Jon Winokur defines and classifies irony and contrasts it with coincidence and cynicism, and other oft-confused concepts that many think are ironic. He looks at the different forms irony can take, from an irony deficiency to visual irony to an understatement, using photographs and relate-able examples from pop culture. * “Irony in Action” looks at irony in language, both verbal and visual, while “Bastions …
Why do people tell dirty jokes? And what is it about a joke’s dirtiness that makes it funny? G. Legman was perhaps the foremost scholar of the dirty joke, and as legions of humor writers and comedians know, his Rationale of the Dirty Joke remains the most exhaustive and authoritative study of the subject. …
Another consideration, which just logically unfolds is that apparently, God had an ulterior motive, and he was eventually glad for the fall of man. Basically, the man had the right to tell him: -My dear Daddy-God! If I am not mistaken, the good is what you like and what is morally good, and the bad, on the contrary, …
Lauded for her eloquence, observation and wry humour, Jane Austen was a novelist who was highly regarded and greatly celebrated in her own time. However, her appeal is as great as ever, and her insights remain as fresh and relevant today as when they were first published. This delightful volume offers thematic extracts from fiction and correspondence; featuring …
Written for all who are interested in the mechanics of humor, Sweet Madness presents a general discussion and introduction to the roles of paradox, metaphor, and fantasy in humor. The operation of the implicit and the unconscious in humor; the importance of humor to human life; and the development, from childhood on, of the sense of humor are …
“There has never been a time in Western history that humor and laughter were not topics of intellectual debate and interest. That is still true. John Morreall’s broad-ranging concerns in Taking Laughter Seriously make it a book that will interest those in the social and behavioral sciences, philosophy, English literature and criticism, drama, and folklore. Morreall has done …
In this latest addition to Oxford’s Modernist Literature & Culture series, renowned modernist scholar Michael North poses fundamental questions about the relationship between modernity and comic form in film, animation, the visual arts, and literature. Machine-Age Comedy vividly constructs a cultural history that spans the entire twentieth century, showing how changes wrought by industrialization have forever altered the …
The Comedian as Confidence Man: Studies in Irony Fatigue (Humor in Life and Letters Series)
In this lively and fascinating analysis of humorists and their work, Will Kaufman breaks new ground with his irony fatigue theory. The Comedian as Confidence Man examines the humorist’s internal conflict between the social critic who demands to be taken seriously and the comedian who never can be: the irony fatigue condition. Concentrating on eight American literary and …
The Legacy of the Wisecrack: Stand-up Comedy as the Great American Literary Form
Despite the claim of many a Borscht Belt comic that he is a practitioner of “the world’s second-oldest professsion,” stand-up comedy is a young and distinctly American literary form. It was not until the last decades of the nineteenth century when, enabled by unprecedented prosperity and the right to free expression, that monologists began appearing in American vaudeville …
Autobiography of a Fat Bride: True Tales of a Pretend Adulthood
The author of the New York Times bestseller The Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club tackles her biggest challenge yet: grown-up life.In Autobiography of a Fat Bride, Laurie Notaro tries painfully to make the transition from all-night partyer and bar-stool regular to mortgagee with plumbing problems and no air-conditioning. Laurie finds grown-up life just as harrowing as her reckless youth, …