Comedians and Politics
A Transatlantic History from the 1920s to the 2020s - Volume 1: The United States
Will be published approx. on 11. September 2026
Book
Hardback
264 pages
978-1-80596-805-4 (ISBN)
Description
From vaudeville stages to late-night television, comedians have long shaped - and been shaped by - American politics. Comedians and Politics: Volume 1 - The United States traces a century-long relationship between humour, power and public life, revealing how comedians have both reflected and contested the political order.
Beginning in the 1920s and the twilight of vaudeville, the book examines the shifting constraints placed on comedians and the ways performers navigated race, gender and political authority. It explores the rise of figures such as Will Rogers, whose practice of 'kidding the famous' forged a new relationship between comedy and political elites, before turning to the Cold War era through case studies of Charlie Chaplin and Bob Hope - two contrasting figures whose careers illuminate the ideological pressures of the time.
Later chapters chart the fragmentation of American comedy in the age of civil rights, feminism and counterculture, analysing the work of influential stand-ups including Lenny Bruce, Dick Gregory, George Carlin, Richard Pryor and Bill Hicks. The book concludes with the emergence of contemporary political satire - from Saturday Night Live to The Daily Show - and the turbulent politics of the Trump era.
Written in a lively and accessible style, this volume offers a sweeping cultural history of American comedy while asking a fundamental question: what happens when laughter collides with power?
Beginning in the 1920s and the twilight of vaudeville, the book examines the shifting constraints placed on comedians and the ways performers navigated race, gender and political authority. It explores the rise of figures such as Will Rogers, whose practice of 'kidding the famous' forged a new relationship between comedy and political elites, before turning to the Cold War era through case studies of Charlie Chaplin and Bob Hope - two contrasting figures whose careers illuminate the ideological pressures of the time.
Later chapters chart the fragmentation of American comedy in the age of civil rights, feminism and counterculture, analysing the work of influential stand-ups including Lenny Bruce, Dick Gregory, George Carlin, Richard Pryor and Bill Hicks. The book concludes with the emergence of contemporary political satire - from Saturday Night Live to The Daily Show - and the turbulent politics of the Trump era.
Written in a lively and accessible style, this volume offers a sweeping cultural history of American comedy while asking a fundamental question: what happens when laughter collides with power?
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Liverpool
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 163 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-80596-805-4 (9781805968054)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Stephen Wagg retired as Professor of Sport and Society at Leeds Beckett University in the UK in 2019. He is currently an Honorary Fellow in the International Centre for Sport History and Culture at de Montfort University, Leicester.
Content
PART 1: 'The President? Charlie Chaplin?' Comedians, Comedy and American Politics After Vaudeville
1 - Mole Hill Men: US Comedians and the Avoidance of Politics in the Early Twentieth Century
2 - Big Name Hunter? Will Rogers and the Politics of Kidding the Famous
3 - No Axe to Grind?: US Comedians and the New Deal
4 - They Didn't Come on the Mayflower: US Comedy, Race and Ethnicity After Vaudeville
5 - Dumb Doras: American Comedy and the Feminine After Vaudeville
PART 2: The Tramp and the Pentagon Clown: Comedy and Cold War in the United States
6 - Tramp: Charlie Chaplin and the Politics of Pathos
7 - Charlie and Charles: Chaplin, his Art and the Fluctuating Politics of Peace
8 - 'I'm Sick and Tired of People Asking if I'm This, if I'm That' : Chaplin, the American State and the Cold War
9 - Bob Hope: 'Easy to Take, but Hard to Remember'
10 - Bob Hope and the US War Machine: Entertaining the Privates, Lunching with the Generals
11 - Fast Man with a Squaw, Slow Man with a Buck: Bob Hope, Gender Politics and the Cold War
Part 3: Material Nobody Else Could Perform: Comedy, Politics and the Other Americas
12 - Mort Sahl: Came to Mock, Remained to Pray
13 - An Overdose of Police: Lenny Bruce, the Politics of the Body and the Body Politic
14 - Giving Up on My Species: George Carlin and American Capitalism
15 - Turning Racial Turmoil into a Fun Evening: Dick Gregory, Race, Class and Food
16 - Bill Cosby: Selling Reassurance
17 - Richard Pryor: I Wasn't Malcolm, Martin or Anybody Else
18 - Bill Hicks: You're Not That Far From Being a Preacher....
19 - 'I Pity Any Pretty Woman...': American Comedy and the Feminine Mystique
Part 4: You Have to Love Your Country More Than You Dislike the President: Comedy, American Politics and the Sorrows of Empire
20 - 'He's President of the United States. We've got to do stuff on this guy': Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show and the Politics of American Satire
21 - 'It Was Meant to be about Gender Politics, not Actual Politics': Comedy, Celebrity and Identity Politics in Twenty First Century America
22 - 'She's Joking. He's Not' Comedy and American Politics in the Time of Trump
Afterword: Comedy and American Politics in the 2020s - Three Vignettes
Trump Redux
Gaza: 'There's so much bloodshed over there. It's really hard to joke about it now.'
Climate Comedy: 'The car is going off a cliff and we're fiddling with the radio'
1 - Mole Hill Men: US Comedians and the Avoidance of Politics in the Early Twentieth Century
2 - Big Name Hunter? Will Rogers and the Politics of Kidding the Famous
3 - No Axe to Grind?: US Comedians and the New Deal
4 - They Didn't Come on the Mayflower: US Comedy, Race and Ethnicity After Vaudeville
5 - Dumb Doras: American Comedy and the Feminine After Vaudeville
PART 2: The Tramp and the Pentagon Clown: Comedy and Cold War in the United States
6 - Tramp: Charlie Chaplin and the Politics of Pathos
7 - Charlie and Charles: Chaplin, his Art and the Fluctuating Politics of Peace
8 - 'I'm Sick and Tired of People Asking if I'm This, if I'm That' : Chaplin, the American State and the Cold War
9 - Bob Hope: 'Easy to Take, but Hard to Remember'
10 - Bob Hope and the US War Machine: Entertaining the Privates, Lunching with the Generals
11 - Fast Man with a Squaw, Slow Man with a Buck: Bob Hope, Gender Politics and the Cold War
Part 3: Material Nobody Else Could Perform: Comedy, Politics and the Other Americas
12 - Mort Sahl: Came to Mock, Remained to Pray
13 - An Overdose of Police: Lenny Bruce, the Politics of the Body and the Body Politic
14 - Giving Up on My Species: George Carlin and American Capitalism
15 - Turning Racial Turmoil into a Fun Evening: Dick Gregory, Race, Class and Food
16 - Bill Cosby: Selling Reassurance
17 - Richard Pryor: I Wasn't Malcolm, Martin or Anybody Else
18 - Bill Hicks: You're Not That Far From Being a Preacher....
19 - 'I Pity Any Pretty Woman...': American Comedy and the Feminine Mystique
Part 4: You Have to Love Your Country More Than You Dislike the President: Comedy, American Politics and the Sorrows of Empire
20 - 'He's President of the United States. We've got to do stuff on this guy': Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show and the Politics of American Satire
21 - 'It Was Meant to be about Gender Politics, not Actual Politics': Comedy, Celebrity and Identity Politics in Twenty First Century America
22 - 'She's Joking. He's Not' Comedy and American Politics in the Time of Trump
Afterword: Comedy and American Politics in the 2020s - Three Vignettes
Trump Redux
Gaza: 'There's so much bloodshed over there. It's really hard to joke about it now.'
Climate Comedy: 'The car is going off a cliff and we're fiddling with the radio'