Currents of Comedy on the American Screen
Currents of Comedy on the American Screen

Author: Nicholas Laham

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-01-10

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 0786453834

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book analyzes the evolution of film and television comedy from the 1930s through the present, defining five distinct periods and discussing the dominant comedic trends of each. Chapters cover the period spanning 1934 to 1942, defined by screwball comedies that offered distraction from the Great Depression; the suspense comedy, reflecting America's darker worldview during World War II; the 1950s battle-of-the-sexes comedy; the shift from the physical, exaggerated comedy of the 1950s to more realistic plotlines; and the new suspense comedy of the 1970s and 1980s, focusing on the popular "dumb cop" or "dumb spy" series along with modern remakes including 2006's The Pink Panther and 2008's Get Smart.

Trick, Treat, Transgress
Trick, Treat, Transgress

Author: Sandra Danneil

Publisher: Schüren Verlag

Published: 2021-09-01

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 3741001457

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Simpsons are not only the world's most famous TV family; they are also the protagonists of one of the longest-lasting animation programs in US television. Over the course of the past thirty years, the yellow five from Springfield have become an indispensable part of American popular culture which still turns academics into fans and inspires fans to research the objects of their fascination. This book focuses on the Halloween Special TREEHOUSE OF HORROR, a part of THE SIMPSONS which research has largely left unnoticed. If THE SIMPSONS revolutionized how we look through television at US-American culture and society, TREEHOUSE OF HORROR has changed the way we re-member popular-culture history by way of horror traditions. This study demonstrates how Matt Groening's cartoon shows have painted a yellow archive of the digital age.

Knock Me Up, Knock Me Down
Knock Me Up, Knock Me Down

Author: Kelly Oliver

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 0231161093

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The image of a heavily pregnant woman, once considered ugly and indecent, is now common to Hollywood film. No longer is pregnancy a repulsive of shameful condition, but an attractive attribute, often enhancing the romantic or comedic storyline of a female protagonist. Kelly Oliver investigates this curious shift and its reflection of changing attitudes toward women's roles in reproduction and the family.

Comedy and Cultural Critique in American Film
Comedy and Cultural Critique in American Film

Author: Ryan Bishop

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2013-04-22

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 0748677801

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

How does comedy in film attempt cultural criticism? How does cinema use its own visual technology to reflect on and critique its power within both politics and visual culture? Comedy and Cultural Critique in American Film addresses these questions in detail as it argues for the centrality of comedy in film as a means of staging cultural criticism. Focusing on the powerful and sustained shifts in visual culture that cinema helped to generate, foster and question in the twentieth century, it examines the issues of technology that allow film comedies to engage in self-reflexive cultural criticism and to produce and critique the use of visual technology within US and global cultural politics. Grounded in the theoretical writings of thinkers such as Jean Baudrillard, Paul Virilio, Friedrich Kittler and Jacques Derrida in relation to repetition, automation, material systems of information media, the level of address in a communicative act, and the shifting role of the image, this book considers comedy as integral for a critical engagement of the constructs of culture. It brings a new perspective to comedy in film, invaluable to students and scholars in Film Studies.

Laughing Mad
Laughing Mad

Author: Bambi Haggins

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9780813539850

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In Laughing Mad , Bambi Haggins looks at how this transition occurred in a variety of media and shows how this integration has paved the way for black comedians and their audiences to affect each other. Historically, African American performers have been able to use comedy as a pedagogic tool, interjecting astute observations about race relations while the audience is laughing. And yet, Haggins makes the convincing argument that the potential of African American comedy remains fundamentally unfulfilled as the performance of blackness continues to be made culturally digestible for mass consumption.

A Companion to Popular Culture
A Companion to Popular Culture

Author: Gary Burns

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2016-05-02

Total Pages: 608

ISBN-13: 1405192054

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A Companion to Popular Culture is a landmark survey of contemporary research in popular culture studies that offers a comprehensive and engaging introduction to the field. Includes over two dozen essays covering the spectrum of popular culture studies from food to folklore and from TV to technology Features contributions from established and up-and-coming scholars from a range of disciplines Offers a detailed history of the study of popular culture Balances new perspectives on the politics of culture with in-depth analysis of topics at the forefront of popular culture studies