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Guilty Pleasures: Comedy and Law in America

Guilty Pleasures: Comedy and Law in America

Author: Laura Little
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780190625764
Published In: January 2019
Format: Hardback
Jurisdiction: U.S. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

List Price: HKD 363.87

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Description
Contents

Details

Few people associate law books with humor. Yet the legal world—in particular the American legal system—is itself frequently funny. Indeed, jokes about the profession are staples of American comedy.

And there is actually humor within the world of law too: both lawyers and judges occasionally strive to be funny to deal with the drudgery of their duties. Just as importantly, though, our legal system is a strong regulator of humor. It encourages some types of humor while muzzling or punishing others.

In a sense, law and humor engage a two-way feedback loop: humor provides the raw material for legal regulation and legal regulation inspires humor. In Regulating Funny, legal scholar Laura Little provides a multi-faceted account of American law and humor, looking at constraints on humor (and humor's effect on law), humor about law, and humor in law.

In addition to interspersing amusing episodes from the legal world throughout the book, the book contains 75 New Yorker cartoons about lawyers and a preface by Bob Mankoff, the cartoon editor for the New Yorker.

Table of Contents

Preface by Bob Mankoff

Introduction

A. On, About, In . . . Law's Intersection with Humor

B. The Power of New Yorker Cartoons

C. Humor Scholarship

1. Humor Inventories

2. Major Theories of Humor

a. Superiority Theory

b. Release Theory

c. Incongruity Theory

Chapter 1 A. An Unwitting Passage into the Comedy Business: How Courts Become Humor Critics When Indirectly Regulating Humor