Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy
- Cambridge Companions to Theatre and Performance
- The Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Comedians’ Insights What Do You Do to Prepare to Go Onstage?
- Part I Time and Place
- Part II Interpretation and Meaning
- Chapter 5 Stand-Up Comedy and Gender
- Chapter 6 Stand-Up Comedy and Sexuality
- Chapter 7 Laugh No Limit
- Chapter 8 Jewish American Stand-Up Comedy
- Chapter 9 Stand-Up Comedy, Disability, and Social Justice
- Chapter 10 Stand-Up Comedy and Offence
- Chapter 11 Stand-Up and Politics
- Comedians’ Insights Your Writing Process
- Part III Performance Dynamics
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- References
Chapter 10 - Stand-Up Comedy and Offence
from Part II - Interpretation and Meaning
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 August 2025
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Edited by
Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy
- Cambridge Companions to Theatre and Performance
- The Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Comedians’ Insights What Do You Do to Prepare to Go Onstage?
- Part I Time and Place
- Part II Interpretation and Meaning
- Chapter 5 Stand-Up Comedy and Gender
- Chapter 6 Stand-Up Comedy and Sexuality
- Chapter 7 Laugh No Limit
- Chapter 8 Jewish American Stand-Up Comedy
- Chapter 9 Stand-Up Comedy, Disability, and Social Justice
- Chapter 10 Stand-Up Comedy and Offence
- Chapter 11 Stand-Up and Politics
- Comedians’ Insights Your Writing Process
- Part III Performance Dynamics
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Offensiveness is a key issue in contemporary public discourse, especially in relation to media content. Stand-up comedy has provided an important site for discussions of offensiveness, both inside of performances and in the commentary on comedy in other forms of popular media. This chapter provides a brief summary of some well-known examples of stand-up comedy that are embroiled in debates on offensiveness, before engaging in a discussion of what constitutes offensive stand-up comedy. The chapter theorises the discursive work that offensive stand-up comedy does in contemporary contexts through concepts of rhetoric, the performative, and symbolic violence. Comedy and harm are discussed and an explanation of what researchers have described as the impacts of humour and comedy is given. Throughout the chapter, the points made are elaborated with extracts from British stand-up comedian Ricky Gervais’ Netflix special Supernature (2022), especially through an analysis of jokes made by Gervais about transgender people. These and other jokes are examined alongside the disclaimers used in the stand-up comedy performance.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy , pp. 189 - 205Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Further Reading
Bell, Nancy, ‘Reactions to Humor, Non-laugher’, in Attardo, Salvatore (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Humor Studies, Volume 2 (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, and Washington, DC: Sage, 2014).Google Scholar
Bennett, Joe, ‘The Critical Problem of Cynical Irony: Meaning What You Say and Ideologies of Class and Gender’, Social Semiotics, Vol. 26, No. 3, 2016: pp. 250–264.10.1080/10350330.2015.1134819CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, Leon, ‘Near the Knuckle? It Nearly Took My Arm Off! British Comedy and the “New Offensiveness”’, Comedy Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2010: pp. 181–190.10.1386/cost.1.2.191_1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lockyer, Sharon, ‘Dynamics of Social Class Contempt in Contemporary British Television Comedy’, Social Semiotics, Vol. 20, No.2, 2010: pp. 121–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, Brett, ‘A Special Freedom: Regulating Comedy Offence’, in Bucaria, Chiara and Barra, Luca (eds), Taboo Comedy: Television and Controversial Humour (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), pp. 209–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pérez, Raúl, The Souls of White Jokes: How Racist Humor Fuels White Supremacy (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2022).10.1515/9781503632349CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, Lloyd and Becker, Sue, ‘Racism in Comedy Reappraised: Back to Little England?’, Comedy Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2010: pp. 191–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weaver, Simon, The Rhetoric of Brexit Humour: Comedy, Populism and the EU Referendum (London and New York: Routledge, 2021).10.4324/9780429329715CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weaver, Simon, The Rhetoric of Racist Humour: US, UK and Global Race Joking (London and New York: Routledge, 2016).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weaver, Simon and Morgan, Karen, ‘What’s the Point of Offensive Humour?’, The Conversation, 2017, https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-point-of-offensive-humour-76889.Google Scholar
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