The Rhetoric of Humor A Bedford Spotlight Reader

Develop your own questions and opinions as you navigate through integral questions (and a variety of answers) related to humor in the compact and affordable Rhetoric of Humor.

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.

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