Comedy and distinction : the cultural currency of a 'good' sense of humour / Sam Friedman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Friedman, Sam, 1984- author.

Series:

Culture, economy and the social

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English wit and humor--History and criticism.

English wit and humor.

English wit and humor--Social aspects.

Comedy--Social aspects.

Comedy.

Comedy sketches--Great Britain--Public opinion.

Comedy sketches.

Television comedies--Great Britain--Public opinion.

Television comedies.

Stand-up comedy--Great Britain--Public opinion.

Stand-up comedy.

Civilization.

Audiences.

Public opinion.

Social aspects.

Great Britain--Humor--Public opinion.

Great Britain.

Audiences--Great Britain.

Great Britain--Civilization--21st century.

Physical Description:

viii, 228 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, 2014.

Summary:

"Comedy is currently enjoying unprecedented growth within the British culture industries. Defying the recent economic downturn, it has exploded into a booming billion-pound industry, both on TV and on the live circuit. Despite this, academia has so far largely ignored comedy. Indeed, the majority of research that does exist--in disciplines as wide as English literature, film and television studies, cultural studies, and media studies--has focused on analysing comedians or comic texts. The problem with this scholarship is that it tends to assume that through analysing an artist's intentions or techniques, one can understand what is and what isn't funny. But this poses a fundamental question--funny to whom? How can we definitively discern how audiences react to comedy? Comedy and Distinction addresses this cross-disciplinary omission, bringing comedy audiences to the fore and providing the first ever empirical examination of British comedy taste. Drawing on a large-scale survey and in-depth interviews carried out at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the monograph explores what types of comedy people like (and dislike), what their preferences reveal about their sense of humour, how comedy taste lubricates everyday interaction, and how issues of social class, gender, ethnicity and geographical location interact with patterns of comic taste. Friedman asks: Are some types of comedy valued higher than others in British society? Does more legitimate comedy taste act as a tangible resource in social life--a form of cultural capital?This book explores how popular culture shapes British cultural identities, the relationship between national fields and global cultural flows, and the role of taste in policing social class boundaries. It will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, social class, social theory, cultural studies and comedy studies"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1 Introduction: Funny to whom? 1

Part I Positioning the research 9

2 From music hall to the Alternative Boom: The changing field of British comedy 11

3 Cultural capital: From resources to realisation 27

Part II The cultural currency of a 'good' sense of humour 47

4 Liking the 'right' comedy 49

5 Working for your laughter: Comedy styles and embodied cultural capital 67

6 Cultural omnivores or culturally homeless? Exploring the comedy tastes of the socially mobile 90

Part III Comic cultural capital: Strength and legitimacy 109

7 Comedy snobs and symbolic boundaries 111

8 The tastemakers: Comedy critics and the legitimation of cultural capital 125

9 The hidden tastemakers: Comedy scouts as cultural brokers 143

10 Conclusion 162.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780415855037

0415855039

OCLC:

859383447