Only a Joke Can Save Us: A Theory of Comedy

226 Pages·2017·0.83 MB·English

by  Todd McGowan

ONLY A JOKE CAN SAVE US
Series Editors
Slavoj Žižek
Adrian Johnston
Todd McGowan
diaeresis
O N LY A J O K E
C A N S A V E U S
A Theory of Comedy
Todd McGowan
Northwestern University Press
Evanston, Illinois
Northwestern University Press
www.nupress.northwestern.edu
Copyright © 2017 by Northwestern University Press.
Published 2017. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: McGowan, Todd, author.
Title: Only a joke can save us : a theory of comedy / Todd McGowan. Other
titles: Diaeresis.
Description: Evanston, Ill. : Northwestern University Press, 2017. | Series:
Diaeresis | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017020357 | ISBN 9780810135819 (cloth : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780810135802 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780810135826 (e-b ook)
Subjects: LCSH: Comic, The. | Comedy. | Comedy—Psychological aspects. |
Comedy films—History and criticism.
Classification: LCC BH301.C7 M383 2017 | DDC 700.417—dc23
LC record available at https:// lccn.loc .gov/ 2017020357
For Dashiell and Theo Neroni,
my favorite comedy team

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: The Similar and the Dissimilar 3
1 Lack and Excess 19
2 Theory and Opposition 49
3 Tragedy and Pathos 65
4 Philosophy and the Finite 85
5 Signification and Desire 111
6 Distance and Proximity 127
7 Outside and Inside 143
8 Ideology and Equality 161
Conclusion: Speculation and Levity 179
Notes 183
Index 209

Acknowledgments
This book began with a course on the theory of comedy, and several of
the students from that class contributed ideas and jokes that appear in
what follows. The funniest students from this class were Zach Alexander
and Adrienne Rosenberg.
Chapters 7 and 8 contain work revised from earlier publications.
Thanks to Quarterly Review of Film and Video for permission to publish
material that appeared as “The Location of Silent Comedy: Charlie Chap-
lin’s Outsider and Buster Keaton’s Insider,” Quarterly Review of Film and
Video 33, no. 7 (2016): 602– 19. Thanks also to Crisis and Critique for per-
mission to publish material that appeared as “The Barriers to a Critical
Comedy,” Crisis and Critique 3 (2014): 201– 21.
I appreciate the support of Henry Carrigan, Maggie Grossman,
Trevor Perri, and Nathan MacBrien at Northwestern University Press.
Without their diligent work, the book would not have appeared.
Thanks to my mother and brother. My mother, Sandi McGowan,
began joking with me before I was born, and my brother, Wyk McGowan,
has helped me to endure these jokes. My twin sons, Dashiell and Theo
Neroni, provided the requisite vulgarities for the book.
I am grateful to my film and English department colleagues at the
University of Vermont— Deb Ellis, Dave Jenemann, Hilary Neroni, Sarah
Nilsen, Hyon Joo Yoo, Sarah Alexander, Emily Bernard, and Andrew
Barnaby— who have encouraged me to work on this book rather than
waste time teaching or meeting with students. This has enabled me to
finish it quickly.
Thanks to the members of the theory reading group at the Univer-
sity of Vermont— Bea Bookchin, John Waldron, Joseph Acquisto, Hyon
Joo Yoo, and Hilary Neroni— for demanding that I read Hegel and Lacan
when I wanted to read Foucault and Deleuze.
Thanks to Jennifer Friedlander, Ken Reinhard, Quentin Martin,
Mari Ruti, Jean Wyatt, Jonathan Mulrooney, Frances Restuccia, Fabio
Vighi, Rob Rushing, Danny Cho, Louis- Paul Willis, Russell Sbriglia,
and Juan Pablo Lucchelli, who have reminded me to always keep them
laughing.
ix