English 3914G: Attack of the Clowns (Comedy Live and Onscreen)
(This course can be used in partial fulfillment of the Group D requirement in the following
Huron programs: the Honors Specialization, the Major, and the Specialization.)
Instructor: John Vanderheide
Email: jvande29@uwo.ca
Office: TBA
Office Hours: TBA
Classes: TBA (Mondays-Thursdays 1:00-4:00 p.m.)
Course Description
In this course, we will explore the idea of comedy, and develop different critical approaches to
its various forms of expression in contemporary textual media: film, television and the web.
Comedy has been said to originate in invective and ridicule, in the desire to impersonate those
we find beneath us. Does contemporary comedy stay true to its origins? If so, then comedy
remains linked to aggression, and by extension, to politics. We will thus look at the way that
comedies take up their techniques of slapstick, parody, satire, etc. to make interventions in the
various politics that define our culture: including the politics of nation, class, gender, race,
sexuality and (dis)ability. All of these kinds of politics mark the human body in one way or
another. In its explicit preoccupation with the body, with bodily forms, matters and functions,
comedy thus seems especially capable of articulating the complex knot of political problems that
beset our fully globalized society. Selecting examples from film, television, the web, and the
stand-up circuit, we will explore both the ideological and the utopian tendencies of contemporary
comedic practices. We will try to distinguish between the cynical capture of comedy in
mechanisms of power and the explosive potential of comedy to liberate the unconscious from its
fascist, patriarchal, orientalist and homophobic fetters. We will look, however briefly, at comedy
in other than North American cultural contexts. We will contemplate the mystery of comic
timing. We will examine the ways comic impersonation gives way to the catharsis of laughter.
We will dissect and analyze the structures of jokes and comic plots with utmost seriousness.
Drinking milk during class will be strictly prohibited.
Course Purposes
1. Construct a theoretical and historical account of one of the most pervasive modes of
artistic expression.
2. Theorize the social function of comedy.
3. Explore some of the major genres of comedy (parody, satire, farce, “black comedy”)
4. Explore the major kinds of comedy in contemporary life in the major media of the day
(film, television, the web)
5. Explore the relationship between comedy and different kinds of cultural politics:
especially gender politics, racial politics, sexual politics and the politics of disability.
Course Objectives
Students who take this course will:
1. Develop different methods of textual analysis, from the formal or rhetorical to the
ideological
2. Gain an understanding of the formal aspects of comedy (set-up and punchline), and
explore the pragmatic aspects of comedy (laughter)
3. Gain an historical understanding of how a genre transforms itself over time.
4. Gain an understanding of the relationship between literary forms and ideology through an
analysis of the politics of comedy
REQUIRED TEXT
Stott, Andrew. Comedy (The New Critical Idiom).
Topics
Film:
Early film comedy (Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator)
World comedy (Juzo Itami, The Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion)
Television:
Form and function of animated sitcoms (from Flintstones to South Park)
Form and function of live action sitcoms (e.g. I Love Lucy, All in the Family, The Jeffersons,
Roseanne, Seinfeld, Arrested Development)
Political/variety shows (The Daily Show, The Colbert Report,Rick Mercer Report, The Kids in
the Hall, The Dave Chappelle Show)
Stand-up comedy
Selection of stand-ups exploring the politics of class, gender, race, nationality, sexuality and
(dis)ability.
Web Series & Podcasts: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog, The Guild (Season 1), Girl on Guy
Method of Evaluation and Assessment
Assignment
Due
Quizzes (2)
In class
Term Paper
(2500 words)
Final Exam
Weight
30%
30%
To be scheduled by
Registrar
Participation
30%
10%
Schedule of Readings and Lectures
Week 1
Introduction
Comedy on film
Week 2
Comedy on television
(Animated comedy, situation comedy, variety/political comedy)
Week 3
Stand-up & comedy on the web