A degree of vulnerability is central to stand-up, and integral to the expectation of candid revelation. It's a vexing concept from a feminist perspective, however, because of its association 'both with femininity and with weakness and dependency' (Gilson). In stand-up, vulnerability is perhaps most apparent in self-deprecation or self-satire, an aspect of comic practice that… Continue reading Strategic vulnerability
Bottoms
An offbeat triumph, Bottoms is a film about two lesbian high-school losers who plot to seduce their cheerleader crushes by creating a fight club for girls. Celebrated for the casualness of its presentation of queerness, so different from earnest coming-out narratives, the film is also significant for the ways in which it sloughs off a… Continue reading Bottoms
Practice Makes Purrfect
Aloof, and beautifully inscrutable, cats have been described as ‘infinitely interpretable texts’ (Hearne, 1982). Hugely popular as memes, perhaps even the classic subject of viral popular culture, it’s only fitting that they should feature in Mauro Martinez’s work, an artist deeply engaged with that culture. Martinez exploits the cat meme as a spent force –… Continue reading Practice Makes Purrfect
Dick jokes
The dick joke retains its dominant conceptual status, but it’s no longer the straightforward staple it once was. #MeToo, concerns about ‘toxic masculinity’ and social justice campaigns which prioritise minority groups while challenging the centrality of the white, male perspective are all working to complicate the conventional forms of sexually explicit material. However, these new… Continue reading Dick jokes
Sex comedy
‘Sex comedy’ is a rather nebulous classification; films like American Pie (1999), and much of Judd Apatow’s oeuvre (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Superbad) fit the bill, with ancient Greek and Restoration comedies and the films of Doris Day and Rock Hudson providing a lineage for comedies that revolve around sex. It’s a genre that can be… Continue reading Sex comedy
Rebecca Moss: the art of slapstick
Many of the pieces collected in ‘Poor Things’, the excellent new exhibition at the Fruitmarket, use humour, but perhaps none quite as pointedly as Rebecca Moss’s video installations, 'Thick-Skinned' and 'Home Improvements'. Both works demonstrate Moss’s interest in slapstick as a way of examining ‘the gap between being a body and having a body: between… Continue reading Rebecca Moss: the art of slapstick
Berlant and Early: Intellectual vaudeville
It feels a little superfluous analysing Kate Berlant and John Early’s work when the commentary is largely built in; to point out that they revisit certain preoccupations, like social performance and competition, for example, feels somewhat redundant when the revisiting is itself a theme of the work. That interest in refining an idea or an… Continue reading Berlant and Early: Intellectual vaudeville
Sanford Biggers’ Chimeras
Sanford Biggers’ Chimeras series brings together the bodies of well-known Greco-Roman sculptures with over-sized heads formed by African masks. The mashups create a complex and tonally ambiguous effect – incongruous certainly, but not necessarily comic. Biggers has spoken about his interest in artwork that has an ‘unfamiliar’ tone; arguing that ‘a great artwork can make… Continue reading Sanford Biggers’ Chimeras
Leo Reich: Literally, Who Cares
Leo Reich’s debut Fringe show is dazzling. A portrait of rabid Gen Z narcissism that is brilliantly funny, and despite the artfully superficial persona, threaded through with melancholy and rage; emotion which is ironic and also not. Reich is incisive about the conditions that have generated contemporary pathologies - the warping effects of technology for… Continue reading Leo Reich: Literally, Who Cares
Jerk
The BBC 3 sitcom Jerk, stars Tim Renkow as an anti-hero who exploits his cerebral palsy to get away with bad behaviour. Widely acknowledged to be ground-breaking in its representation of disability, the series is a radical departure from the narrative conventions that situate disabled characters as either victim or saint. With a clear kinship… Continue reading Jerk
Humour in the Arts 