Jokes inviting more than laughter…Joan Rivers' political-rhetorical world view
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 17818907 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Don Waisanen (0000-0002-7768-6093, Baruch College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 139-150 |
| Publication date | 2011-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Comedy Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2040-610X • E-ISSN: 2040-6118 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1386/cost.2.2.139_1 |
| OpenAlex | W2248046349 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 24 |
This article examines the worldview of comedian Joan Rivers. I conducted a close examination of her Live at the Apollo transcript through systematic discourse analysis. I found several distinct clusters emerging in Rivers' act, involving rhetorics of optimism, uncertainty, egocentricity and realism. In using such language, Rivers invites her audiences to ingest and adopt certain structures of thinking and choices of interpretation characterized by both positive and negative features. I conclude that these communicative themes give us reason to be ambivalent about the comedian's stand-up as a contribution to public discourse. Several implications are drawn regarding the possibilities and limitations of comedy as a pervasive mode of public communication
Aesthetics · Ambivalence · Art · Comedy · Euphemism · Joke · Laughter · Linguistics · Literature · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Realism · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Humor Studies and Applications · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Social Psychology
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| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,58 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2024 (11) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |