Comedy Book: How Comedy Conquered Culture—And the Magic That Makes It Work

This electric debut from Vulture editor Fox serves up trenchant observations on the roles context, laughter, timing, and other factors play in comedic movies, television shows, and standup sets from 1990 through the early 2020s. Expounding on the craft of standup, Fox discusses how Chris Rock adopts a deliberately amateurish stage presence while testing out new material to see which jokes inspire laughter despite his stilted performance. The author has a knack for finding revelations in unexpected places, as when he mounts an oddly stirring defense of Adam Sandler’s scatological humor, which, Fox suggests, serves to relieve the shame associated with pooping and the pressure adults feel to deny their juvenile side. Fox’s arguments are as stimulating as they are unexpected; for instance, he suggests that “comedy doesn’t need to make people laugh” and is instead the “art of manipulating funny,” pointing out how the profundity of Hannah Gadsby’s standup special Nanette arises from the contrast between the joke-heavy beginning of the show and the serious ending. There are fresh perspectives on every page, and the style is as humorous as one would expect (“I was an actual child once. I know, hard to believe, but it’s true,” he writes while contemplating the enduring appeal of his childhood favorite, The Simpsons). Brilliant and a pleasure to read, this raises the bar for comedy studies. (Nov.)