ABSTRACT
First, let’s deal with the obvious. In this part and in America at large, there are a significant number of straight white men – including myself – talking about the comedic performances of other straight white men, often at the expense or neglect of comedians who are not straight white men. There is something telling, I think, when I look back to another collection of essays that hit the scene when I first began to cultivate an interest in humor studies as an undergraduate. The collection was New Perspectives on Women and Comedy, edited by Regina Barecca (1992). Many of the collection’s articles struck me, but one by Laura Kightlinger, “Return the Favor,” was particularly illuminating and disturbing in a helpful way. Kightlinger reflected upon her personal experiences as a woman in stand-up, including the rough treatment and open hostility she received not only from men but from female agents and managers who refused to assist women to break into comedy. These observations shook my own ignorance and comedic dogmatism at the time. They made me acutely aware of the problematic industry I admired as a spectator, but more importantly, they contributed to an awareness that warranted a rethinking of my own allegiances to masculine (and white) domination in the arts and in society as a whole.
