A National Joke: Popular Comedy and English Cultural Identities
Comedy is crucial to how the English see themselves. This book considers that proposition through a series of case studies of popular English comedies and comedians in the twentieth century, ranging from the Carry On films to the work of Mike Leigh and contemporary sitcoms such as The Royle Family, and from George Formby to Alan Bennett and Roy 'Chubby' Brown.\ Relating comic traditions to questions of class, gender, sexuality and geography, A National Joke looks at how comedy is a cultural...
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National Joke investigates the Englishness of a century of English comedy, examining its components and asking what makes it English, and how comedy reflects and participates in ideas of Englishness. From the music hall tradition to contemporary sitcoms such as The Royle Family, Andy Medhurst considers how English comedy reflects national concerns with class, race, gender and sexuality, and traces the recurrence of themes and structures, such as male duos like Morecombe and Wise to Reeves and Mortimer, and camp comedy from Kenneth Williams to Julian Clary. Arguing that comedy plays a pivotal role in the construction of cultural identity, Medhurst presents case studies of comic traditions and representations, and examines key figures in English comic history, including Mike Leigh, Alan Bennett and Victoria Wood.
List of figures ixAcknowledgements xIntroduction 1Concerning comedy 9Notions of nation 26Englishnesses 39Music hall: Contours and legacies 63Our gracious queens: English comedy's effeminate tradition 87Lads in love: Gender and togetherness in the male double act 111Thirty nibbles at the same cherry: Why the 'Carry Ons' carry on 128Bermuda my arse: Class, culture and 'The Royle Family' 144Anatomising England: Alan Bennett, Mike Leigh, Victoria Wood 159Togetherness through offensiveness: The importance of Roy 'Chubby' Brown 187Conclusion: A national sense of humour? 204Bibliography 210Index 226
