Campus Events

"This book analyzes the evolution of comedy, defining five distinct periods and discussing the dominant comedic trends of each: screwball comedies, offering distraction from the Great Depression; suspense comedy, reflecting America's darker worldview during World War II; 1950s battle-of-the-sexes comedy; the shift from the physical, exaggerated comedy of 1950s to more realistic plotlines"--Provided by publisher.

Contributors investigate the effects of gender, sexuality, sexual identity, race, class, and nationality on humor and comedic performance. Each chapter addresses how particular historical periods seem to affect who laughs at what, why, and with what consequences.

"Unruly women have been making a spectacle of themselves in film and on television from Mae West to Roseanne Arnold. In this groundbreaking work, Kathleen Rowe explores how the unruly woman - often a voluptuous, noisy, joke-making rebel or "woman on top" - uses humor and excess to undermine patriarchal norms and authority." "At the heart of the book are detailed analyses of two highly successful unruly women - the comedian Roseanne Arnold and the Muppet Miss Piggy. Putting these two figures in a deeper cultural perspective, Rowe also examines the evolution of romantic film comedy from the classical Hollywood period to the present, showing how the comedic roles of actresses such as Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck, and Marilyn Monroe offered an alternative, empowered image of women that differed sharply from the "suffering heroine" portrayed in classical melodramas." "This feminist study of comedy in film and television offers exciting new opportunities for understanding these media. Written with verve and humor, it will be important reading for a wide popular and scholarly audience in mass communications, gender studies, and popular culture."--BOOK JACKET.

Straight from Amy Schumer's provocative and hilariously wicked mind, Schumer explores sex, relationships and the general mix up that is life with sketches, stand-up comedy, and woman-on-the-street interviews.