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Kercher, Stephen E. Revel With a Cause: Liberal Satire in Postwar America. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2006. 
Added by: joachim (10/02/2010, 12:03)   Last edited by: joachim (15/05/2023, 15:48)
Resource type: Book
Language: en: English
ID no. (ISBN etc.): 0226431649
BibTeX citation key: Kercher2006a
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Categories: General
Keywords: "Mad Magazine", "Pogo", Block. Herbert, Caricature, Comic strip, Feiffer. Jules, Harrington. Oliver, Herblock, Kelly. Walt, Kurtzman. Harvey, Mauldin. Bill, Osborn. Robert, Satire, USA
Creators: Kercher
Publisher: Univ. of Chicago Press (Chicago)
Views: 34/1123
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Abstract
Stephen Kercher provides the first comprehensive look at the satiric humor that flourished in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. Focusing on an impressive range of comedy—not just standup comedians of the day but also satirical publications like MAD magazine, improvisational theater groups such as Second City, the motion picture Dr. Strangelove, and TV shows like That Was the Week That Was—Kercher reminds us that the postwar era saw varieties of comic expression that were more challenging and nonconformist than we commonly remember. His history of these comedic luminaries shows that for a sizeable audience of educated, middle-class Americans who shared such liberal views, the period’s satire was a crucial mode of cultural dissent. For such individuals, satire was a vehicle through which concerns over the suppression of civil liberties, Cold War foreign policies, blind social conformity, and our heated racial crisis could be productively addressed.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Liberal Satire in Postwar America

Part One: The Positive Uses of Humor
1 Bill Mauldin and the Politics of Postwar American Satire
2 “We Shall Meet the Enemy”: Herbert Block, Robert Osborn, Walt Kelly, and Liberal Cartoonists’ “Weapon of Wit”

Part Two: The Cleansing Lash of Laughter
3 Comic Revenge: Parodic Revelry and “Sick” Humor in the 1950s Satiric Underground
4 “Truth Grinning in a Solemn, Canting World”: Liberal Satire’s Masculine, “Sociologically Oriented and Psychically Adjusted” Critique
5 Spontaneous Irony: The Second City, the Premise, and Early Sixties Satiric Cabaret and Revue

Part Three: The Politics of Laughter
6 “We Hope You Like Us, Jack”: Liberal Political Satire, 1958–63
7 “Are There Any Groups Here I Haven’t Offended Yet?”: Liberal Satire Takes a Stand
8 “Well-Aimed Ridicule”: Satirizing American Race Relations
9 Mocking Dr. Strangelove; or, How American Satirists Flayed the Cold War, the Bomb, and American Foreign Policy in Southeast Asia

Part Four: The Limits of Irreverence
10 “Sophisticated Daring” and Political Cowardice: Television Satire and NBC’s That Was the Week That Was
11 Satire That Would “Gag a Goat”: Crossing the Line with Paul Krassner and Lenny Bruce
Conclusion: Liberal Satire’s Last Laughs

Notes
Selected Discography and Bibliography
Index
Added by: joachim  Last edited by: joachim
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