Browsing by Subject "Comedy"
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Item Chicks aren't funny : an ethnography of female stand-up comedians(2010-05) Grimes, Andrea Bradley; Stewart, Kathleen, 1953-; Campbell, Craig; Hartigan, JohnFemale stand-up comics occupy a permanently liminal space which can be broken down into three small areas, characterized thusly: the interpersonal, the sexual and the professional spheres. Issues of power, footing and the carnivalesque are threaded throughout these three spaces, and I use the work of Michel Foucault, Mikhail Bakhtin and Erving Goffman to examine the ways in which the female comics I talked, lived and performed with over a two-year period negotiate this permanent liminality to both their advantage and their detriment. The three liminal spaces overlap and intersect, with female comics occupying at times two, and sometimes all three, at any given moment, in a constantly forming and re-forming state of “otherness” that separates them from the default male comic body. In locating female comedians in a permanent liminality, I illustrate the structures at play that are demonstrative not only of the comic experience, but of larger issues surrounding gender in contemporary society.Item A city of laughter: assessing Tarentine comedy from the fourth century to the Roman stage(2009-05) Maclellan, Jonathan; Hubbard, Thomas K.; Moore, Timothy J.Following the publication of Trendall’s Phlyax Vases, the history of comedic theatre in Magna Graecia received a great amount of scholarly attention, culminating in such important works as Taplin’s Comic Angels, Green’s Theatre in Ancient Greek Society and most recently Bosher’s dissertation, Theater on the Periphery. This work is, in many ways, a supplement to their collective research, and assesses the literary and material evidence for the development of comedy in the Apulian city of Tarentum. The analysis of textual evidence will begin by investigating Tarentine interactions with Attic theatre in the beginning of the fourth century and leading to the influence of its comic tradition on the early stages of Republican Rome through the works of Rhinthon and Livius Andronicus. An assessment of the Roman historiographical treatment of Greek theatrical influence and the vibrant Bacchic cult practices observed in the festivals of Tarentum will round out discussion of literary and textual evidence A general overview of fourth century comedic iconography production will begin the section on material culture. In this context, some notable individual pieces adduced by Taplin and Green will be addressed before other iconographpic material from Tarentine coinage and other sources will be presented. The conclusion from this body of evidence affirms a vibrant and independent tradition of comedic theatre in Tarentum that was at once amalgamative through its interactions with the festivals of the Hellenistic period and conceptually autochthonic for the Tarentines themselves.Item Comic structure in Pride and prejudice(Texas Tech University, 1971-05) Kaplan, Loretta LoggieNot availableItem Commenting on "quality" : an analysis of 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation and Parenthood as socially constructed tenants of the “quality tv” discourse(2012-05) Shelton, Brittany Lee; Kearney, Mary Celeste, 1962-; Kackman, MichaelIn order to better understand how viewers, critics, journalists and series producers help shape the “quality TV” discourse and position shows within it, this project uses case studies of 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation and Parenthood to dissect how style, narrative and paratexts influence public discourse about “quality” programs both in print and on the Internet. Using Kristen Marthe Lentz’s theories on “quality TV” and “relevance programming,” I examine how each show uses a cinematic style in combination with various strategies such as special episodes, narrative complexity, intertextuality, patriarchal narrative and feminism to align themselves with other “quality” series more readily found on basic and pay-cable, while also allowing viewers and critics on popular culture sites like the A.V. Club to make “quality” comparisons.Item The development of "Standby"(2014-08) Farmer, Jacob Terrence; Lewis, Richard M., M.F.A.This report describes the evolution of the television pilot for the half-hour comedy series "Standby." It documents the idea’s initial conception, through its various outline and draft stages, and finally to its successful completion for thesis consideration. In addition, the report looks ahead to the future of the project, as well as traces the writer’s growth both before and during his time in the MFA Screenwriting program.Item Finding your inner villain : the evolution of muhahaha(2009-12) Cheong, Wayne Poh Kiat; Lewis, Richard M., M.F.A.; Garrison, AndrewIn this thesis report traces I detail the process from the conception of the idea through the arduous development and finally the final product of Wayne Cheong’s narrative screenplay. Also included are the numerous revisions that have resulted from his involvement in this project.Item The heart-shaped cookie knife : Miss Lonelyhearts as accelerated Bergsonian comedy(2015-05) Sheridan, Mark Timothy; Kornhaber, Donna, 1979-; Houser, HeatherThis report provides a new examination of the nature and function of laughter in Nathanael West's novel Miss Lonelyhearts, using Bergson's theory of comedy as a critical lens. This approach allows us to understand the close connection between mechanization and comedy in West's novel, and also to recognize the text's hitherto untold significance for post-industrial American literature. Building on Bergson in original ways, and incorporating the work of twentieth-century theorists such as Fredric Jameson, I argue that Miss Lonelyhearts illuminates a proto-postmodern cityscape where comedy is governed by the mechanizing logic of capital and media. West's characters, figured as comedic machines, are pushed to their biological, psychological and mechanical limits in this world, and laughter marks the moments of their breakage. Synthesizing several disparate strands of criticism on comedy, irony and media, my reading accounts for the ways in which laughter functions and malfunctions in this text, and the means by which West produces comedy from such profound tragedy.Item Modalities of freedom : toward a politic of joy in Black feminist comedic performance in 20th and 21st century U.S.A.