About the Book
Understanding Comedy through College Comedies explains the nature of comedy through the study of college comedy films, including classics (College, The Freshman); romantic/screwball comedies (Where the Boys Are, Ball of Fire, Sterile Cuckoo); famous comedian comedies (Horse Feathers, The Nutty Professor, The Klumps); intergenerational college comedies (That’s My Boy, Back to School, Old School); social comedies (The Graduate, Breaking Away, Risky Business); political comedies (Getting Straight, Strawberry Statement, Last Supper); ethnic comedies (School Daze, Soul Man, How High); and college farces (Charlie’s Aunt, Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds, Slackers). In this book, Norman Kagan explains comic terminology, concepts, and theories, including Freud’s “displaced sexual content” in Decline of the American Empires, Langer’s “vitalism” in Slacker, Bergson’s “anesthesia of the heart” in The Squid and the Whale, and Frye’s “reversal of literary modes” in Storytelling. The reader will discover the reasons why they are laughing, new reasons to laugh, and new films that will provide new sources of laughter.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Comedy and College Comedies: Why study college comedies? Comedy analysis, organization, availability.
Chapter 2: College Athlete Comedies: The Freshman,College, and others
Chapter 3: Romantic/Screwball College Comedies: The Wild Party, Ball of Fire, Where the Boys Are, and more
Chapter 4: The Marx Brothers at College: Horse Feathers and its offspring
Chapter 5: College Musicals: College Humor, College Holiday, Good News, and many others
Chapter 6: Jerry Lewis and Eddie Murphy at College: The Nutty Professor, The Klumps, and sequels
Chapter 7: Intergenerational College Comedies: That’s My Boy, Take Her, She’s Mine, Back to School,Old School, and others
Chapter 8t: College Social Comedies: The Graduate, Risky Business, Breaking Away, Mona Lisa Smile, and more
Chapter 9: College Political Comedies: Getting Straight, The Way We Were, PCU, The Last Supper, and others
Chapter 10: College Racial or Ethnic Comedies: School Daze, Soul Man, Foreign Student, American Desi, and others
Chapter 11: College Farces: A Chump at Oxford, Charley’s Aunt, Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds, Police Academy, and many more
Chapter 12: Comic Theory and College Comedies: Sigmund Freud and The Decline of the American Empire, Susan Langer and Slacker, Wylie Sypher and With Honors, Robert Heilman and Threesome, George Meredith and Wonder Boys, Henri Bergson and The Squid and the Whale, and Northrop Frye and Storytelling
Bibliography
About the Author :
Norman Kagan has taught communications, cinema, mass media, and essay writing at the City University of New York and elsewhere. As Writer/Producer of the USIA’s Science Report, his programs were policy instruments broadcast on 600 television stations in 110 countries. He has written and produced news and documentary films; and, published eight books on film.
