1st Edition
A National Joke Popular Comedy and English Cultural Identities
1. Introduction 2. Concerning Comedy 3. Notions of Nation 4. Englishnesses 5. Music Hall: Contours and Legacies 6. Our Gracious Queens: English Comedy’s Effeminate Tradition 7. Lads in Love: Gender and Togetherness in the Male Double Act 8. Thirty Nibbles at the Same Cherry: Why the 'Carry Ons' Carry On 9. Bermuda My Arse: Class, Culture and 'The Royle Family' 10. Anatomising England: Alan Bennett, Mike Leigh, Victoria Wood 11. Togetherness through Offensiveness: The Importance of Roy 'Chubby' Brown 12. Conclusion: A National Sense of Humour ?
Biography
Andy Medhurst works in the Department of Media and Film at the University of Sussex. He has been teaching and writing about issues of identity, representation and popular culture since 1982. He is the co-editor of Lesbian and Gay Studies and the author of a forthcoming book on Coronation Street.
'In A National Joke, Medhurst...uses comedy to pin down that most elusive of things, the English national identity.' The Guardian
'This is an excellent study of a popular comedy that links it into a variety of English cultural identities. Unusually for a book classified as cultural studies, it is clearly written, and by an author who enjoys humour... a splendid account' - The Times Higher Education
'Most of the best scholarly work on comedy in the UK that has appeared during the last 25 years has come from Medhurst... At last there is an engaging but serious study of what makes English comedy both English and funny.' - Critical Studies in Television
