Modern American Humor: The Janus Laugh

1963 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 170
Author(s):  
Hamlin Hill
Keyword(s):  
American Humor

American Humor in Literature and Politics

1985 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 4-6
Author(s):  
William Hill ◽  
Dennis Lape
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Background Music ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Literature And Politics ◽  
Strobe Light ◽  
Personal Testimony ◽  
Humor In Literature ◽  
American Humor

The lights dim. The students stir nervously, not sure of what to expect of the strobe light and the background music from "Thriller." The student course guide had recommended American Humor in Literature and Politics, but no one had been able to locate a living survivor to provide a personal testimony. Two middle-aged men of spacious girths enter the room and begin calling the roll. One looks like he might be a Democrat. The other one doesn't. As they alternate calling student names, crack terrible puns, and climb in and out of fright wigs and false noses, it begins to dawn on the class why no Ishmael has stepped forward to tell the story of American Humor.

Mark Twain and Don Quixote

PMLA ◽  
1922 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 324-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olin Harris Moore
Keyword(s):  
Mark Twain ◽  
Don Quixote ◽  
Virgin Soil ◽  
American Humor ◽  
Huckleberry Finn

The purpose of this paper is to trace the influence of Cervantes upon Mark Twain, with particular attention to the supposedly autobiographical tales Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer.A short digression will be necessary at the outset in order to overcome, if possible, an almost universal prejudice. The popular notion is that Mark Twain's genius “just grew,” like Topsy; that he was peculiarly a “self-made” man, the term “self-made” being understood to mean “lacking in book learning.” We like to think that Mark Twain, above all other authors, dug into the virgin soil of his native country, and brought forth rich treasures which could be found nowhere else. We like to say: “What genuine American humor! What a true picture of American boyhood! Nothing of Europe in Mark Twain! Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are real Americans!”

The Reservations of the Funny: Ethics of Studying Funny Communication

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-86
Author(s):  
Liz Sills
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Marginalized Populations ◽  
Dominant Culture ◽  
Representative Case ◽  
American Humor

Abstract Studying the funny trends within historically marginalized populations has historically been used as a means of making them seem nonthreatening to dominant cultures. Scholars, furthermore, have often applied dominant-culture contexts toward reading minority artifacts without taking the time to understand the premises for other cultures’ funny enthymemes (Epp 2010; Price 1994). This paper proposes two solutions to the dilemma of recognizing the importance of representing marginalized populations’ humor in the scholarly canon but also studying those funny artifacts with a mind toward ethics, using Native American humor as a representative case study.

Becoming Benny

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley
Keyword(s):  
Program Material ◽  
Weekly Basis ◽  
American Humor

Jack Benny drew from a successful vaudeville career to adapt his humor to radio form in 1932. Realizing the pressures of creating new program material on a weekly basis, he hires Harry Conn. Benny and Conn develop continuing, quirky characters and “comedy situations” in imaginative spaces away from the microphone, that create a new kind of American humor. Sponsored first by Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Benny and Conn develop their program through experimentation, addition of new character Mary, and turn Jack into the “Fall Guy” who was butt of his cast members’ jokes. Friction with Harry Conn nearly derails the program, but Benny finds new writers and the program hits top radio popularity ratings by mid-decade.

Plantation comic modes

2001 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Tynes Cowan
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Social Position ◽  
The Self ◽  
Antebellum South ◽  
On Demand ◽  
Comprehensive View ◽  
Plantation Life ◽  
Everyday Interaction ◽  
Big House ◽  
American Humor

AbstractThis essay attempts to synthesize disparate sources regarding African-American humor in the antebellum South into a comprehensive view of comic modes on the plantation. In part, the essay addresses the question of slave compliance with white demands that the slave be funny on demand. Such compliance provided slaveholders with evidence that their slaves were not only content in their social position but also happy. I try to navigate through the various arguments related to the Sambo stereotype by examining slave humor in various realms of the plantation: from the big house to the quarter to the field; and from everyday interaction to special occasions such as the annual corn shucking festival. By identifying various domains of plantation life, each with its own particular mode of humor, I am able to draw a picture of the role humor played in negotiation identities on the plantation. These negotiations allowed both white and black members of the plantation community to create and maintain images of the Self.

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