Sexuality in Comedy. Controversy and Clichés (original) (raw)
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This article compares The Diaries of Adam and Eve (Twain, 1904-1906), The Incredible Shrinking Man (Arnold, 1957), and "You're Ugly, Too" (Moore, 2008) from the perspectives of humor, feminism, and queer theory. It examines how humor interacts with the changing representations of gender and sex(uality) at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the twentieth century; furthermore, it argues that humor is a valuable means of questioning binary patterns, which in this way may contribute to a life of equality-indifference (my term). I also discuss certain types of comicality, e.g. sarcasm, the results of which can be detrimental or simply conformist. The article concludes that humor can help us to pull down hierarchies, find affinities, and build ethical relations among genders, sex(ualiti)es, and beyond. KEY WORDS: humor, gender, Twain, Arnold, Moore. Humor, género y sexo(ualidad) en la narrativa y el cine: increíbles hombres menguantes de Mark Twain a Lorrie Moore Este artículo compara Los diarios de Adán y Eva (Twain, 1904-1906), El increíble hombre menguante (Arnold, 1957) y "También eres feo" (Moore, 2008) desde el humor, el feminismo y la teoría queer. Se examina cómo el humor interactúa con las representaciones cambiantes de género y sexo(ualidad) a principios, mediados y finales del siglo xx; se propone además que el humor es un medio valioso para cuestionar patrones binarios, pudiendo conducirnos a una vida de igualdad-en-la-diferencia (mi término). También se evalúan tipos de comicidad, por ejemplo, el sarcasmo, cuyos resultados pueden ser perjudiciales o simplemente conformistas. El artículo concluye que el humor puede ayudarnos a derribar jerarquías, encontrar afinidades y construir relaciones éticas entre géneros, sexo(ualidade)s, etc. PALABRAS CLAVE: humor, género, Twain, Arnold, Moore. Gender can be defined as a "culturally shaped group of attributes and behaviors given to the female or to the male" (Humm, 1999: 106), which are not (necessarily) equivalent to those of biological sex. Since (most) women's positions in patriarchy are unequal to those of (most) men, for many feminists the study of gender issues often involves fighting sexism. Conversely, French feminism tends to focus on sexual difference by celebrating women's different way(s) of relating to their bodies, to writing, etc. Decades of scholarly debate have not clarified whether female and male
Identities, 2003
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Gender Humor Discourse in ‘Friends’ Comedy Series
LINGUISTIK TERAPAN
This study deals with Gender Humor Discourse in ‘Friends’ Comedy Series. The aims of the study are 1) to categorize the types of gender humors used in ‘Friends’ comedy series, 2) to describe how gender humors realized in ‘Friends’ comedy series, and 3) to explain the reason of realizing gender humors in ‘Friends’ comedy series in the ways they are. The study used a qualitative descriptive method and a critical discourse analysis approach. The data of the study is drawn from scripts consisted clauses of gender humor discourse in ‘Friends’ comedy series. The techniques for collecting data were observing the plot of the comedy series and selecting episodes which the one that contained the most humor in friendship then download the episodes selected to be observed, after that make documentations by trimming the scenes for making the transcript of dialogues from cut scenes and finding expressions appeared of all players in the comedy series to be observe. The results of study found that...
Lectora: revista de dones i textualitat, 2020
It examines how humor interacts with the changing representations of gender and sex(uality) at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the twentieth century; furthermore, it argues that humor is a valuable means of questioning binary patterns, which in this way may contribute to a life of equality-indifference (my term). I also discuss certain types of comicality, e.g. sarcasm, the results of which can be detrimental or simply conformist. The article concludes that humor can help us to pull down hierarchies, find affinities, and build ethical relations among genders, sex(ualiti)es, and beyond.
2020
It examines how humor interacts with the changing representations of gender and sex(uality) at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the twentieth century; furthermore, it argues that humor is a valuable means of questioning binary patterns, which in this way may contribute to a life of equality-indifference (my term). I also discuss certain types of comicality, e.g. sarcasm, the results of which can be detrimental or simply conformist. The article concludes that humor can help us to pull down hierarchies, find affinities, and build ethical relations among genders, sex(ualiti)es, and beyond.
The gag after #MeToo: feminist approaches to sex and humour in film and television
Screen - Volume 65 Issue 3, 2024
‘Laughter is merely a form of expression, a symptom, an outward sign. Symptom of what? That is the whole question.’ Inspired by the symptomatic value that Baudelaire found in laughter, this essay offers a revision of the comedic term ‘gag’ by comparing its critical discussion in film and media studies with wider debates about contemporary humour and politics. I wish particularly to draw upon the philosophy of Giorgio Agamben, whose seminal definition of ‘the gag’ merits further discussion, and of affect theorists such as Lauren Berlant and Sianne Ngai, both of whom have reinterpreted the Italian philosopher’s approach in terms of an explicitly feminist investigation of the nexus between humour, aesthetics and politics. By defining gags as ‘the showing of what cannot be said’, Agamben posits a tensive dialectic between issues that are silenced (someone is gagged) and issues that need to be exposed (someone performs a gag), thereby placing humour somewhere in-between, an impasse that mediates the social and the political at precisely the point where things cannot be simply expressed in words. In order to ground this discussion of what gags are – or, more precisely, can be – I have chosen to focus on a particular iteration that illuminates the double meaning of gags as both expression and obstruction, laughter and silence – the sex-based gags created and performed by women that deconstruct the logics of the male gaze traditionally present in film and television comedy. While male-created gags are also mentioned (from classical Hollywood to European auteurs and stand-up comedy), my main interest lies in how those patriarchal views are currently being exposed and mocked by new gags made by women from different countries and backgrounds in television series such as Girls (HBO, 2012–17), Broad City (Comedy Central, 2014–19), Orange is the New Black (Netflix, 2014–19), Better Things (FX, 2016–22) and Fleabag (BBC, 2016–19), and in two films directed by Irene Moray and Maren Ade, respectively, Bad Lesbian (2018) and Toni Erdmann (2016). How in these texts do women screen sex, power and pleasure in their gags? Which formal and ideological choices do they share? And what do such gags tell us about contemporary issues, given the fact that the #MeToo movement has undeniably exposed the links between sexual abuse and the male-driven worlds of film production, entertainment and, very specifically, comedy?