Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 171 views

    Analyzing Stand-Up Comedy Laughter Langu PDF

    Uploaded by

    Adam Whitesnow
    This course analyzes stand-up comedy through a rhetorical lens. Students will examine notable comedians from the past 50 years and analyze the rhetorical elements of comedy. Assignments include keeping an online journal, writing a paper on the development of their own sense of humor, performing a rhetorical analysis of a comedy performance, and developing and performing their own 5-minute comedy set. The course aims to understand what makes people laugh and the nature and purpose of comedy as a form of rhetoric.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Analyzing Stand-Up Comedy Laughter Langu PDF

    Uploaded by

    Adam Whitesnow
    171 views3 pages
    This course analyzes stand-up comedy through a rhetorical lens. Students will examine notable comedians from the past 50 years and analyze the rhetorical elements of comedy. Assignments include keeping an online journal, writing a paper on the development of their own sense of humor, performing a rhetorical analysis of a comedy performance, and developing and performing their own 5-minute comedy set. The course aims to understand what makes people laugh and the nature and purpose of comedy as a form of rhetoric.

    Original Title

    Analyzing_Stand-Up_Comedy_Laughter_Langu.pdf

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    This course analyzes stand-up comedy through a rhetorical lens. Students will examine notable comedians from the past 50 years and analyze the rhetorical elements of comedy. Assignments include keeping an online journal, writing a paper on the development of their own sense of humor, performing a rhetorical analysis of a comedy performance, and developing and performing their own 5-minute comedy set. The course aims to understand what makes people laugh and the nature and purpose of comedy as a form of rhetoric.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    171 views3 pages

    Analyzing Stand-Up Comedy Laughter Langu PDF

    Uploaded by

    Adam Whitesnow
    This course analyzes stand-up comedy through a rhetorical lens. Students will examine notable comedians from the past 50 years and analyze the rhetorical elements of comedy. Assignments include keeping an online journal, writing a paper on the development of their own sense of humor, performing a rhetorical analysis of a comedy performance, and developing and performing their own 5-minute comedy set. The course aims to understand what makes people laugh and the nature and purpose of comedy as a form of rhetoric.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    EXP-0039-F: Syllabus Fall 2012 Kapica

    Analyzing Stand-Up Comedy: Laughter, Language, and Rhetoric


    Tufts University – Experimental College

    Section Details: Braker 226, Monday 6:00 - 8:30 p.m., Sep 10, 2012 - Dec 10, 2012
    Instructor: Steven S. Kapica
    Phone: 617.627.3384 (for ExCollege)
    Email: [email protected]
    Office Hours: Available before and after class by appointment

    Course Description
    1.0 credit, Letter-graded
    This course will count toward the Mass Communications and Media Studies Minor as a Humanities and
    the Arts elective

    WARNING: This course is suitable for mature audiences only.

    What makes us laugh? Who makes us laugh? And why do we pay people to make us laugh? This course
    will seek answers to these questions (and others), approaching them from the perspective of rhetoric.
    Are stand-up comedians rhetors? And if they are, what exactly is the nature and purpose of their rhetoric?
    We will begin with a brief introduction to classical rhetoric before moving into epistemic rhetoric and
    Kenneth Burke’s concepts of dramatism and the “comic frame.” These notions of rhetoric will serve as a
    starting point for a critical (and creative) approach to stand-up comedy. From Lenny Bruce and George
    Carlin to Bill Hicks and Chris Rock, we will listen to and watch performances by some of the most notable
    stand-up comedians of the last fifty years. We will ask questions about language, race, gender, class, and
    the function and nature of comedy and laughter. Through writing we will produce genealogies of our own
    senses of humor, as well as perform rhetorical analyses of comedy performances. The course will
    culminate with an evening of performances by the class: Each student will produce a carefully crafted (if
    not necessarily funny) “five minute spot.”

    Cultural critic and rhetorician Kenneth Burke writes, “The progress of humane enlightenment can go no
    further than in picturing people not as vicious, but as mistaken. When you add that people are necessarily
    mistaken, that all people are exposed to situations in which they must act as fools, that every insight
    contains its own special kind of blindness, you complete the comic circle.” While Burke isn’t talking about
    stand-up comedy, it seems clear that stand-up comedy—as performance, as art, as rhetoric—serves as
    an appropriate scene for critical exploration and rhetorical analysis. This course’s pairing of something
    familiar, popular, and vulgar (stand-up) with something often denigrated and rarely studied (rhetoric), will
    produce surprising insight, both in terms of ideology and epistemology. Class time will be primarily
    devoted to discussion of assigned materials. We will engage rhetorical methodologies, analyzing
    comedic works as we would political speeches or works of literature. In addition to performing rhetorical
    analysis, we will also engage in critical/personal reflection and participate in group dialogue and projects.

