That's Not Funny (eBook)

How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them

Matt Sienkiewicz (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2022
238 Seiten
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-38214-5 (ISBN)

Infos

A 2022Best Comedy Book,VultureA rousing call for liberals and progressives to pay attention to the emergence of right-wing comedy and the political power of humor. Why do conservatives hate comedy? Why is there no right-wing Jon Stewart? These sorts of questions launch a million tweets, a thousand op-eds, and more than a few scholarly analyses. Thats Not Funny argues that it is both an intellectual and politically strategic mistake to assume that comedy has a liberal bias. Matt Sienkiewicz and Nick Marx take readersparticularly self-described liberalson a tour of contemporary conservative comedy and the right-wing comedy complex. In Thats Not Funny, complex takes on an important double meaning. On the one hand, liberals have developed a social-psychological complexit feels difficult, even dangerous, to acknowledge that their political opposition can produce comedy. At the same time, the right has been slowly building up a comedy-industrial complex, utilizing the humorous, irony-laden media strategies of liberals such as Jon Stewart, Samantha Bee, and John Oliver to garner audiences and supporters. Right-wing comedy has been hiding in plain sight, finding its way into mainstream conservative media through figures ranging from Fox Newss Greg Gutfeld to libertarian podcasters like Joe Rogan. Thats Not Funnytaps interviews with conservative comedians and observations of them in action to guide readers through media history, text, and technique. You will find many of these comedians utterly appalling, some surprisingly funny, and others just plain weird. They are all, however, culturally and politically relevantthe American right is attempting to seize spaces of comedy and irony previously held firmly by the left. You might not like this brand of humor, but you cant ignore it.

Inhalt

Acknowledgments 

Introduction: Right-Wing Comedy 
1. Fox News and Mainstream Right-Wing Comedy
2. Making Comedy Great Again: Paleocomedy
3. Religio-Rational Satire: Owning the Libs One Faulty Syllogism at a Time
4. The Legions of Libertarian Podcasters
5. Trolling the Depths of the Right-Wing Comedy Complex 
Conclusion: Performing Right and Left 

Notes 
Bibliography 
Index 

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 3.5.2022
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Theater / Ballett
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Medienwissenschaft
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Systeme
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Staat / Verwaltung
• Schlagworte: alt right • book about right wing comedy • comedians • comic irony • Conservatism • fascist humor • fox news • liberal media • Political satire • Racism • Trolling • white supremacy • youtube algorithms
• ISBN-10: 0-520-38214-5 / 0520382145
• ISBN-13: 978-0-520-38214-5 / 9780520382145