(2014-05) Wood, Katelyn Hale; Jones, Omi Osun Joni L., 1955-; Canning, Charlotte, 1964-Modalities of Freedom argues that comedy and the laughter it ignites is a vital component of feminist and anti-racist community building. The chapters of my dissertation analyze the work of three Black standup comedians from the United States: Wanda Sykes, Jackie Mabley and Mo’Nique. These three women have an outsized presence in standup comedy, but have been chronically underrepresented in academic literature despite their nuanced, complex and emboldening performance styles. I claim that their particular brands of humor are modalities of freedom. That is, under varying social, temporal and cultural contexts, Sykes, Mabley and Mo’Nique resist and expose marginalization and oppression. In turn, their comedic material and the act of laughter bond their audiences and generate anti-racist/feminist coalitions. The first chapter of my dissertation shows how Wanda Sykes employs comedic performance to “crack up” white supremacist historical narratives. That is, Sykes’ comedy functions as historiographical intervention that not only critiques history, but also moves Black lesbian women from silenced subjects to active (re)creators of United States’ collective memory. My chapter on Jackie “Moms” Mabley claims that Mabley’s legacy has been misremembered in both mainstream and scholarly texts. Employing Black queer theoretical frameworks, I trace how Mabley’s standup solidified important precedents for Black female comics in contemporary U.S. performance and generated specific modalities of freedom unique to Black feminist humor. The final chapter of my dissertation analyzes Mo’Nique’s 2007 documentary I Coulda Been Your Cellmate. This film is a live taping of Mo’Nique performing for convicts at the Ohio Reformatory for Women. Mo’Nique’s performance articulates the multiplicities of identity, and builds feminist community across difference. Mo’Nique and the women in the audience demonstrate how laughter is an intimate survival strategy and a freeing act even while under the restriction of state power. In short, my dissertation is an effort to validate how laughter can harness and express the complexities of Black feminist lives, and be a productive site for social change and stability.Item Shakespeare's comic vision: the fundamental elements of Shakespearean comedy(Texas Tech University, 1966-05) Lynch, Barbara F.NOT AVAILABLEItem Shut up and simplify : the writing process of Shut up and sing(2013-08) Bellina, John Gregory; Lewis, Richard M., M.F.A.This report documents the initial inspiration, development, and rewrites that went into the creation of John Gregory Bellina’s screenplay Shut Up and Sing. Furthermore, the following pages trace the evolution of the author’s writing during the entirety of his program experience.Item Silenzio in sala : parla il cinema italiano! new linguistic tendencies and the language of contemporary comedy(2015-05) Marchetti, Ettore, Ph. D.; Russi, Cinzia, 1966-; Bini Carter, Daniela; Bonifazio, Paola; Picherit, Herve'; Rossi, FabioThis dissertation investigates the language used in contemporary Italian cinema, with particular focus on popular comedy through the analysis of ten films released in a 30-year span period, from 1980 to 2010. My work argues that comedy dialogues may serve linguistic descriptive purposes since they use the complete spectrum of contemporary trends. The project analyzes how cinema uses common language and how film dialogues record linguistic changes in Italian, proving to be a useful and powerful medium for describing contemporary language. A subsequent question that my work addresses is how comedy’s film dialogues represent a changing society. A detailed analysis of the four linguistic levels: phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon is conducted in the dialogues of the films selected. Through the observation of the occurrences of the new linguistic tendencies I establish which variables trigger their use, what are the differences among the characters’ speeches, and whether and how the language used differs from standard language. Also, the comparison with contemporary Italian reveals the degree of sociolinguistic reliability of the dialogue of popular comedy. A further type of comparison is the one between the written screenplays and the final version of the films, which reveals some of the linguistic dynamics behind the trajectory from a written to a spoken version of the text. The data I collected show an overall reliable reproduction by most films of the new linguistic trends, and a reliable representation of the sociolinguistic complexity of contemporary Italian. This attempt to imitate reality shows, in my opinion, the scarce inclination to linguistic experimentalism of Italian comedy. On the other hand, what film dialogues fail to reflect in a realistic way are the traits intrinsically related to oral discourse such as interruptions, reformulations, and drawbacks. What my work ultimately highlights is the value of the close analysis of film dialogues as an interdisciplinary method that can contribute to linguistic accounts as well as to explain specific choices in language related to the cinematic genre.Item The comedia de Figuron from Lope to Zamora(Texas Tech University, 1935-06) Nelle, William HadenNot availableItem Voices of comedy : conversations with writers of television's most enduring shows(2010-08) Reddicliffe, Steven Vern; Staiger, JanetAn oral history of television comedy from the early 1950s through the mid 1970s as told by the writers Sydney Zelinka, Larry Rhine, Milt Josefsberg, and the team of Seaman Jacobs and Fred S. Fox. The shows they wrote for included "The Honeymooners," "The Phil Silvers Show," "The Red Skelton Hour," Bob Hope specials, "Here's Lucy," "All in the Family," and "Maude." These five writers were working in the earliest days of the medium and spent years writing for the personalities--from performers to producers--who pioneered and defined it. Most of them also wrote scripts during one of broadcast television's greatest periods of transformation, when comedy took a decidedly topical turn that continued to have a significant impact on television comedy in the decades that followed.