Comedy Against Work: Utopian Longing in Dystopian Times

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.


Author: Madeline Lane-McKinley
Publisher: Common Notions
Published: 11/22/2022
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.57lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.50w x 0.70d
ISBN13: 9781942173700
ISBN10: 1942173709
BISAC Categories:
- Performing Arts | Comedy
- Political Science | Labor & Industrial Relations
- Social Science | Anthropology | Cultural & Social

About the Author
Madeline Lane-McKinley is a writer, professor, and Marxist-feminist with a PhD in Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is a founding member of Blind Field: A Journal of Cultural Inquiry. Her writing has appeared in publications such as Los Angeles Review of Books, Boston Review, The New Inquiry, Entropy, GUTS, and Cultural Politics. She is also the author of the chapbook Dear Z and a contributor to The Museum of Capitalism.