What's So Funny?
What's So Funny?

Author: Nancy A. Walker

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 9780842026888

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Critical studies attempting to define and dissect American humor have been published steadily for nearly one hundred years. However, until now, key documents from that history have never been brought together in a single volume for students and scholars. What's So Funny? Humor in American Culture, a collection of 15 essays, examines the meaning of humor and attempts to pinpoint its impact on American culture and society, while providing a historical overview of its progres-sion. Essays from Nancy Walker and Zita Dresner, Joseph Boskin and Joseph Dorinson, William Keough, Roy Blount, Jr., and others trace the development of American humor from the colonial period to the present, focusing on its relationship with ethnicity, gender, violence, and geography. An excellent reader for courses in American studies and American social and cultural history, What's So Funny? explores the traits of the American experience that have given rise to its humor.

American Humor
American Humor

Author: Arthur Power Dudden

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 0195050541

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Originally appearing as an issue of American Quarterly, these essays take a close look at American humor from revolutionary times to the present day, focusing in particular on the neglected trends of the past fifty years.

Encyclopedia of American Humorists
Encyclopedia of American Humorists

Author: Steven H. Gale

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-14

Total Pages: 1324

ISBN-13: 1317362268

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First published in 1988, this book contains entries on famous American Humorists. Humor has been present in American literature, from the beginning, and has developed characteristics that reflect the American character, both regional and national. Although American literature was, in the past, treated as inferior to British literature, there has always been a large popular audience for the genre, which this book shows. The figures with entries in this encyclopedia not only amuse in their writing, but also aim to enlighten- setting out to expose the foibles and foolishness of society and the individuals who compose it. It is the manner in which these authors try to accomplish this end that determines whether they appear in the volume. Indeed, the book will demonstrate that the best humor has at its base, a ready understanding of human nature.

American Humorists
American Humorists

Author: Thorp

Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

Published: 1964

Total Pages: 50

ISBN-13: 1452909350

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American Humorists - American Writers 42 was first published in 1964. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

American Political Humor [2 volumes]
American Political Humor [2 volumes]

Author: Jody C. Baumgartner

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2019-10-07

Total Pages: 718

ISBN-13: 1440854866

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This two-volume set surveys the profound impact of political humor and satire on American culture and politics over the years, paying special attention to the explosion of political humor in today's wide-ranging and turbulent media environment. Historically, there has been a tendency to regard political satire and humor as a sideshow to the wider world of American politics—entertaining and sometimes insightful, but ultimately only of modest interest to students and others surveying the trajectory of American politics and culture. This set documents just how mistaken that assumption is. By examining political humor and satire throughout US history, these volumes not only illustrate how expressions of political satire and humor reflect changes in American attitudes about presidents, parties, and issues but also how satirists, comedians, cartoonists, and filmmakers have helped to shape popular attitudes about landmark historical events, major American institutions and movements, and the nation's political leaders and cultural giants. Finally, this work examines how today's brand of political humor may be more influential than ever before in shaping American attitudes about the nation in which we live.