Comedy in Literature and Popular Culture

Comedy in Literature and Popular Culture: From Aristophanes to Saturday Night Live explores works of comedy from the past 2,500 years. James V. Morrison discusses works including those of Aristophanes and Plautus, Shakespeare and Moliere, and modern comic writers, performers, and cartoonists, such as Thomas Nast, P. G. Wodehouse, Charlie Chaplin, and Jerry Seinfeld, asking the following questions: Is comedy a mirror of our lives? Is it “funny ’cuz it’s true?” Or is it funny because it ignores re