    Texts and Materials:


    Readings: Zoglin, Comedy at the Edge: How Stand-up in the 1970s Changed America; book excerpts
    and articles available online

    Films: Bill Cosby: Himself, History of the Joke with Lewis Black, Richard Pryor: Live in Concert, Why We
    Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy, Chris Rock: Bigger & Blacker, Punchline, Sara Silverman:
    Jesus is Magic, American: The Bill Hicks Story, Louis C.K.: Chewed Up, The Aristocrats

    Audio: George Carlin, FM/AM, Class Clown, Occupation: Foole; Marc Maron, Tickets Still Available, WTF
    with Marc Maron; David Cross, Shut Up You F**king Baby
    EXP-0039-F: Syllabus Fall 2012 Kapica

    Assignments

    Inquiry Notebook
    Throughout the term, you will keep an Inquiry Notebook in the form of an online journal. The purpose of
    the IN is to provide you with a space to make sense of the ideas we take up—by working with the
    readings, commenting or extending classroom discussion, generating ideas for projects, trying out ideas,
    etc. You will be responsible for composing a minimum of 500 words of informal but substantive writing per
    week. The IN should be a place where you feel free to try out ideas, to take risks, and generally to
    explore without worrying about polishing your prose, as you will in your formal writing for the course.

    Paper 1: What Makes You Laugh?


    Write a genealogical inquiry into the development of your sense of humor.
    4-6 pages
    Additional assignment details will be made available through course website.

    Paper 2: Rhetorical Analysis of a Stand-Up Performance


    Choose a comedian and a specific performance (one not included in syllabus; must be approved by
    instructor) and write a deep rhetorical analysis of the work drawing on course readings and at least one
    additional piece of rhetorical theory.
    6-8 pages
    Additional assignment details will be made available through course website.

    Final Project: “5 Minute Spot”


    Most comedians start out by doing short sets at “open mic” nights. Later, when comedians land spots on
    late night television shows they are asked to put together five minutes of their best material. This final
    project will be in the spirit of the five minute spot. Write and prepare to perform a five minute set based
    on the issues covered in the class. In addition to performing this set, write a context document that
    explains your process and how the spot represents work conducted in this course.
    5 minute Performance / 4-6 page Context Document
    Additional assignment details will be made available through course website.

    Grading:

    Inquiry Notebook: 15%


    Paper 1: 20%
    Paper 2: 25%
    Final Project: 30%
    Participation: 10%

    Class Schedule (subject to change)


    Readings, films, and audio recordings with ( * ) will be provided by instructor.
    All films are available through Netflix.

    Week Topics Assignments What’s due?


    Introduction: Ontological questions
    9/10
    about comedy, laughter, and rhetoric
    Stand-up Comedy and Rhetoric: Read: Burke, “Comedy, Humor, the Inquiry
    Epistemic rhetoric; Kenneth Burke Ode” and “Comic Correctives”*; Notebook
    9/17 and “comic corrective”; Bill Cosby Blakesley, “Dramatism and Rhetoric”* entries always
    Watch: Bill Cosby: Himself due before
    each class
    Telling Jokes and Getting Laughs: Read: Davis, “Physiological Laughter:
    Physiological Laughter and a brief The Subject Convulsed”*; Butler, “On
    9/24 history of stand-up Linguistic Vulnerability”*
    Watch: History of the Joke with Lewis
    Black*
    EXP-0039-F: Syllabus Fall 2012 Kapica

    The obscene and the polemical: Read: Zoglin, Comedy at the Edge,
    Lenny Bruce and George Carlin pp. 1-40; Limon, “Inrage: A Lenny
    Paper 1
    10/1 Bruce Joke and the Topography of
    Stand-Up”*
    Listen: Carlin, FM/AM, Class Clown*
    Comedy Goes to Court: Carlin and Read: Tremblay, “FCC v. Pacifica
    “FCC v. Pacifica Foundation” Foundation,” from Free Speech on
    10/9 PLEASE NOTE: We will meet on Trial*
    Tuesday evening because of Listen: Carlin, Occupation: Foole*
    Holiday on 10/8
    Comedy, Race, and Rhetoric (part Read: Zoglin, Comedy at the Edge,
    one): Richard Pryor and Patricia pp. 41-64; Williams, “The Death of the
    10/15
    Williams Profane”*
    Watch: Richard Pryor: Live in Concert
    Comedy, Race and Rhetoric (part Watch: Why We Laugh: Black
    10/22 two): Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy
    Comedians on Black Comedy Rock, Bigger & Blacker
    Women and comedy (part one): Is Read: Glenn, “Engendering Silence,”
    stand-up a “man’s” job? from Rhetoric and Silence*; Zoglin,
    10/29 Paper 2
    Comedy at the Edge, pp.181-194.
    Watch: Punchline
    Women and comedy (part two): Read: Davis, “A Rhetoric of Laughter
    Stand-up and feminism for Feminist Politics,” from Breaking up
    11/5
    [at] Totality*
    Watch: Silverman, Jesus is Magic
    Extreme, Absurd, and Personal (part Read: Zoglin, Comedy at the Edge,
    11/19 one): The “extremists,” past and pp. 159-180
    present Watch: American: The Bill Hicks Story
    Extreme, Absurd, and Personal (part Listen: Maron, Tickets Still Available*,
    one): The “Alternative” comedians WTF with Marc Maron (podcast),
    11/26 Episode 200*
    Watch: Louis C.K.: Chewed Up, Louie
    (season 1; episode 2)
    Extreme, Absurd, and Political: Listen: Cross, Shut Up You F**king
    Comedy after 9/11 Baby*; WTF with Marc Maron
    12/3
    (podcast), Episode 145* Watch: The
    Aristocrats
    A Night at the Improv: Student
    12/10 Final Project
    performances

    You might also like