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Chapter 9 - Stand-Up Comedy, Disability, and Social Justice

from Part II - Interpretation and Meaning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2025

Oliver Double
Affiliation:
University of Kent
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Summary

One of the most interesting, and rapid, recent changes in live stand-up comedy is the increased number of disabled comedians performing. This chapter examines the performances of two disabled comedians – Laurence Clark and Rosie Jones – to explore how their performances may be viewed as social justice comedy through an analysis of the techniques used, and themes explored, in their performances. The chapter begins by considering the ways in which disability has been represented in comedy across history. Attention then shifts to how stand-up comedy can be considered a tool for social justice. The focus then turns to the methodological framework used to gather and analyse performances by Laurence Clark and Rosie Jones, before examining how the techniques used, and themes explored, in their performances may have social justice potentials and impacts for disability and disabled people and how the limits to these potentials and impacts can be understood.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Further Reading

Bingham, Shawn Chandler and Green, Sara E., Seriously Funny: Disability and the Paradoxical Power of Humor (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2016).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borum Chattoo, Caty and Feldman, Lauren, A Comedian and an Activist Walk into a Bar: The Serious Role of Comedy in Social Justice (Oakland: University of California Press, 2020).10.1525/9780520971356CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartblay, Cassandra, ‘Welcome to Sergeichburg: Disability, Crip Performance, and the Comedy of Recognition in Russia’, The Journal of Social Policy Studies, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2014: pp. 111124.Google Scholar
Krefting, Rebecca, All Joking Aside: American Humor and Its Discontents (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lockyer, Sharon, ‘From Comedy Targets to Comedy-Makers: Disability and Comedy in Live Performance’, Disability & Society, Vol. 30, No. 9, 2015: pp. 13971412.10.1080/09687599.2015.1106402CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lockyer, Sharon, ‘“It’s Really Scared of Disability”: Disabled Comedians’ Perspectives of the British Television Comedy Industry’, The Journal of Popular Television, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2015: pp. 179193.10.1386/jptv.3.2.179_1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lockyer, Sharon and Pickering, Michael, ‘You Must Be Joking: The Sociological Critique of Humour and Comic Media’, Sociology Compass, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2008: pp. 808820.10.1111/j.1751-9020.2008.00108.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, Nicola, ‘A Preliminary Study of Some Broad Disability Related Themes within the Edinburgh Festival Fringe’, Disability & Society, Vol. 25, No. 5, 2010: pp. 539549.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meier, Matthew R. and Schmitt, Casey R. (eds), Standing Up, Speaking Out: Stand-Up Comedy and the Rhetoric of Social Change (New York and London: Routledge, 2017).Google Scholar
Reid, D. Kim, Stoughton, Edy Hammond, and Smith, Robin M., ‘The Humorous Construction of Disability: “Stand-Up” Comedians in the United States’, Disability & Society, Vol. 21, No. 6, 2006: pp. 629643.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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