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GENDER AND SEXUALITY 77Frances Gray. ‘This is clear from innumerable sitcoms in which femaleabsence is the condition that permits male individuality by liberatingthem from the confines of the family “norm’” (Gray, 1994:84). Thiswould be the case in shows such as Steptoe and Son (1962–74),Porridge (1973–77), Dad’s Army (1968–77), Yes, Minister (1980–88),or even a supposedly ‘alternative’ sitcom like The YoungOnes (1982–84), where the absence of women helps to emphasize theeccentricity, individuality, uniqueness, and strong characteristics ofmale characters, who are ‘all free to be what they so enjoyably were,precisely because there were no women around to “spoil things” withcommon sense’ (Gray, 1994:84). This threat is built into the marriage ofBob and Thelma in Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, which,argues Maggie Andrews, continually makes an issue of ‘the boundarybetween adulthood and lad that Bob is constantly crossing and recrossing’in continual fear of provoking his wife’s ire (Andrews,1998:57). Bob’s bourgeois lifestyle, nurtured by Thelma, iscontinually troubled by contact with his friend Terry, whose stint in thearmy, bachelor life, and unapologetically working-class values amountto the freedom Bob has renounced for his steady job and holidays inSpain. Marriage is therefore the embodiment of lost liberty and denudedproletarian authenticity: ‘a comedy of entrapment within the rigid andclass-based social structure’ (Gray, 1994:83). The confines of wedlockwere treated differently in a generation of sitcoms that emerged fromthe USA in the 1990s, whose attitude to marriage was one ofstraightforward avoidance. Shows such as Seinfeld (1989–99), Friends(1994–2003), and Frasier (1993–2004), have no apparent faith in theability of relationships to last, and all have protagonists who remainresolutely single and inept at maintaining romantic partnerships. Whatseems to keep them this way is their residency in cities like New Yorkand Seattle as opposed to the suburbs, and a fear of ending up like theirparents, such as Seinfeld’s unspeakable Frank and Estelle Costanza,themselves a re-rendering of the married couples of 1970s sitcom.It is perhaps not remarkable that marriage often equals imprisonmentin modern comedy, given that marriage is no longer a prerequisite forsexual activity. But even in traditional comedies that conclude with amarriage, the promise of heterosexual sex does not necessarily overrideor foreclose the sexual mutability that may have gone before. Not allaspects of sexuality are simply carnival deviations permissible prior totheir inevitable incorporation into monogamous heterosexual‘normality’. Stephen Orgel and Valerie Traub argue that the sexualidentity of the boy players of the Shakespearean stage had erotic
78 GENDER AND SEXUALITYsignificance beyond the structure of the fiction in which they appeared,an erotic significance that spoke to ‘homosexual’ desires within theaudience. Similarly, drag acts reference elements of sexual identity thatare neither neatly assimilated into the idea of comic inversion nordisarmed by their self-definition as comic performances. However, itshould be noted that in the vast majority of cases, sexual adventurismapplies to men only. As we look back over comedy’s treatment ofgender and sexuality, we must conclude that versions of femalesexuality that explore the configuration of women’s identity and desirebeyond a handful of stereotypes are still severely lacking.
