The Stand Up Comedy and The Parrhesiast

  • Simone Cantino
Keywords: Satire, Stand up comedy, Comedian, Truth, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Euphemism

Abstract

In the present essay the author examines the american Stand up comedy as a form of art and entertainement which involves many different aspects (for instance One man show and Preaching). The intent of this essay is to look into the correlation that the comedian creates between laughter and the search for truth (both personal and universal).

By comparing different bits and excerpts taken from the comedy acts of american authors such as Lenn Bruce, George Carlin and Bill Hicks, the author finds a relation between the elements of satire in the Stand up comedy genre and the concept of ‘parrhesia’ and parrhesiast.

The purpose of the essay is to demonstrate how the peculiar figure of the stand up comedian can assume a precise philosophical and ethical role. The act of showing the people their own hypocrisies and self deceptions by using the laughter is a way  to stimulate a reflection and, potentially, determine a growth of self awareness in the mind of the people of the audience. Stand up comedy should be seen not only as a form of entertainment, but also as a way for developing a critical thinking and can be considered, in some cases, a tool for achieving some kind of revelation and change.

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Author Biography

Simone Cantino

Simone Cantino, quimper@hotmail.it, has achieved a degree in Culture Moderne Comparate (2011) with the supervision of Barbara Lanati. He has obtained a Ph.D in “Letterature e culture d’Europa” issued by “Istituto italiano di scienze umane” in Florence (2011-2014). His main field of research involves english and anglo-american contemporary literature, William S. Burroughs and also authors and philosophers as Sade, Foucault, Starobinski, Deleuze, Blanchot. His doctoral dissertation, with the supervision of Nadia Fusini, is about the hybridation of inner and outer reality in the works of british sci-fi writer J.G. Ballard.

Publications:

L’urgenza di scrivere (2013),

“Il collettivo Auster”, Contemporanea (2014)

 “Scrivere: il lavoro impossibile”, Perché scrivere, Olomouc, Czech Republic (2015)

References

Benedetti, Carla, Il tradimento dei critici, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2002.

Brody, Dylan, “Exchange: Stand Up Sociology”, Contexts, 10.2 (2011): 12-14.

Barry, Julian, Lenny, New York, Grove Press, 1971.

Bruce, Lenny, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People, New York, Playboy Press, 1965.

Budd, L.J, On Humor: The Best from American Literature, Durham, Duke University Press, 1992.

Carlin, George, Brain droppings, New York, Hyperion Books, 1997.

Carlin, George, Last Words, New York, Free Press, 2009.

Carlin, George, Napalm & Silly Putty, New York, Hyperion Books, 2001.

Carlin, George, When will Jesus bring the Pork Chops?, New York, Hyperion Books, 2004.

Cohen, Sarah Blacher, Comic Relief: Humor in Contemporary American Literature, Chicago, University of Illinois Press, 1978.

Collins, K. L. - Skover, David, The Trials of Lenny Bruce: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon, Naperville (IL), Sourcebooks, 2002.

De Tocqueville, Alexis, De La Démocratie en Amérique (1835-1840), tr. it. G. Candeloro, Milano, BUR, 1999.

Foucault, Michel, Le Gouvernement de soi et des autres (1982-83), it. tr. Il governo di sé e degli altri, Corso al Collège de France, Ed. M. Galzigna, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2009.

Goldman, Albert, Ladies and Gentlemen--Lenny Bruce!, New York, Random House, 1974.

Kofsky, Frank, Lenny Bruce: The Comedian as Social Critic and Secular Moralist New York, Monad Press, 1974.

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Kuh, Richard, Foolish Figleaves? Pornography in--and out of--Court, London, Macmillan, 1967.

Limon, John, Stand-Up Comedy in Theory, or, Abjection in America, Durham and London, Duke UP, 2000.

Oliar, Dotan, “There’s no Free Laugh (Anymore): The Emergence of Intellectual Property Norms and the Transformation of Stand-Up Comedy”, Virginia Law Review, 94.8 (2008): 1787-1867.

Provenza Paul, Dion Dan, Satiristas! La rivincita della satira, Monza, Sagoma Edizioni, 2013.

Seizer, Susan, “On the Uses of Obscenity in Live Stand-Up Comedy”, Anthropological Quarterly, 84.1 (2011): 209-234.

Thomas, William Karl, Lenny Bruce: The Making of a Prophet, Hamden (CT), Archon, 1989.

Wallace, Ronald, “Sick Jokes”, The Antioch Review, 62.4 (2004): 702-712.

Filmography

American: The Bill Hicks Story, Dir. Matt Harlock, Paul Thomas USA (2009).

Chewed Up, Dir. Louis C.K., USA (2006).

Doin’it Again, Dir. George Carlin, USA (1990).

IT’s Bad for Ya, Dir. George Carlin, USA (2008).

Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth, Dir. Robert E. Weide, USA (1998).

Live at the Beacon Theater, Dir. Louis C.K., USA (2011).

Live, Dir. Lenny Bruce, USA (1963).

Revelations, Dir. Bill Hicks, USA-GB (1991).

Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic, Dir. Marina Zenovich, USA (2013).

Thoughts & Prayers, Dir. Anthony Jeselnik, USA (2015)

Published
2017-02-28
How to Cite
Cantino, S. (2017). The Stand Up Comedy and The Parrhesiast. Between, 6(12). https://doi.org/10.13125/2039-6597/2165
Section
With God or Against God, but Never without God. The Laugh in Writing (and Rewriting)