From classical Hollywood film comedies to sitcoms, recent political satire, and the developing world of online comedy culture, comedy has been a mainstay of the American media landscape for decades. Recognizing that scholars and students need an authoritative collection of comedy studies that gathers both foundational and cutting-edge work, Nick Marx and Matt Sienkiewicz have assembled The Comedy Studies Reader.

E-book encyclopedia of a variety of topics related to humor, ranging from the ancient to the modern. Arranged alphabetically, but also searchable.

Discussion of the philosophy of comedic drama throughout history and modernity. Covers range of history, logic, and ethics surrounding the comedic drama.

Examines the ways in which mockumentary films and television programmes make visible--through comedy--the performances that underpin straight documentaries and many of our public figures. Mockumentary Comedy focuses on the rock star and the politician, two figures that regularly feature as mockumentary subjects. These public figures are explored through detailed textual analyses of a range of film and television comedies, including A Hard Day's Night, This is Spinal Tap, The Thick of It, Veep and the works of Christopher Guest and Alison Jackson...

Women explode out of chimneys and melt when sprayed with soda water. Feminist activists play practical jokes to lobby for voting rights, while overworked kitchen maids dismember their limbs to finish their chores on time. In early slapstick films with titles such as Saucy Sue, Mary Jane's Mishap, Jane on Strike, and The Consequences of Feminism, comediennes exhibit the tensions between joyful laughter and gendered violence...