Through an analysis of humour as a political and aesthetic category, Humour as Politics challenges older models of laughter as a form of dissent and instead argues for a new theory of humour as the cultural expression of our (neo)liberal moment.

1. Introduction: Living in Comic Times.- 2. Dissent in Jest: Humour in the Liberal Moment.- 3. Telling Jokes to Power: The (A)Political Work of Humour.- 4. Humour without Anaesthetic: The Discomfort of Reality Comedy.- 5. Humour without Pity: The Scandal of Provocative Humour.- 6. Humour without Reason: The Nonsense of Absurd Humour.- 7. All That is Solid Collapses into Giggles: Examining the Political Aesthetics of Contemporary Humour.- 8. Conclusion: The Last Laugh. 

This book argues that recent developments in contemporary comedy have changed not just the way we laugh but the way we understand the world. Drawing on a range of contemporary televisual, cinematic and digital examples, from Seinfeld and Veep to Family Guy and Chappelle’s Show, Holm explores how humour has become a central site of cultural politics in the twenty-first century. More than just a form of entertainment, humour has come to play a central role in the contemporary media environment, shaping how we understand ideas of freedom, empathy, social boundaries and even logic. Through an analysis of humour as a political and aesthetic category, Humour as Politics challenges older models of laughter as a form of dissent and instead argues for a new theory of humour as the cultural expression of our (neo)liberal moment. 

“Pushing beyond orthodox theories, this book draws attention to the aesthetics of humour, long-neglected by mainstream humour research. Compelling analyses of contemporary American popular comedy underpin the author’s important conclusions about the political aesthetic of modern comic forms across the English-speaking world. Challenging and insightful, the book offers food for thought to scholars of contemporary humour and comedy.” (Jessica Milner Davis FRSN, University of Sydney, Australia. Author of Farce (1978) and Satire and Politics, Palgrave 2017)

“In a historical moment marked by lively debate over the political uses of comedy and satire, Nicholas Holm’s Humour as Politics arrives to bring us the conceptual tools we need.  Holm’s book is at once a thorough overview of theories of humour and a sharply observed analysis of the way in which recent media texts mobilize humour for political ends.  Witty, rigorous and convincing, Humour and Politics is a landmark work ofcultural analysis.” (Will Straw, Professor, Department of Art History and Communications Studies, McGill University, Canada)

“This is a remarkably erudite, rigorous and persuasive analysis of one of the most important, and under-studied cultural forms of our time. Making no casual assumptions about the political effects and consequences of popular comedy,  Humour as Politics demonstrates with close attention the multiple ways in which humour can reproduce, trouble or overturn established norms of understanding and behaviour. An important work of cultural studies and cultural criticism, this ground-breaking study sheds crucial new light on the operations of this most central, but still elusive, point of interface between everyday life, media culture and the wider public domain.” (Jeremy Gilbert,  Professor of Cultural and Political Theory, University of East London, UK)

Presents a new theory of humour as the cultural expression of our (neo)liberal moment Revisits existing humour texts in order to rethink both the political limitations and possibilities of humour as a political mode in the twenty-first century Brings together concerns of form and aesthetics with questions of power in a manner that not only reassesses the cultural work of humour, but also articulates a new account of the political possibilities of popular aesthetics more broadly Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras