Comedy Against Work: Utopian Longing in Dystopian Times

By Madeline Lane-McKinley

Work is a joke. Laughing at it is political.Humor, Groucho Marx asserted, is "reason gone mad." For Walter Benjamin, laughter was "the most revolutionary emotion." In a moment when great numbers of people are reevaluating their commitment to the hellscape we call "work," what does it mean to take comedy seriously--and to turn it against work?Both philosophically brilliant and deeply personal, Comedy Against Work demonstrates how laughing about work can puncture the pretensions of tyrannical bosses while uniting us around a commitment to radically new ways of making the world together. At the same time, Lane-McKinley exposes a war at the heart of contemporary comedy between those who see comedy as a weapon for punching down and those whose laughter points to social transformation. From stand-up to sitcoms, podcasts to late night, comedy reveals our longing to subvert power, escape the prison of work, and envision the joys of a liberated world.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1942173709
• ISBN13: 9781942173700
• Release Date: November 2022
• Publisher: Common Notions
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.4"