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COMEDYWhat is comedy? Andrew Stott
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iiiIrony by Claire ColebrookLiterat
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First published 2005by Routledge270
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The Grotesque 83Slapstick 87The Fem
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSIn keeping with the
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2 INTRODUCTIONcomic’ is an identi
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4 INTRODUCTIONassumption being that
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6 INTRODUCTION‘Whenever they wax
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8 INTRODUCTIONmeans of opening up t
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10 INTRODUCTIONJokes therefore emer
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12 INTRODUCTIONexperience itself as
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14 INTRODUCTIONrelegation in the hi
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16 INTRODUCTION
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18 COMEDY IN THE ACADEMYWhile there
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20 COMEDY IN THE ACADEMYin the cont
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22 COMEDY IN THE ACADEMYWith the ri
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24 COMEDY IN THE ACADEMYother’ (B
Page 37 and 38: 26 COMEDY IN THE ACADEMYvictory pro
Page 39 and 40: 28 COMEDY IN THE ACADEMYSPRINGTIME
Page 41 and 42: 30 COMEDY IN THE ACADEMYreduction t
Page 43 and 44: 32 COMEDY IN THE ACADEMYlocation fo
Page 45 and 46: 34 COMEDY IN THE ACADEMYbut this ap
Page 47 and 48: 36 COMEDY IN THE ACADEMYand also a
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Page 51 and 52: 40 COMIC IDENTITYnows, changing voi
Page 53 and 54: 42 COMIC IDENTITYwalks of life to a
Page 55 and 56: 44 COMIC IDENTITYdisease. From this
Page 57 and 58: 46 COMIC IDENTITYineffable folly of
Page 59 and 60: 48 COMIC IDENTITYdancing, juggling,
Page 61 and 62: 50 COMIC IDENTITYThe trickster has
Page 63 and 64: 52 COMIC IDENTITYShakespeare, fairi
Page 65 and 66: 54 COMIC IDENTITYCastiglione’s Th
Page 67 and 68: 56 COMIC IDENTITYway of seeing the
Page 69 and 70: 58 COMIC IDENTITY1990:248). Not onl
Page 71 and 72: 60 GENDER AND SEXUALITYignoring tab
Page 73 and 74: 62 GENDER AND SEXUALITYand alluring
Page 75 and 76: 64 GENDER AND SEXUALITYunderstand q
Page 77 and 78: 66 GENDER AND SEXUALITYplaying Rosa
Page 79 and 80: 68 GENDER AND SEXUALITYfinancial su
Page 81 and 82: 70 GENDER AND SEXUALITYIf the anato
Page 83 and 84: 72 GENDER AND SEXUALITYThe represen
Page 85 and 86: 74 GENDER AND SEXUALITYbeen redefin
Page 87: 76 GENDER AND SEXUALITYconverse wit
Page 91 and 92: 80 THE BODYBEAUTY AND ABJECTIONIn W
Page 93 and 94: 82 THE BODYOne idea that may help u
Page 95 and 96: 84 THE BODYexistence in the face of
Page 97 and 98: 86 THE BODYThey are healthily scept
Page 99 and 100: 88 THE BODYFirst, movie performers
Page 101 and 102: 90 THE BODYyou…at last you’ve c
Page 103 and 104: 92 THE BODYin a department store, t
Page 105 and 106: 94 THE BODYWomen have been systemat
Page 107 and 108: 96 THE BODYand the pair’s drunken
Page 109 and 110: 98 POLITICSseems to assume—came t
Page 111 and 112: 100 POLITICScitizens all insulted i
Page 113 and 114: 102 POLITICSSecretary Tessa Jowell
Page 115 and 116: 104 POLITICSIt is the stated positi
Page 117 and 118: 106 POLITICSWhat should I do in Rom
Page 119 and 120: 108 POLITICSdifficult crowds for wh
Page 121 and 122: 110 POLITICSalmost laughed, it seem
Page 123 and 124: 112 POLITICSsatisfied by Price’s
Page 125 and 126: 114 POLITICSself-centredness of the
Page 127 and 128: 116 POLITICSwho, in their 1944 essa
Page 129 and 130: 118 POLITICS(Ezrahi, 2001:307). Rut
Page 131 and 132: 120 POLITICS
Page 133 and 134: 122 LAUGHTERevidence for his sense
Page 135 and 136: 124 LAUGHTERdevils to expel, there
Page 137 and 138: 126 LAUGHTERand the meane that make
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128 LAUGHTERHere we find the Christ
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130 LAUGHTERof mutual relation from
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132 LAUGHTER‘laughter naturally r
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134 LAUGHTERceiling, it started lit
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136 LAUGHTERdeferred. For Nancy, th
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138 LAUGHTERsatisfy their desires a
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140 CONCLUSIONhuman imperfection. W
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142 CONCLUSION
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144 GLOSSARYcenturies. Commedia del
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146 GLOSSARYto problematize the ide
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148 GLOSSARY
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150 FURTHER READINGAn extremely acc
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152 BIBLIOGRAPHYErickson and Coppel
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154 BIBLIOGRAPHYDouglas, Mary (1975
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156 BIBLIOGRAPHYContexts and Critic
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158 BIBLIOGRAPHY——(1987), ‘Wi
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160 BIBLIOGRAPHYSynott, Anthony (19
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162 INDEXCavell, Stanley 87-3Chapli
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164 INDEXmarriage 70-77;in British
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