The Oxford Handbook of Screen Comedy

The Oxford Handbook of Screen Comedy offers a rich sampling of the most current research and evolving trends in a vast and growing field-the study of humor and comedy in movies, television, streaming content, social media, and other forms of mediated comedy. The thirty new essays in this volume, written by leading scholars and emerging researchers, are guideposts to where the field is now and where it is heading.

By its very nature, comedy eludes definition and crosses boundaries. Trying to grab the wriggling creature and subject it to analysis presents special challenges. The contributors featured in this volume apply a range of methods to analyse case histories, interpret trends, and theorize the changing face of comedy. Some celebrate the diverse pleasures of laughter; some critique its more nefarious practices and warn of salient dangers. Together, they bring insights from feminist, black, and queer studies, focus on issues of identity and ideology, extend and revise notions of historical development, and follow the emergence and migration of comic forms in Latin America, China, North Korea, and South Africa. The broad aim of this book is to increase awareness of these exciting studies and inspire more productive exploration as the field continues to grow.

Peter C. Kunze is Assistant Professor of Communication at Tulane University, where he teaches courses in film history, media industry studies, and media aesthetics and analysis. He is the author of Staging a Comeback: Broadway, Hollywood, and the Disney Renaissance and editor of several volumes, including Conversations with Maurice Sendak and The Films of Wes Anderson: Critical Essays on an Indiewood Icon.

William V. Costanzo is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of English and Film who has taught writing, literature, and film courses since 1970. He has published seven books on topics ranging from writing and computers to world cinema and film genres, including World Cinema through Global Genres and When the World Laughs: Film Comedy East and West. He is currently an active member of The Society of Cinema Studies and the International Society for Humor Studies

01 Introduction
William V. Costanzo and Peter C. Kunze

Part I: Genre & Aesthetics

02 Regenerating “Radical Romantic Comedy” for the Twenty-first Century
Maria San Filippo

03 Romcoms Without 'Men': The Ongoing Reconstruction of Masculinity in the Streaming Era
John Alberti

04 Narrative Structures of the French comédie communautaire: 2008-2017
John Bennett

05 A Humorous Geographic Expression: North versus South in Italian Film
Delia Chiaro

06 Everyday Politics of Black Women's Late-Night Comedy
Jessyka Finley

07 Netflix, Aziz Ansari, and the Comedian as Auteur
Meenasarani Linde Murugan

08 Seven Takes on the Blooper Reel
Annie Berke

09 The Laugh Track
Brett Mills

10 Gag Cinema: The Explicit Turn in Popular Film Comedy
Josh Moss

Part II: Representations and Identities

11 Transing the Body Swap Comedy
Frances Smith

12 Television Comedy, the Branded Self, and Hacks's Inter-Generational Critique
Leigh Edwards

13 Eddie Murphy's Last Laugh
Brittney Michelle Edmonds

14 Apocalyptic Laughter, A Black Lady Sketch Show, and Satire as the World Ends
Danielle Fuentes Morgan

15 Dolemite Is My Name, Black Queer Visibility, Blaxploitation, and the Momentary
Backstudio Biopic
Ken Feil

16 Maid in Latin America: On the Trajectory of Domestic Service Film Comedies
Juan Poblete

Part III: Politics and Publics

17 American Comedies, Imperial Heritage
Judith Yaross Lee

18 Theorizing Feminist+ Uses of Humor as Erotic Joy and Power
Cynthia Willett and Julie Willett

19 From the Tramp to Trump: On Sovereignty and Screen Comedy
Paul Flaig

20 Not Brought to You by ZBC: Comedy, State Censorship, and the Internet in Zimbabwe
Florence Madenga

21 Transformation in the North Korean Film and Television Industry
Immanuel Kim

22 Cynicism in Contemporary Chinese Comedy Films
Bruce Yun-Hang Lai

23 Satirical Liberals and Superior Conservatives: The Asymmetry of U.S. Political Humor
Darin DeWitt and Nicole Seymour

24 Hipster Post-Irony and Humor on Social Media
David Gurney

25 Conspiracy, Memetic Irony, and the Cultural Style of Aggrieved Entitlement
Viveca Greene

Part IV: Technologies and Applications

26 The Tech-onomy of Stand-Up Comedy
Rebecca Krefting

27 Millennial Authenticity and the Stand-Up Comedy Special
Michelle Robinson

28 Abuela's a Trickster and Other Millennial Inventions of Latinidad on Digital Media
Rocío León

29 Netflix, Comedy, and the Algorithmic Absurdity of I Think You Should Leave
Nick Marx

30 Absurdity, Twitter Comedy, and Humor Bots
Jenny Sundén and Susanna Paasonen

31 Cyborg Laughter
Robert J. King