History of the Representation of Culture in Stand Up Comedy – Capstone

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My capstone project will be covering the history of cultural change through the lense of representation in comedy, primarily through stand up. I will be creating a remix video to create an accurate history of culture in stand up, and I will also be creating an infographic to visually present representation in comedy. Comedy has always been one of the greatest mediums to capture an authentic view of culture. Because of the wide array of comedians, comedic genres, and comedic crowds, you get a diverse view into the world of what people find funny. What people can find themselves laughing at a given moment, is at least a representation of one corner of the culture. However comedy has made several lengthy cultural leaps throughout the years, and this is a direct product of what the audience demands. The history of diversity, be it racial or gender oriented, takes a strict form in comedy. Similar to how in music an audience is the group of people who that musician was able to resonate with, comedians are able to build an audience through a relationship of similarities that is like no other. Also similar to music, comedy experienced a revolution with the main stream success of black culture in comedy, especially with the rise of Richard Pryor, who is still considered by some to be the best stand up comic ever. Comedy has experienced similar evolutions into diversity that have introduced massive new crowds of people because of the representation in the medium. The medium continues to evolve with the culture around it, experiencing booms in popularity with every new lapse of consciousness or enlightenment.

 

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