The Joke Is on Us: Political Comedy in (Late) Neoliberal Times

(Hardback)

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This edited volume brings together scholars of comedy to assess how political comedy encounters neoliberal themes in contemporary media. Central to this task is the notion of genre; under neoliberal conditions (where market logics motivate most actions) genre becomes mixed. Once stable, discreet categories such as comedy, horror, drama and news and entertainment have become blurred so as to be indistinguishable. The classic modern paradigm of comedy/tragedy no longer holds, if it ever did. Moreover, as politics becomes more economic and less moral or normative under neoliberalism, we are able to see new resistance to comedic genres that support neoliberal strategies to hide racial and gender injustice such as unlaughter, ambiguity, and anti-comedy. There is also an increasing interest with comedy as a form of entertainment on the political right following both Brexit in the UK and the election of Trump in the U.S. Several essays confront this conservative comedy and place it in context of the larger humor history of these debates over free speech and political correctness. For comedians too, entry into popular media now follows the familiar neoliberal script of the celebration of self-help with the increasing admonishment of those who fail to win in market terms. Laughter plays an important role in shaming and valorizing (often at the same time!) the precarious subject in the aftermath of global recession. Doubling down on austerity, self-help policies and equivocation in the face of extremist challenges (right and left), politics foils the critical comedians attempt to satirize and parody its object. Characterized by ambiguity, mixed genre and the increasing use of anti-humor, political comedy mirrors the social and political world it mocks, parodies and celebrates often with lackluster results suggesting that the joke might be on us, as audiences.

Reviews

Dont pick up The Joke is on Us: Political Comedy in (Late) Neoliberal Times edited by Julie Webber if what youre looking for is a funny-haha book. The contributors are not stand-up comedians, nor are they trying to tell jokes. If, instead, youre looking for serious examinations about how satire, irony, and humoroften weapons of the weak deployed against authoritarians--have been coopted and diffused by neoliberal forces and regimes (corporate capitalism, big data surveillance systems, alt-right conspirators, and racist truthers), then this is the book for you. Dont expect Saturday Night Live or the Comedy Channel to save us, they warn. -- John Seery, Pomona College
Who gets the last laugh on the late-stage of neoliberalism As this timely collection suggests, the joke is ultimately on all of us on the losing side of a corporate run humor-mill that keeps us laughing-mad across the political aisles. Amidst the toxic tides of austerity, white nationalism, xenophobia, and rampant misogyny, weve been conditioned to look to late-night, white, and (mostly) male corporate-jesters to reassure us that Trump and his troll army will be impeached any day now. Comedy wont save us from this nightmare, as political and economic elites are the ones laughing all the way to the bank. -- Ral Prez, University of Denver

Author Bio

Julie Webber is professor of politics and government at Illinois State University.