4: Purpose: What Is the Function of Satire in a Democratic Society?  

Joe Sacco, On Satire: A Response to the Charlie Hebdo Attacks  

Tim Parks, The Limits of Satire   

Russell L. Peterson, Losing Our Religion  

Elizabeth Kolbert, Stooping to Conquer  

Steve Almond, The Joke’s on You  

Amber Day, Moving Beyond Critique  

Daniel J. Kenny, How John Oliver Usurped a Genre  

Chapter 5: Agency: How Do You Write a Comic Argument?  

Franklin Ajaye, First Steps to Becoming a Stand-Up Comedian   

Megh Wright, How Improv Helps Television’s Best Comedy Writers  

Conor Friedersdorf, A Modest Proposal: Don't Worry About Government Surveillance at All, Ever  

Michael Kimmel, Ritualized Sexuality in Nacirema Subculture   

Julia Drake, The Boy from Jurassic Park’s College Application Essay   

Paul Davidson, Consumer Joe  

Baratunde Thurston, How to Be the Black Employee   

Christian Lander, Stuff White People Like   


Index of authors and titles

Authors

Kirk Boyle

Kirk Boyle is an assistant professor in the Department of English at the University of North Carolina Asheville, where he teaches courses on rhetoric and composition, American literature and culture, modernity studies, and critical theory. Originally from Pittsburgh, he received his B.A. in English from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from the University of Cincinnati. He is the author of The Rhetoric of Humor, part of the Bedford Spotlight Reader series, and the co-editor of The Great Recession in Fiction, Film, and Television: Twenty-First-Century Bust Culture.


A brief and versatile reader about humor at an affordable price

Brief. Inexpensive. Compelling.

The Bedford Spotlight Reader series brings critical topics to life in a portable, cost-effective reader. In this volume, you’ll explore these questions: What takes place when we laugh? When and where does humor occur? Who (or what) is a comedian? What is the function of satire in a democratic society? How do you write a comic argument?

Readings by psychologists, philosophers, comedians, scholars, journalists, cartoonists, and others take up these questions and more. This book helps you form your own questions and responses as you investigate this popular and intellectually rich topic. Visit macmillanlearning.com/spotlight.

Table of Contents

Preface for Instructors  

Contents by Discipline  

Contents by Theme  

Introduction for Students   

Chapter 1: Act: What Takes Place When We Laugh?  

Leon Rappoport, What Makes Us Laugh  

John Morreall, From Lucy to "I Love Lucy": The Evolution of Humor   

Joel Warner, One Professor’s Attempt to Explain Every Joke Ever  

Sigmund Freud, Humor   

Jeffrey Klassen, He Looked into the Grim Reaper’s Eyes and Nervously Laughed  

Chapter 2: Scene: When and Where Does Humor Occur?   

Caitlin Flanagan, That’s Not Funny!   

Simon Critchley, Foreigners Are Funny: The Ethicity and Ethnicity of Humor  

Daniel Harris, How Many Light-Bulb Jokes Does It Take to Chart an Era?  

Katherine Leyton, Laughing It Off  

Michael V. Tueth, Breaking and Entering: Transgressive Comedy on Television  

Aleks Krotoski, What Effect Has the Internet Had on Comedy?  

Ian Crouch, Is Social Media Ruining Comedy?  

Chapter 3: Agent: Who (or What) Is a Comedian?    

Matt Buchanan, Why Twitter Parody Accounts Should Stay Anonymous   

Chris Bachelder, The Dead Chipmunk: An Interrogation into the Mechanisms of Jokes   

Tamar Jeffers McDonald, Romantic Comedy and Genre  

Amanda Lynch Morris, Native American Stand-Up Comedy  

Alan Shain, Perspectives on Comedy and Performance as Radical Disability Activism  

Karley Sciortino, Why Amy Schumer Is an Amazing Feminist  

Jennifer Reed, Sexual Outlaws: Queer in a Funny Way  

Chapter 4: Purpose: What Is the Function of Satire in a Democratic Society?  

Joe Sacco, On Satire: A Response to the Charlie Hebdo Attacks  

Tim Parks, The Limits of Satire   

Russell L. Peterson, Losing Our Religion  

Elizabeth Kolbert, Stooping to Conquer  

Steve Almond, The Joke’s on You  

Amber Day, Moving Beyond Critique  

Daniel J. Kenny, How John Oliver Usurped a Genre  

Chapter 5: Agency: How Do You Write a Comic Argument?  

Franklin Ajaye, First Steps to Becoming a Stand-Up Comedian   

Megh Wright, How Improv Helps Television’s Best Comedy Writers  

Conor Friedersdorf, A Modest Proposal: Don't Worry About Government Surveillance at All, Ever  

Michael Kimmel, Ritualized Sexuality in Nacirema Subculture   

Julia Drake, The Boy from Jurassic Park’s College Application Essay   

Paul Davidson, Consumer Joe  

Baratunde Thurston, How to Be the Black Employee   

Christian Lander, Stuff White People Like   


Index of authors and titles

Kirk Boyle

Kirk Boyle is an assistant professor in the Department of English at the University of North Carolina Asheville, where he teaches courses on rhetoric and composition, American literature and culture, modernity studies, and critical theory. Originally from Pittsburgh, he received his B.A. in English from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from the University of Cincinnati. He is the author of The Rhetoric of Humor, part of the Bedford Spotlight Reader series, and the co-editor of The Great Recession in Fiction, Film, and Television: Twenty-First-Century Bust Culture.


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