Comedy and Critique by Daniel R. Smith

Comedy and Critique explores British professional stand-up comedy in the wake of the Alternative Comedy movement of the late twentieth century, seeing it as an extension of the politics of the New Left: standing up for oneself as anti-racist, feminist and open to a queering of self and social institutions. Daniel Smith demonstrates that the comic sensibility pervading contemporary humour is as much 'speaking truth to power' as it is realising one's position 'in' power. The professionalisation of New Left humour offers a challenge to social and cultural critique. Stand-up comedy has made us all sociologists of self, identity and cultural power while also resigning us to a place where a comic sensibility becomes an acknowledgment of the necessity of social change.

About the Author
Dr. Daniel R. Smith is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Anglia Ruskin University. His research interests are in the sociology of class and culture, identity and popular culture as well as social media and celebrity. Along with Comedy & Critique, he is the author of Elites, Race and Nationhood: The Branded Gentry.

Reviews
"Provides a stimulating account of the way in which stand-up comedians respond to their sociological contexts and offers valuable insights into how comedians `do' sociology." Sophie Quirk, University of Kent



Book Information
ISBN 9781529200157
Author Daniel R. Smith
Format Hardback
Page Count 216
Imprint Bristol University Press
Publisher Bristol University Press