The Oxford Handbook of Screen Comedy

The Oxford Handbook of Screen Comedy offers a rich sampling of the most current research and evolving trends in a vast and growing field-the study of humor and comedy in movies, television, streaming content, social media, and other forms of mediated comedy. The thirty new essays in this volume, written by leading scholars and emerging researchers, are guideposts to where the field is now and where it is heading. By its very nature, comedy eludes definition and crosses boundaries. Trying to grab the wriggling creature and subject it to analysis presents special challenges. The contributors featured in this volume apply a range of methods to analyse case histories, interpret trends, and theorize the changing face of comedy. Some celebrate the diverse pleasures of laughter; some critique its more nefarious practices and warn of salient dangers. Together, they bring insights from feminist, black, and queer studies, focus on issues of identity and ideology, extend and revise notions of historical development, and follow the emergence and migration of comic forms in Latin America, China, North Korea, and South Africa. The broad aim of this book is to increase awareness of these exciting studies and inspire more productive exploration as the field continues to grow.