Abstract
This chapter focuses on shifts away from ‘covert’ means of implying underlying shared meaning (such as irony and innuendo), to the troubling of those assumptions of trust and immediate understanding. Increased obscenity indicated a more ‘direct’ approach. ‘New’ areas rendered available for comic treatment by punk are discerned, with a shift into over—rather than understatement, an outspokenness reflected in changes taking place in gay comedy. Although, like punk, altcom had its own blind spots and zones of inarticulacy, altcom evinced greater wariness of ambiguity. Its non-sexist non-racist stand became more consistent, and its politicisation more responsible and overt in mounting a targeted refusal of Thatcherism—departing from the McLaren ‘be irresponsible’ punk model (not apolitical, but lacking clarity in terms of political engagement).
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Bonello Rutter Giappone, K. (2018). Boundaries of the (Un)Said. In: The Punk Turn in Comedy. Palgrave Studies in Comedy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72841-4_10
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