American Muslim Comedians Use of Humour as a Persuasive Agent to Counter Islamophobia

This paper aims to explore the humour discourses of American Muslim standup comedians in response to Islamophobia in the post 9/11 era. There has been extensive research on how American Muslim standup comedy evolved through time, audience perception about Muslim standup comedians and the link between Muslim standup comedy and Islamophobia. For this purpose, three American Muslim standup comedians are selected through purposive sampling; Maz Jobrani, Hasan Minhaj and Muhammad Amer. Discourse analysis is conducted for selected comedians' Grand Netflix videos to study their humour discourses. This research adopts ‘Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of Carnivalesque’ as a theoretical framework to answer the research question. The findings suggest that comedians employed the incongruous humour function the most, then relief function and rarely employed the superiority function of humour in their standup discourses to counter the subjugation and discrimination Muslims have to suffer in western societies. Muslim comedians are successful in countering Islamophobia through humour but are unable to overthrow it from American culture. Nonetheless, the efforts of American Muslim comedians in highlighting and countering Islamophobia through humour discourses cannot be neglected.

Standup Comedy as Humorous Detachment: Enlightenment Roots from Diderot and Sade

This comparative and multidisciplinary article reveals an original perspective on Standup Comedy, proposing the Enlightenment philosophy as a possible roots for Standup Comedy. Subsequently, the Standup Comedian is presented as the most Rational and Detached type of actor. The comparative approach uses writings coming from the Enlightenment, from two very different, but equally iconic philosophers: Diderot, whose discourse focuses on acting (The Actor’s Paradox) and Sade, whose text is directed at gender issues from what we call today a very “politically incorrect” angle (the novel Justine). My theoretical attempt is multidisciplinary, being situated at the intersection between performance studies, literary studies and rhetoric.

The performance of humor

This chapter introduces the third section of the book, dedicated to the performance of humor (as opposed to competence) or using another term to the sociopragmatics of humor. It starts out with a discussion of the performance of humor (in a theatrical sense), including standup comedy. The rest of the chapter presents the Hymes-Gumperz sociolinguistic model, which will guide the remaining chapters of the book. In particular the concepts of repertoire, speech acts and events, genres, and contextualization cues are explicated. The chapter is capped by a discussion of empirical studies on markers of humor performance.

Humanism and Humor

This chapter provides conceptual tools for mapping the role of humor in humanist communities. First, it sets parameters for the study, emphasizing humanist organizations’ self-definitions, a theory of humor based in current research, and atheist standup comedy as a data set to explore. Broadly, the chapter follows the International Humanist and Ethical Union’s 2002 “Amsterdam Declaration,” which sees humanism as ethical, rational, and supporting of democracy and civil rights; insists that personal liberty must be combined with social responsibility; is a response to the widespread demand for an alternative to dogmatic religion; values artistic creativity and imagination; and is a life stance aiming at maximum possible fulfillment. Next, it investigates the role of humor in the construction of atheist identity and communities. Finally, it suggests some other ways of looking at standup comedy to rethink and expand the boundaries of what constitutes humanist humor.

The Issues of Black Racial Stereotype and Race Relationship Used in The Transcript of Chris Rock's Standup Comedy Entitled Never Scared

This research aims to answer how the issues of Black racial stereotype and race relationship are being used in the Chris Rock’s standup comedy entitled <em>Never Scared</em>. The issues of Black racial stereotype and race relationship are analyzed through the portrayal of living in US as Black people in the eyes of Chris Rock, an influential American Black comedian. This research is a descriptive qualitative research which uses Arthur Asa Berger’s techniques of comedy theory as an approach. As a result, this research finds that living in US as Black people is likely to be exposed by racial violence involving White people. The result also signifies how Black people are considered as inferior race in US society which then leads to the mentioning of racial discrimination towards Black people.

Interview with Incoming GODORT Chair

Favorite spot in Fargo / North DakotaMy favorite spot is Island Park. It is near the river, has music and dancing during the summer, and wonderful, big trees. It is like a little forest in the middle of Fargo.Favorite pastime/hobbyI am a cos-player. It mixes some of my passions: science fiction, sewing, and art. I enjoy the challenge of taking something that was a 2-D image and making something that works on a real human. I’ve also started doing standup comedy.

Finding the “Funny Bone” in the Class Skeleton

Some teachers have the natural ability to captivate their students, while others struggle to maintain classroom control. Utilizing comedy as a tool to deliver and maintain an audience's attention is something that comics and GATEs have in common. Some teachers use videos, memes, or one-liners to their class laugh. For the author, a career in comedy began with family joke telling. It was when a high school student enrolled in standup comedy class that he unlocked his comedic talents and better prepared himself to become a teacher. The highs and lows of joke writing, stress of a performance, and its connection to teaching are described in detail.