Comedy Is Killing Us: The Politics of Laughter and Rage

Does comedy really speak truth to power, or has it become one of power’s most effective tools? In Comedy Is Killing Us, literary and cultural critic Joseph Litvak offers a bold reckoning with the role of laughter in an age of authoritarian resurgence. Moving between political theory, media culture, and performance, Litvak argues that the modern strongman thrives not despite his ridiculousness but because of it. From twentieth-century fascist spectacle to the contemporary politics of insult ...