Abstract
Assessments of alternative comedy’s political efficacy and integrity have sometimes shown a preoccupation with class. While this has led to some fair assessments of alternative comedy’s successes and failures in terms of promoting class equality, it has also meant that some of its other political functions and successes have been ignored. Both within and outside comedy, the methods and priorities of political resistance are shifting. This concluding chapter argues that alternative comedy is best understood with reference to these new political paradigms. The argument is elaborated through a case study of the Alternative Reality Tour as an example of Saul Newman’s Postanarchism in practice.
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Notes
- 1.
Coltrane, Left-Wing Propaganda Machine.
- 2.
Coltrane, Left-Wing Propaganda Machine (emphasis original).
- 3.
Amirani and Gormley, ‘Bit daunting, really’; Gayle, ‘Edinburgh fringe Chilcot recital ends after 284 hours and 45 minutes’.
- 4.
Dahlgren, ‘Media, Citizenship and Civic Culture’, 311.
- 5.
Dahlgren, ‘Media, Citizenship and Civic Culture’, 312.
- 6.
Jones, Entertaining Politics, 27.
- 7.
Jones, Entertaining Politics, 27.
- 8.
Wagg, ‘They Already Got a Comedian for Governor’, 264.
- 9.
Street, et al., From Entertainment to Citizenship, 28.
- 10.
Street et al., From Entertainment to Citizenship, 24–25.
- 11.
Friedman, Comedy and Distinction, 20.
- 12.
Wilmut and Rosengard, Didn’t You Kill My Mother-in-Law?, xiv [first ellipsis mine, second ellipsis in original].
- 13.
It should be noted that much of Schaffer’s argument addresses the unsuitability of comedy as force for social change. Addressing this is not my focus here but I have advanced a contrary view elsewhere (Quirk, Why Stand-up Matters).
- 14.
Schaffer, ‘Fighting Thatcher with Comedy’, 386.
- 15.
Wagg, ‘They Already Got a Comedian for Governor’, 266.
- 16.
Allen, Attitude, 111.
- 17.
Schaffer, ‘Fighting Thatcher with Comedy’, 379.
- 18.
Schaffer, ‘Fighting Thatcher with Comedy’, 378.
- 19.
Schaffer, ‘Fighting Thatcher with Comedy’, 377.
- 20.
Wheatley, ‘Restructuring the policy space in England’, p. 268.
- 21.
Wheatley, ‘Restructuring the policy space in England’, p. 270.
- 22.
Wheatley, ‘Restructuring the policy space in England’, p. 270.
- 23.
Schaffer, ‘Fighting Thatcher with Comedy’, 381.
- 24.
Schaffer, ‘Fighting Thatcher with Comedy’, 381.
- 25.
Bass, ‘Bottom box set review’.
- 26.
Schaffer, ‘Fighting Thatcher with Comedy’, 392.
- 27.
Schaffer, ‘Fighting Thatcher with Comedy’, 394.
- 28.
Friedman, Comedy and Distinction, Chaps. 8 and 9.
- 29.
Double, Stand-up, p. 190.
- 30.
Roberts, Personal interview.
- 31.
Long, Live from the BBC.
- 32.
Wheatley, ‘Restructuring the policy space in England’, p. 270.
- 33.
Wheatley, ‘Restructuring the policy space in England’, p. 283.
- 34.
Wheatley, ‘Restructuring the policy space in England’, p. 271.
- 35.
Wheatley, ‘Restructuring the policy space in England’, p. 270.
- 36.
Wheatley, ‘Restructuring the policy space in England’, p. 272.
- 37.
Flinders, ‘The (Anti-)Politics of the General Election’, p. 227.
- 38.
Flinders, ‘The (Anti-)Politics of the General Election’, p. 228.
- 39.
Flinders, ‘The (Anti-)Politics of the General Election’, p. 231.
- 40.
Wheatley, ‘Restructuring the policy space in England’, p. 272.
- 41.
Jonny and the Baptists, Eat the Poor.
- 42.
BBC, Feedback.
- 43.
Medhurst, A National Joke, 196.
- 44.
Friedman, Comedy and Distinction, 168–9.
- 45.
Morton, Personal interview.
- 46.
Christie, Mortal. The quotation is paraphrased based on notes made shortly after the live show.
- 47.
Newman, Postanarchism, 48.
- 48.
Newman, Postanarchism, vii.
- 49.
Newman, Postanarchism, viii.
- 50.
Newman, Postanarchism, x.
- 51.
Newman, Postanarchism, ix.
- 52.
Neman, Postanarchism, ix.
- 53.
Day, ‘From hegemony to affinity’, 740.
- 54.
Storper, ‘Lived Effects of the Contemporary Economy’, 116.
- 55.
Harvie, Fair Play, 87.
- 56.
Harvie, Fair Play, 88 (emphasis original).
- 57.
It is worth noting that this instance of rebellion against a powerful industry figure is referred to here as a telling but isolated incident, rather than as indicative of ACMS club policy. Indeed, at the next ACMS show, on December 12, 2016, Tom Bell would refer back to it, informing the audience that not all of the comedians on the bill that night shared Tuck’s renegade attitude: ‘you’re saying “we don’t need him!” and all the acts at the back are going “yes, yes we do need him”’ (NB: quotation paraphrased based on notes made shortly after the live show).
- 58.
Wagg, ‘They Already Got a Comedian for Governor’, 266.
- 59.
Long, Alternative Reality Tour.
- 60.
Long, Alternative Reality Tour.
- 61.
Long, Alternative Reality Tour.
- 62.
Long, Alternative Reality Tour.
- 63.
Long, Alternative Reality Tour.
- 64.
Long, Alternative Reality Tour.
- 65.
Newman, Postanarchism, 114.
- 66.
Newman, Postanarchism, 105 (emphasis original).
- 67.
It is important to note that Long doesn’t claim to have created a new methodology or level of audacity, here. On the appearance of Simon Munnery at the Bedford gig on day eight she clearly flags up the debt owed to innovators past: ‘Simon is such an inspiration – he has done this kind of thing better and funnier and cooler than us already, fifteen years before us’ (Long, Alternative Reality Tour).
- 68.
Long, Alternative Reality Tour.
- 69.
Newman, Postanarchism, 91 (emphasis original).
- 70.
Long, Alternative Reality Tour.
- 71.
Long, Alternative Reality Tour.
- 72.
Long, Alternative Reality Tour.
- 73.
Long, Alternative Reality Tour.
- 74.
Day, ‘From hegemony to affinity’, 740.
- 75.
Long, Alternative Reality Tour.
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Quirk, S. (2018). Conclusion: Widening the Theoretical Basis for Assessing Stand-Up Politics. In: The Politics of British Stand-up Comedy. Palgrave Studies in Comedy. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01105-5_5
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