| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11401/77214 | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree. | en_US |
| dc.format | Monograph | |
| dc.format.medium | Electronic Resource | en_US |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.publisher | The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY. | |
| dc.type | Dissertation | |
| dcterms.abstract | This dissertation is a genealogy of the filthy stand-up comedian in the United States. Using case studies of five so-called filthy stand-up comedians, each chapter looks at how the filthy label has functioned as a floating signifier that is applied to certain comedians in ways that conceal what is actually transgressive about their performances. The first chapter compares Lenny Bruce's legacy to Richard Pryor's, arguing that they have misleadingly become equated as two comedians who apparently transcended their filthy words. In actual fact, white critics saw Bruce as a filthy Other because he aligned himself with Jewish and African-American cultures. In contrast, white critics excused Pryor's filthiness on the grounds that it was " authentically" " urban" or black. The subsequent erasure of their differing receptions led to their shared status as stand-up comedy's supreme practitioners, against whom all future filthy comedians would be judged. One such future comedian is chapter two's subject, Andrew " Dice" Clay, who critics claimed failed as a comedian because he never transcended his filth. What critics have ignored is that Clay operated within the subgenre of put-on comedy. Given that Clay's character intentionally reveled in his boorishness, critics concluded that Clay had failed as an artist and that his fans were too wretched to care. Clay and his fans were filthy, they implied, because they were " white trash," i.e. white and working-class. While Clay's filthiness complemented his gender role, the same cannot be said for the third chapter's subjects, Amy Schumer and Sommore, both of whom manage to appear feminine as they use four-letter words, racial epithets, sexual imagery, and scatological references in their acts. Schumer earns the audience's approval to tell filthy jokes because they recognize her character as an ironic version of the Girl Gone Wild archetype of popular culture. Unlike Schumer, who with a wink and a nod to the mostly white audience convinces them that she is not as hypersexual as she pretends to be, Sommore performs before mostly black audiences, who understand that black women's sexuality is often erased by, or demeaned within, popular culture. Throughout her performances, Sommore stresses her individuality so as to discourage anyone from seeing her filthy behavior as confirmation of black stereotypes. | |
| dcterms.available | 2017-09-20T16:52:13Z | |
| dcterms.contributor | Kaplan, E. Ann | en_US |
| dcterms.contributor | Gabbard, Krin | en_US |
| dcterms.contributor | Harvey, Robert | en_US |
| dcterms.contributor | Reich, Jacqueline | en_US |
| dcterms.contributor | King, Robert. | en_US |
| dcterms.creator | Springer, Sean | |
| dcterms.dateAccepted | 2017-09-20T16:52:13Z | |
| dcterms.dateSubmitted | 2017-09-20T16:52:13Z | |
| dcterms.description | Department of Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies. | en_US |
| dcterms.extent | 154 pg. | en_US |
| dcterms.format | Monograph | |
| dcterms.format | Application/PDF | en_US |
| dcterms.identifier | http://hdl.handle.net/11401/77214 | |
| dcterms.issued | 2015-08-01 | |
| dcterms.language | en_US | |
| dcterms.provenance | Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-20T16:52:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1
Springer_grad.sunysb_0771E_11952.pdf: 19468810 bytes, checksum: 1ff9f53500fcddc483197d5bf0995f82 (MD5)
Previous issue date: 2014 | en |
| dcterms.publisher | The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY. | |
| dcterms.subject | American studies | |
| dcterms.subject | Amy Schumer, Andrew " Dice" Clay, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Sommore, stand-up comedy | |
| dcterms.title | The Filth and the Filthier: Plumbing the Depths of Controversial Stand-up Comedy | |
| dcterms.type | Dissertation | |
