Author : Gene A. Plunka
Publisher : University of Delaware Press
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 37,3 MB
Release : 2002
Category : Drama
ISBN : 9780874137637
This book, the first full-length study of Guare's theater, will make his plays more accessible through an examination of the often unnerving type of black comedy that makes his plays work.".
Author : Patrice A. Oppliger
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 318 pages
File Size : 25,19 MB
Release : 2020-04-10
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 3030372146
This book focuses on the “dark side” of stand-up comedy, initially inspired by speculations surrounding the death of comedian Robin Williams. Contributors, those who study humor as well as those who perform comedy, join together to contemplate the paradoxical relationship between tragedy and comedy and expose over-generalizations about comic performers’ troubled childhoods, addictions, and mental illnesses. The book is divided into two sections. First, scholars from a variety of disciplines explore comedians’ onstage performances, their offstage lives, and the relationship between the two. The second half of the book focuses on amateur and lesser-known professional comedians who reveal the struggles they face as they attempt to hone successful comedy acts and likable comic personae. The goal of this collection is to move beyond the hackneyed stereotype of the sad clown in order to reveal how stand-up comedy can transform both personal and collective tragedies by providing catharsis through humor.
Author : Wes D. Gehring
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 251 pages
File Size : 29,20 MB
Release : 2016-03-09
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 1476622515
This examination of dark comedies of the 1970s focuses on films which concealed black humor behind a misleading genre label. All That Jazz (1979) is a musical...about death--hardly Fred and Ginger territory. This masking goes beyond misnomer to a breaking of formula that director Robert Altman called "anti-genre." Altman's MASH (1970) ridiculed the military establishment in general--the Vietnam War in particular--under the guise of a standard military service comedy. The picaresque Western Little Big Man (1970) turned the bluecoats vs. Indians formula upside-down--the audience roots for the Indians instead of the cavalry. The book covers 12 essential films, including Harold and Maude (1971), Slaughterhouse-Five (1972), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and Being There (1979), with notes on A Clockwork Orange (1971). These films reveal a compounding complexity that reinforces the absurdity at the heart of dark comedy.
Author : Michael D. A. Clarke
Publisher : Michael D. A. Clarke
Page : 133 pages
File Size : 35,83 MB
Release : 2023-04-05
Category : Fiction
ISBN :
"Wonderfully dark horror comedy!" - Sharron Joy Reads "Clever, Entertaining and Thought-Provoking." - Jai Hui "So entertaining, I could not put it down!" - Holly Schultz "Finally! A twist I didn’t expect." - Aaron The Devil is ready to retire from ruling Hell. Before settling down with his girlfriend, he must first seek a worthy replacement. Through a series of gripping and connected short horror stories, we meet a variety of candidates potentially ready to take the reins. From the twisted ringmaster of a circus that contains a dark secret, to an unstable superhuman saviour who begins to question whether society deserves to be punished rather than protected, each individual has their own unique, thrilling, twisted and often hilarious story to tell. Only one of them will ultimately get the job. Place your bets. The Devil's Replacement is a real treat for any horror fan.
Author : Pamela Faith Jackson
Publisher : Hal Leonard Corporation
Page : 516 pages
File Size : 19,55 MB
Release : 1997
Category : Drama
ISBN : 9781557832788
(Applause Books). This first-of-its kind collection includes a wide range of works, from an early examination and critique of American society after World War II to plays that reflect socio-political concerns that kept pace with historical events, like the sit-in demonstrations, the bus boycotts, black nationalism, and the women's liberation movement. A hybrid of comedic forms including satire, farce, comedy of manners, romantic comedy, dark comedy, and tragicomedy are presented through vernacular language, stand-up performance art, masks, broad humor, as well as the minstrel show. Essays, articles and interviews complement this critical edition.
Author : Alan Bullock
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 966 pages
File Size : 39,86 MB
Release : 1999
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 9780393046960
Nearly four thousand entries cover terms in all disciplines contributed by experts in each field, with suggestions for further reading.
Author : Wes D. Gehring
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 291 pages
File Size : 16,78 MB
Release : 2019-04-23
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 1476636214
Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery has been described as "a kind of Rear Window for retirees." As this quote suggests, an analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's methodical use of comedy in his films is past due. One of Turner Classic Movies' on-screen scholars for their summer 2017 online Hitchcock class, the author grew tired of misleading throwaway references to the director's "comic relief." This book examines what should be obvious: Hitchcock systematically incorporated assorted types of comedy--black humor, parody, farce/screwball comedy and romantic comedy--in his films to entertain his audience with "comic" thrillers.
Author : Wes D. Gehring
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 241 pages
File Size : 12,24 MB
Release : 2014-09-18
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 0786474653
The book examines Charlie Chaplin's evolving perspective on dark comedy in his three war films, Shoulder Arms (1918), The Great Dictator (1940), and Monsieur Verdoux (1947). In the first he uses the genre in a groundbreaking manner but yet for a pro-war cause. In Dictator dark comedy is applied in an antiwar way. In Monsieur Verdoux Chaplin embraces the genre as an individual in defense against a society out to destroy him. All three are pivotal films in the development of the genre in film, with the latter two movies being very controversial for their time.
Author : Chiara Bucaria
Publisher : Springer
Page : 238 pages
File Size : 37,66 MB
Release : 2016-11-26
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 1137593385
The essays in this collection explore taboo and controversial humour in traditional scripted (sitcoms and other comedy series, animated series) and non-scripted forms (stand-up comedy, factual and reality shows, and advertising) both on cable and network television. Whilst the focus is predominantly on the US and UK, the contributors also address more general and global issues and different contexts of reception, in an attempt to look at this kind of comedy from different perspectives. Over the last few decades, taboo comedy has become a staple of television programming, thus raising issues concerning its functions and appropriateness, and making it an extremely relevant subject for those interested in how both humour and television work.
Author : Donald W. McCaffrey
Publisher : Scarecrow Press
Page : 302 pages
File Size : 48,45 MB
Release : 1992
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780810825079
Explores over four decades of satirical and dark comedy films.
