Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars

by Kliph Nesteroff Narrated by Kliph Nesteroff

Overview

From the preeminent historian of modern comedy comes an expansive history of showbiz and the culture wars

There is a common belief that we live in unprecedented times, that people are too sensitive today, that nobody objected to the actions of actors, comedians, and filmmakers in the past. Modern pundits would have us believe that Americans of a previous generation had tougher skin and seldom complained. But does this argument hold up to scrutiny?

In Outrageous, celebrated cultural historian Kliph Nesteroff demonstrates that Americans have been objecting to entertainment for nearly two hundred years, sometimes rationally, often irrationally. Likewise, powerful political interests have sought to circumvent the arts using censorship, legal harassment, and outright propaganda. From Mae West through Johnny Carson, Amos 'n' Andy through Beavis and Butt-Head, Outrageous chronicles the controversies of American show business and the ongoing attempts to change what we watch, read, and hear.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

“Outrageous is required reading. An essential book of the social history of the United States—with laughs.”— Steve Martin

“Outrageous is an enlightening and entertaining, detailed, and wide-ranging (and fun!) overview of the never-ending war between censorship and comic voices in showbiz going all the way back into the 1800s. Kliph Nesteroff is an expert unparalleled on the history of comedy, and this couldn’t be a more perfect book for our times. I loved it.”— Bob Odenkirk

“Kliph Nesteroff is the Doris Kearns Goodwin of comedy. Outrageous is thought-provoking and often hilarious. I was only offended eight times.”— Judd Apatow

"A history of American censorship of all kinds of popular culture ... Nesteroff describes American attempts to censor theatre and vaudeville and burlesque which date almost to the beginning of the Republic, along with all the misbegotten efforts to purge 'vulgarity' from popular entertainment, ... [and] provides a useful reminder that censorship and censoriousness are significantly different things."— Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker

“This fascinating cultural history examines the relationship between entertainment and suppression by looking at the cycles of success and censorship that plagued Elvis Presley, Mae West, Carol Burnett and others.”— Washington Post

"Fact packed... Outrageous, the product of herculean research, has a wider purview than just comedy. ... In no-frills prose, Nesteroff races through some two centuries of expression and backlash."

— The New York Times Book Review

“Nesteroff’s meticulously researched book chronicles the many battles that have been waged on that front in the culture wars since the birth of show business. It expertly provides the one thing lacking in too many discussions of popular culture: deep, substantive, meaningful context.”— Glen Weldon, NPR

“If you’re worried about the future of funny free speech, Outrageous will both assuage and fuel your fears.” — Cracked

“Nesteroff, who proved he’s a premier historian of American comedy in The Comedians and We Had a Little Real Estate Problem hunts bigger game in this book—cataloguing the battle over entertainment content, from backlashes against racial and ethnic stereotyping from the 1830s to today’s weaponized, heavily bankrolled fights against ‘political correctness.’” — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“A comprehensive, meticulously researched, generally left-of-center work about how industries intended to entertain were and remain cultural battlefields.”— Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

2023-09-22
Comedy historian Nesteroff tackles the tangled story of how the performing arts have long been “dragged into the Culture War and used as a scapegoat.”

Put someone on stage or screen and let them speak a line or two, and someone is going to be offended. Take the much embattled Smothers Brothers, whose TV show often drew letters such as one that read, “I for one am fed up with looking at [N-word]s, [N-word]-lovers and long-haired fruits on your and every other show on TV.” Thus, it has always been: Vaudeville shows were hounded for presumed violations of Jim Crow segregation and obscenity; books of every sort were suppressed by the likes of Anthony J. Comstock, who believed that reading “breeds lust”; drag performers since time immemorial, not least the comedian Milton Berle, were censored and suppressed. If all this sounds depressingly familiar, it’s because the campaign has never really lifted. Right-wing leaders are busily hounding targets, but now, too, so is the left, a process that began in the 1990s. “Just as Democrat Tipper Gore had demonized heavy metal,” writes the author, “Republican politicians like Oliver North and Dan Quayle demonized rap music as part of a greater political strategy.” Nesteroff paints a broad picture, and his narrative is often little more than a shallow recitation of incidents: The Girl Scouts are tarred as Soviet stooges, the Dixie Chicks are pilloried for denouncing George W. Bush, and so forth. There’s also a lot of repetition, especially of the complaint, voiced by Groucho Marx half a century ago and reiterated by Sam Kinison, Dave Chappelle, and even the anodyne Jerry Seinfeld, that comedy is impossible in the face of all the delicate sensibilities arrayed against it.

The parts are better than the whole, but the message is clear: Loosen up and enjoy the show.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940193444688
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	11/28/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged

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