The Revolution Will Be Hilarious

Comedy for Social Change and Civic Power

Caty Borum

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781479810833
• eBook ISBN:
  9781479810857
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Television
• Index: Social Sciences

An insider's look at the power of comedy to effect social change

From Trevor Noah's The Daily Show and Hasan Minhaj's Patriot Act, to Issa Rae's Insecure and Corey Ryan Forrester's Twitter feed, today's multi-platform comedy refuses to shy away from the social issues that define our time.As more comedians lean into social justice activism, they help reshape the entertainment industry and offer creative, dynamic avenues for social change.

The Revolution Will Be Hilarious offers a compelling insider's look at how comedy and social justice activists are working together in a revolutionary media moment. Caty Borum invites readers into an expanding, enterprising arena of participatory culture and politics through in-depth interviews with comedians, social justice leaders, and Hollywood players. Their insights shed light on questions such as: What role does comedy play in helping communities engage the public with challenging social issues? How do social justice organizations and comedians co-create entertaining comedy designed to build the civic power of marginalized groups? And how are entertainment industry leaders working with social justice organizations to launch new comedy as both entertainment and inspiration for social change?

Through this exploration, Borum argues that building creative power is crucial for marginalized groups to build civic power. The Revolution Will Be Hilarious positions the rise of social justice comedy as creative, disruptive storytelling that hilariously invites us to agitate the status quo and re-imagine social realities to come closer to the promise of equity and justice in America.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Preface
• Introduction: “It’s like Taking Your Vodka with a Chaser”: Comedy as Civic Power in the Participatory Media Age
• 1. “Desperate Cheeto”: How Comedy Functions as Deviant Creative Resistance
• 2. “It’s All about Who You Know”: Pitching and Producing Comedy in the Transforming Entertainment Industry
• 3. “Hollywood Won’t Change Unless It’s Forced to Change”: How Activism and Entertainment Collide and Collaborate
• 4. “You Learn to Be Racist from People You Love”: Co-creating Comedy for Antiracism Public Engagement
• 5. “Invisibility Is Not a Superpower”: Asserting Native American Identity through Humor
• 6. “Maybe They Think Beauty Can’t Come from Here”: Resilience and Power in the Climate Crisis
• 7. “I’ve Always Been a Syringe-Half-Full Kinda Guy”: Changing the Entertainment Comedy Pipeline
• Conclusion: Taking Comedy Seriously
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix: List of Interviewees
• Notes
• Index
• About the Author