Krefting's new book examines stand-up comedy
Beck Krefting, assistant professor of American Studies, is the author of a new book, All Joking Aside—American Humor and Its Discontents, published by Johns Hopkins University Press.
According to the publisher’s web site, Krefting’s examination of stand-up comedy “establishes a new genre of comedic production, ‘charged humor,’ and charts its pathways from production to consumption.”
Stand-up comics have used charged humor “to reveal social, political and economic stratifications,” according to the publisher. Krefting’s history of charged comedy over the past nearly 70 years highlights the work of a number of comics, including Dick Gregory, Robin Tyler, Moz Jobrani, and Hari Kondabolu.
In an interview with Tracy Wuster of the blog Humor in America, Krefting—herself a comic who has done stand-up and improve—tries to determine “What words would create the greatest comedic effect and in what order?” With Skidmore serving as host each year to the National College Comedy Festival, Krefting said she “gets to teach, mentor, and debate with students who are comedyphiles just like me.”
Click here to read the Humor in America interview. Visit the publisher’s web site here.
