ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 tackles the theme of comedy and presents the work of Palestinian-American comedian Maysoon Zayid. It focuses on the role of comedy as a genre and of humor as a form of “talking back” to dominant discourses. The methodology includes a textual analysis, and relies on interviews with Zayid and other relevant information found in the public domain in order to examine the conditions of emergence of her work. After presenting the artist and her involvement in forming art collectives, the chapter analyses how Zayid resignifies identity through humor, discusses her treatment of disability in her comedy, and addresses the implications of silencing her speech through various forms of “symbolic” violence, including online harassment, cyber-bullying, and hate speech.
