CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2010
| Author | Hertz, Emily Elizabeth |
|---|---|
| Title | Alternative Comedy: Women in Stand-up |
| Summary | This thesis focuses on the stand-up performances of female comedians. I begin with addressing the long-held bias against funny women and how this construction affects female comedians today. Further, I will explore the consequences of the female comic’s violation of gender roles and, through the analysis of their work, examine how power relations functions between the comic and the audience. Specifically, I will evaluate the work of two white American comedians, Sarah Silverman and Maria Bamford. Both comics’ work exists primarily in a dominant white-male oriented sphere of stand-up comedy that has been dubbed “alternative comedy.” The alternative comedy scene exists on several planes, in comedy clubs, on the internet and on late-night cable channels with a large audiences. By analyzing segments from their routines, I explore their choices and material to interrogate how the traditionally male stand-up sphere can be used for feminist purposes. |
| Supervisor | Eszter Timar |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2010/hertz_emily.pdf |
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