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Can We Laugh at That?

Comedy in a Conflicted Age
By Jacques Berlinerblau
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Brief Description
Did you hear the one about the comedian who was canceled? Comedians are no strangers to controversy or crossing the line. But some things do change. Humorists the world over are no longer simply denounced in grouchy op-eds. Now comedians are being hounded by criminal investigations... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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Did you hear the one about the comedian who was canceled?

Comedians are no strangers to controversy or crossing the line. But some things do change. Humorists the world over are no longer simply denounced in grouchy op-eds. Now comedians are being hounded by criminal investigations and civil suits, or forced off the airwaves. They are menaced by vigilantes and religious fundamentalists. Some have been forced into exile, imprisoned, or even murdered. In the age of social media and global digital distribution, the audience is everyone, ensuring that criticism can be as vicious as it is unavoidable.

With a flair for storytelling, Jacques Berlinerblau explores the high stakes of the low blow in this darkly witty examination of American comedians such as Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Shane Gillis, and Sarah Silverman as well as humorists in France, Denmark, Zimbabwe, and Egypt in Can We Laugh at That?

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780520403031

Publisher: University of California Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 24 March 2026

Country: United States

Imprint: University of California Press

Illustration: 1 table

Audience: Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 216.0mm

Weight: 0g

Pages: 256

Collections

Arts & Culture Education & Reference Humour Jacques Berlinerblau Non-Fiction Pop Culture: Best-Selling Books

About the Author

Jacques Berlinerblau, Rabbi Harold White Professor of Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University, is author of The Philip Roth We Don’t Know: Sex, Race, and Autobiography and How to Be Secular. His writing appears in The Washington Post, MSNBC, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and elsewhere.

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