{"product_id":"tragedy-plus-time-national-trauma-and-television-comedy-hardback-9781477322543","title":"Tragedy Plus Time; National Trauma and Television Comedy (Hardback) 9781477322543","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eTragedy Plus Time\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eNational Trauma and Television Comedy\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003ePhilip Scepanski (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781477322543, University of Texas Press\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 6 April 2021\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e280 pages\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.513 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cdiv\u003eFocusing on comedy programs from the 1990s and early 2000s, including \u003ci\u003eFamily Guy\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSouth Park\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Simpsons\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eIn Living Color\u003c\/i\u003e, the author adeptly explains how these programs not only offer a means of escape for viewers processing national trauma, but also create new narratives that bleed out into national dialogue, with perhaps unintentional but wide-reaching consequences reverberating in the United States today...A must for media and communication studies departments, this work will also appeal to many comedy fans, traumatologists, and the generally curious.\u003c\/div\u003e (Library Journal) \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eTragedy plus Time\u003c\/i\u003e feels prescient. Reading the book, I got the sense that I was immersed in a discourse that society will be examining for the foreseeable future in trying to understand the relationship between comedy and trauma...\u003ci\u003eTragedy plus Time\u003c\/i\u003e advances a noteworthy collection of ideas about how collective trauma is (often unexpectedly) processed through humor...While aimed toward comedy scholars broadly, this book is particularly valuable to those curious about comedy’s intersection with history and politics.\u003c\/div\u003e (Studies in American Humor) \u003cdiv\u003e[An] insightful and innovative book...Scepanski is fairly thorough in his writing on both the general topic as well as its neatly-ordered subtopics.\u003c\/div\u003e (Houston Press) \u003cdiv\u003e[A] truly excellent new book...\u003ci\u003eTragedy Plus Time\u003c\/i\u003e is sophisticated, compelling, timely and well-written. It has a wide appeal for readers of all generations and backgrounds-just like television itself.\u003c\/div\u003e (Northeast Popular \u0026amp; American Culture Association) \u003cdiv\u003eScepanski effectively demonstrates throughout his book that the perceived status of television comedy as lowbrow entertainment, its ever-narrowing target audience, and its propensity to offend combine to place the TV comedy genre in an opportune position to address sensitive topics...Perhaps more than ever, this sort of historical and contextual perspective on television comedy is urgently needed for the complex mapping of the current American media culture and its ramifications. If comedy is an often quickly overlooked or dismissed genre, Scepanski proves that it should not be, given its significance in shaping Americans’ sense of national identity and history.\u003c\/div\u003e (Film Quarterly) \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eTragedy Plus Time\u003c\/i\u003e takes a serious look at how comedy and satire in American media make light of dark matters...thorough and engaging...Scepanki’s study is useful to understand the ways that comedy constructs a view of the past, thereby influencing perceptions of historical events. Those lessons do not disappear but become integrated into worldviews going forward, shaping how national trauma plays a role in both national and individual identity.\u003c\/div\u003e (PopMatters)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eFollowing the most solemn moments in recent American history, comedians have tested the limits of how soon is “too soon” to joke about tragedy. Comics confront the horrifying events and shocking moments that capture national attention and probe the acceptable, or “sayable,” boundaries of expression that shape our cultural memory. In \u003ci\u003eTragedy Plus Time\u003c\/i\u003e, Philip Scepanski examines the role of humor, particularly televised comedy, in constructing and policing group identity and memory in the wake of large-scale events.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eTragedy Plus Time\u003c\/i\u003e is the first comprehensive work to investigate tragedy-driven comedy in the aftermaths of such traumas as the JFK assassination and 9\/11, as well as during the administration of Donald Trump. Focusing on the mass publicization of television comedy, Scepanski considers issues of censorship and memory construction in the ways comedians negotiate emotions, politics, war, race, and Islamophobia. Amid the media frenzy and conflicting expressions of grief following a public tragedy, comedians provoke or risk controversy to grapple publicly with national traumas that all Americans are trying to understand for themselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eAcknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Introduction: Broadcast Nationalism, National Trauma, and Television Comedy\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 1: The Kennedy Assassination and the Growth of Sick Humor on American Television\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 2: Censored Comedies and Comedies of Censorship\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 3: Emotional Nonconformity in Comedy\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 4: Conspiracy Theories and Comedy\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 5: African American Comedies and the 1992 Los Angeles Riots\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 6: Television Comedy and Islamophobia after 9\/11\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 7: Comedy and Trump as Trauma in Narrowcast America\u003cbr\u003e Conclusion\u003cbr\u003e Afterword\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Texas Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52744955822360,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/tragedy-plus-time-national-trauma-and-television-comedy-hardback-9781477322543","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}