Comedy Is Killing Us: The Politics of Laughter and Rage

Does comedy really speak truth to power, or has it become one of power’s most effective tools?In Comedy Is Killing Us, literary and cultural critic Joseph Litvak offers a bold reckoning with the role of laughter in an age of authoritarian resurgence.Moving between political theory, media culture, and performance, Litvak argues that the modern strongman thrives not despite his ridiculousness but because of it.From twentieth-century fascist spectacle to the contemporary politics of insult comedy and "postcomedy," this book traces the deep entanglement of humor and terror across the United States and beyond.Drawing on thinkers including Lauren Berlant, Alenka Zupancic, John Limon, and Alain Badiou, Litvak challenges the comforting assumption that progressive resistance simply means reclaiming comedy’s liberatory power.Instead, he shows how even oppositional humor can reproduce structures of domination, blurring the line between comic critique and comic cruelty.Through readings of stand-up