Hysterical! : women in American comedy / edited by Linda Mizejewski and Victoria Sturtevant ; foreword by Kathleen Rowe Karlyn.

Includes bibliographies and index.

Introduction / Linda Mizejewski and Victoria Sturtevant -- Mabel Normand : new woman in the flapper age / Kristine Brunovska Karnick -- Fay Tincher : female rowdiness and social change / Joanna E. Rapf -- Mae West : the constant sinner / Kristen Hatch -- Fanny Brice's new nose : beauty, ethnicity, and liminality / Kristen Anderson Wagner -- Lucille Ball and the Lucy character : familiarity, female friendship, and the anxiety of competence / Lori Landay -- Carol Burnett : home, horror, and hilarity on the Carol Burnett show / Linda Mizejewski -- Lily Tomlin : queer sensibilities, funny feminism, and multimedia stardom / Suzanne Leonard -- Moms Mabley and Wanda Sykes : "I'ma be me" / Bambi Haggins -- Roseanne Barr : remembering Roseanne / Rosie White -- Whoopi Goldberg in Hollywood : queering comic genre genealogies / Rebecca Wanzo -- Margaret Cho's army : "we are the baddest motherfuckers on the block" / Rebecca Krefting -- Ellen Degeneres's incorporate body : the politics of authenticity / Brenda R. Weber and Joselyn K. Leimbach -- Sarah Silverman : cuteness as subversion / Anthony P. Mcintyre -- Tina Fey : "quality" comedy and the body of the female comedy author / Julia Havas -- Lena Dunham : cringe comedy and body politics / Maria sulimma.

Amy Schumer, Samantha Bee, Mindy Kaling, Melissa McCarthy, Tig Notaro, Leslie Jones, and a host of hilarious peers are killing it nightly on American stages and screens large and small, smashing the tired stereotype that women aren't funny. But today's funny women aren't a new phenomenon-they have generations of hysterically funny foremothers. Fay Tincher's daredevil stunts, Mae West's linebacker walk, Lucille Ball's manic slapstick, Carol Burnett's athletic pratfalls, Ellen DeGeneres's tomboy pranks, Whoopi Goldberg's sly twinkle, and Tina Fey's acerbic wit all paved the way for contemporary unruly women, whose comedy upends the norms and ideals of women's bodies and behaviors. Hysterical! Women in American Comedy delivers a lively survey of women comics from the stars of the silent cinema up through the multimedia presences of Tina Fey and Lena Dunham. This anthology of original essays includes contributions by the field's leading authorities, introducing a new framework for women's comedy that analyzes the implications of hysterical laughter and hysterically funny performances. Expanding on previous studies of comedians such as Mae West, Moms Mabley, and Margaret Cho, and offering the first scholarly work on comedy pioneers Mabel Normand, Fay Tincher, and Carol Burnett, the contributors explore such topics as racial/ethnic/sexual identity, celebrity, stardom, censorship, auteurism, cuteness, and postfeminism across multiple media.

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