Politics and the American Television Comedy: A Critical Survey from I Love Lucy through South Park

by Doyle Greene

Overview

This work examines the unique and ever-changing relationship between politics and comedy through an analysis of several popular American television programs. Focusing on close readings of the work of Ernie Kovacs, Soupy Sales, and Andy Kaufman, as well as Green Acres and The Gong Show, the author provides a unique glimpse at the often subversive nature of avant-garde television comedy. The crisis in American television during the political unrest of the late 1960s is also studied, as represented by individual analyses of The Monkees, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, and All in the Family. The author also focuses on more contemporary American television, drawing a comparative analysis between the referential postmodernism of The Simpsons and the confrontational absurdity of South Park.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786432356
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	10/24/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	275
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.55(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Independent scholar Doyle Greene is the author of several books and serves on the editorial board of Film Criticism. He lives in Tucson Arizona.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     
Preface     
Introduction: Subverting the Medium     

PART ONE. Is Avant-Garde Television Comedy Possible?
1. American Comedy and the European Avant-Garde     
2. The Culture Industry and American Television Comedy     

PART TWO. Deconstructing Television: American Television Comedy, 1951–1966
3. The Humor of Anomaly: Ernie Kovacs     
4. Say “Dada”: The Soupy Sales Show     

PART THREE. From Bumpkins to Bigots: American Television Comedy, 1962–1971
5. The Idiocy of Rural Life: Green Acres     
6. Archie Bunker for President! The Crisis of American Television Comedy in the Counterculture Era     

PART FOUR. Anti-Television: American Television Comedy, 1975–1983
7. Game Shows of Cruelty: Chuck Barris and The Gong Show     
8. Situationist Comedy: Andy Kaufman     

PART FIVE. Is Avant-Garde Television Comedy Still Possible?
9. Damage Control: Comedy-Variety and Situation-Comedy After 1974     
10. Fair and Balanced Satire: Against The Simpsons     
11. Comedy Is Not Pretty: In Praise of South Park     

Notes     
Bibliography     
Index