Foreword by Mel Brooks xi Director''s Note by Journey Gunderson xiii Director''s Note by Anthea M. Hartig xv Introduction 1 CHAPTER 1 Comedy Shapes How We See Each Other Petroleum Vesuvius Nasby aka David Ross Locke 9 Pipps Among the Wide Awakes 11 Bret Harte and "The Heathen Chinee" 15 Vaudeville: The Voice of the City 18 The Marx Brothers: "Whatever it is, I''m against it!" 24 Blackface Minstrelsy 29 Brownface and Brownvoice 33 Amos ''n'' Andy ''n'' Racial Ventriloquy 36 The Comedy Album Boom 41 inside shelley berman 42 the first family 43 a wild and crazy guy 44 laff of the party 45 2000 years with carl reiner and mel brooks 46 whoopi goldberg 48 child of the 50s 49 watch it sucker 50 The Beverly Hillbillies and the Other America 51 Phyllis Diller Cracks the Comedy Ceiling 54 Don Rickles, Equal Opportunity Offender 57 Laughter at the Front Lines: Bob Hope and the USO 59 Martha Raye as "Colonel Maggie" 62 Tootsie and 9 to 5: Women''s Lib and Men''s Crisis 63 Andy Bumatai and Local Comedy in Hawai''i 66 "Yep, I''m Gay": Ellen and Will & Grace 68 Hari Kondabolu and The Problem with Apu 73 CHAPTER 2 Comedy Creates American Identity Mark Twain, American 80 Will Rogers, Poet Lariat 84 Bert Williams: "Funniest Man I Ever Saw, and the Saddest Man I Ever Knew" 89 W. C. Fields, Gentleman Misanthrope 93 Silent Clowns: Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd 97 Cartoon Comedy 105 Comedy Duos 109 Burns & Allen 109 Nichols & May 111 Butterbeans & Susie 112 Bob & Ray 113 Stiller & Meara 114 Martin & Lewis 116 Patsy Kelly & Thelma Todd 117 Laurel & Hardy 118 Abbott & Costello 119 Bert & Ernie 121 Under the Straw Hat: Minnie Pearl and her Comedy Community 122 Late-Night TV Takes America''s Pulse 126 Broadcast Families 132 The Goldbergs 132 I Dream of Jeannie 134 Julia 135 Cheers 136 The Golden Girls 137 Familias from the Barrio: The 1970s Latinx Family in the Network Era 139 Bob Newhart: Just Another Slightly Amusing Accountant 143 The Carol Burnett Show: Sketch Comedy, Her Way 146 Happy Days and the Nostalgia Boom 150 Saturday Night Live and TV''s Comedy Rebellion 154 Cheech Marin''s Born in East LA 157 The Muppets Take American History 159 "Do What You Want to Do": In Living Color 164 Great American Film Genres 167 The Buddy Comedy 168 The Rom-Com 168 The Road Trip Film 169 The Mockumentary 169 The Spoof 170 What''s the Deal with Seinfeld? 170 CHAPTER 3 Comedy Provokes Conversations Mae West: "As Hot an Issue as Hitler" 177 Lenny Bruce: "Don''t Lock Up These Words" 180 Rusty Warren and Women''s Sexuality: Too Taboo for You 183 Moms Mabley was "The Funniest Woman in the World" 188 Lucille Ball and "Lucy Ricardo" 190 S''plaining Ricky Ricardo 196 "Can We Talk" About Joan Rivers? 201 Counterculture TV: The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and Laugh-In 205 Lily Tomlin 213 Pat Paulsen 214 Richard Pryor: Outrageous Authenticity 215 Land Back! Charlie Hill and the Power of Indigenous Representation 219 All in the Family and the "Loveable Bigot" 224 Moving on Up: Good Times and The Jeffersons 228 George Carlin and the Seven Words 231 George Carlin Joke File 236 M*A*S*H: Binding Up the Wounds 238 Chico and the Man: A Foot in the Door for La Raza 240 "You''re Gonna Make It After All": Sitcoms and the Single Girl 243 The Daily Show and the Limits of Satire 247 CHAPTER 4 Comedy Breaks the Mold Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy: Ego and Id 256 Jack Benny and the Original "Show About Nothing" 259 Ernie Kovacs: Electronic Comic 263 Your Show of Shows and the Birth of Television Comedy 266 Broadway: Crucible of Comedy 270 Avenue Q 275 Kinky Boots 277 Abie''s Irish Rose 278 Neil Simon Captures Middle-Class Malaise 280 Lyrical Laughter 282 Allan Sherman 282 Stan Freberg 284 Mark Russell 285 Weird Al Yankovic 287 Ruth Wallis 288 Victor Borge 289 Comedy Clubs 290 The Dick Van Dyke Show: Sitcoms Step Forward 293 "Stepping Off the Cliff ": The Art of Improvisation 299 The Groundlings 301 The Living Premise 302 The Upright Citizens Brigade 303 Andy Kaufman: "Song and Dance Man" 304 The Simpsons: "Don''t Have a Cow, Man!" 307 Margaret Cho: All-American Girl 309 New Directions in Latinx Comedy 313 Traumedy: Folk Humor in Times of Crisis 316 Harlem Globetrotters, Clown Princes of Basketball 320 Harvey Fierstein: I Am Who I Am 322 Ali Wong: Baby Cobra 325 The Big Bang Theory and The Guild 327 From America''s Funniest Home Videos to YouTube 329 Conclusion by Laura LaPlaca 333 Conclusion by Ryan Lintelman 337 Acknowledgments 343 Notes 345 Contributors 353 Illustration Credits 355 Index 000.