Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Dimino, Andrea

Keywords

Stand-up, Performance, Comedy

Area of Concentration

English

Abstract

This thesis examines questions of audience, gender, and comic persona in three recorded works of �alternative� stand-up comedy. After establishing a historical and literary context for the study of stand-up comedy, the project splits into three chapters. Chapter I examines Demetri Martin�s 2006 album These Are Jokes. This first chapter focuses on questions of the comic-audience relationship, in which Martin manipulates stage power dynamics. Muting himself with a second performer, Martin shifts creative opportunity onto the audience. Chapter II examines Maria Bamford�s 2007 album Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome. This chapter complicates the traditional power dynamic by appraising how the comic persona can fragment. Slippery and aloof, Bamford�s rapid character-shifting works to dissolve gender expectations. Finally, Chapter III investigates Patton Oswalt�s 2007 album Werewolves and Lollipops. Drawing on Julia Kristeva�s theory of the abject, this chapter probes Oswalt�s work for that which is somehow both intimate and objectionable. Like traditional comic performance, �alternative� stand-up comedy subverts authority, but it also actively challenges binary thinking in the most subtle and personal ways. In the co-creative moment, no seat is safe: �alternative� stand-up calls everyone to perform.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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