EP.5 - Satire & Laughter

Should satire make us laugh? Is satire always funny? Why do we laugh at things anyway? Adam and Jo are joined by Dr Kate Davison (University of Sheffield) to talk about the social history of laughter, and the various satires of the eighteenth-century tavern keeper Ned Ward. In this episode Jo and Adam and Kate talk about: Adam’s Funny Game Adam Smith (from the eighteenth century) Appropriate/Inappropriate laughter Brexit Charles Dickens Disapprobation Disease Doctor, Doctor Jokes Edward (Ned) Ward Francisco Garcia Francis Hutchinson Friday Night Dinner Graphic satire from the eighteenth century Grub street John Dryden Incongruity (theory of laughter) Laughter Laughter as entertainment Laughing with/Laughing at Long eighteenth century Memes Print culture Puns Nish Kumar Social communication Stewart Lee Superiority (theory of laughter) Thomas Hobbes Vice (dir. by Adam McKay) 2EN606: Sick Novels (York St John University, Literature module) The Index of Laughter used in ‘Adam’s Funny Game’: No reaction Sympathetic smile Polite titter Genuine titter Gaffuw Sustained laughing out loud Roll on the floor laughing Laughing in your mind but no physical laughter Your smiling for no reason because you’re working hard to suppress a laugh Uncontrollable and inappropriate laughter you are unable to sustain Join Adam and Jo again for their big finale: Has satire ever really been a “man’s game”? Does satire work differently when written by women? Or when women are the targets? How is sexuality treated by satire? Adam and Jo are joined by Professor Karen Harvey (University of Birmingham) to talk about satire, sex and gender.