Comedy for dinner - and other dishes [book]

Jarno Hietalahti, Outi Hakola, Cristian Palacios, Hüseyin Çavuşoğlu, Özcan Sezer, Tuğçe Bayram, Jolita Horbaauskienė, Ramunė Kasperavičienė, Leigh Nanney Hersey, Claire Vidrine
2019 Zenodo  
This study aims to think about the relation between laughter and politics. In the midst of this love-hate battle, we all understand Humor as a complex subject with various derivations that inhabits the present moment in a gracious state. From movies to television, from Arts to Politics, being funny and having a sense of humor are a key factor to understand the historical momentum. Addressing specifically the event White House Correspondents' Dinner we aim to explore the phenomenological and
more » ... tical implications of this exemplary case-study. This means trying to understand the importance of having politicians laughing at themselves, among them and at each other, by them and by others. This sui generis event, anchored in both and simultaneous offense and defense rhetorical strategies, is undoubtedly one of the most incongruous and relevant events in the political order worldwide. We hope to highlight that singularity in this special cooking of comedy in the heart of the American political process. We also offer other political side dishes. The book was meant to be a collection of academic essays that would cover different areas and forms of access to the topic, in the attempt of showing the complexity of a phenomenon that has massive political implications and can uncover and reveal one of the oldest relations in politics: humor and power. So, it is that tensional relation that becomes the background of this study collection, which operates as a pretext and provocation.
doi:10.5281/zenodo.3567971 fatcat:5mer2k6tofazpcxx3fnw7kuwnu