Laughing Matters, a Longman Topics Reader

Laughing Matters, a Longman Topics Reader
Author: Marvin Diogenes
Publisher: Pearson
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2009
Genre: Humor
ISBN:

Laughing Matters showcases how a range of contemporary writers including Jon Stewart and David Sedaris craft persuasive arguments, using humor to make their case while entertaining the reader. Many cultural commentators note that we live in an age of comedy. Staples of comic rhetoric-irony, sarcasm, and various forms of lampoon and caricature-have become dominant forms of public discourse, readily available through both traditional print forms and the electronic medis that drive public culture. Contemporary comedy helps define public issues and delivers critical perspectives on courses of action, judgments on the morality and effectiveness of policy decisions, and praise and blame for elected leaders. Given this cultural moment, a guide to analyzing how comic arguments are made-and to crafting such arguments using the rhetorical strategies particular to comedy-seems timely.

Laughing Matters

Laughing Matters
Author: John Durant
Publisher: Longman Scientific and Technical
Total Pages: 152
Release: 1988
Genre: Humor
ISBN:

Laughing Matters

Laughing Matters
Author: Giorgio Baruchello
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2023-11-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3111256103

Part 2 of Volume 3 addresses in detail the conflicts between humor and cruelty, i.e., how cruelty can be unleashed against humor and, conversely, humor can be utilized against cruelty. Potent enmities to mirth and jollity are retrieved from a variety of socio-historical contexts, ranging from Europe’s medieval monasteries to the 2015 Charlie Hebdo massacre. Special attention is paid to the cruel humor and humorous cruelty arising thereof, insofar as such phenomena can reveal critical aspects of today’s neoliberal socio-economic order. In parallel, settings where humor has been used as an instrument to cope with suffered cruelty, whether natural or human in origin, are also retrieved and discussed. These also vary greatly and encompass domains such as hospital wards, 20th-century Jewish ghettoes, and contemporary funeral homes. A set of concluding reflections is then offered on the psychological, theological, ethical, and metaphysical roots of humor—and its cruel rejection.