Performing marginality : humor, gender, and cultural critique /

Humor is a marginal activity. Performance is on the fringe of mainstream society and, therefore, examines life from an outsider's perspective. Since various marginal groups (among them women) bring their own outsider viewpoint to the performance of humor, much can be learned from the way they play. A onetime stand-up comic and now a professor, Gilbert (communication, Alma College) can speak, firsthand, from the margin. In a book that complements but is more balanced than Mikita Brottman's Funny Peculiar (2004) and more scholarly than Gerald Nachman's Seriously Funny (CH, Oct'03)--both of which can be read with this one to give additional depth--she provides an understanding of comedy and those who perform it. Gilbert argues that female comics can be characterized by their performances as self-deprecating (Phyllis Diller), aggressive (Roseanne Barr), or passively observational (most contemporary performers). The goal is to get a laugh, not to change the world, though the laughs come at the incongruities between how things are and how they might be. The motive is not necessarily to rebel against society, but to broaden the perspective of those in it. Gilbert, as an academic, has moved to another margin, and continues to instruct and entertain with her well-constructed arguments. ^BSumming Up: Essential. All collections; all levels. P. L. Derks emeritus, College of William and Mary