Laughter As Politics: Critical Theory in an Age of Hilarity

Laughter As Politics offers a novel account of laughter’s role in contemporary political life. A world awash in hilarity has rendered the traditional philosophical question of whether laughter should play a role in politics obsolete. Faced with the laughter generated by late—night comedians, Twitter trolls, and reality TV presidents, we must instead trace how laughter operates politically. Only an account of gelopolitics – that is, of the concrete practices of and regulations around laughte...