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One of the comments on my post on conservative comedy made an argument that I’ve seen a lot: “Someone (can’t remember who) said that comedy is about kicking up, not kicking down. Republicans kick down. It’s not funny.” I generally see it referred to as punching up, rather than punching down (I think my reader … Continue reading Punching Down Is A Matter Of Perspective
An oft-made observation is that comedy in the United States tends to be overwhelmingly liberal in its politics. Despite the existence of a small number of Republican funny men and women (and most of those are more in the Libertarian bent anyway, e.g. Adam Carolla, Larry Miller, Vince Vaughn), there is no conservative equivalent of … Continue reading Conservative Comedy
I try (not always successfully) to avoid politics. As a young Michael Jordan once noted after being asked to endorse a Democratic candidate, “Republicans buy shoes too.” But one thing I have noted is is the liberal (in the US political sense, not the classical “The Economist” sense) tendencies of most comedians and humorists. Frank … Continue reading Want To Make Political Humor That’s Funny? Target Self-Importance And Hypocrisy.
I read a recent IO9 blog post about the superiority theory of laughter with some interest: http://bit.ly/1gQfZJl “The most dominant theory about why people laugh at each other also happens to be the meanest theory. It’s called the superiority theory of humor, and it goes all the way back to the classical Greeks. (Everyone knows … Continue reading Humor is about Superiority…and Inferiority
Judd Apatow is probably the most influential person in the movie industry today. Thanks to a string of hits that he directed or produced, like Old School, Wedding Crashers, Superbad, and Bridesmaids, his brand of comedy has become the dominant school. So given his success, you’d think that Apatow would rely on his billion-dollar comedy … Continue reading You’re not your audience