Friends, “The One with the Dozen Lasagnas” (1.12).
The symposium Playing for Laughs: On Comedy in Performance is held today and tomorrow at De Montfort University in Leicester. I quote from the introductory text:
Academics, comedians and performers from across the UK will be discussing topics ranging from 19th century clowns to Little Britain and from stand up comedy to Pakistani Bhānd. Focussing on performance across media, this inter-disciplinary symposium addresses the serious side of comedy — and the funny side of serious: a very laughing matter.
I am presenting a paper on the sitcom Friends (1994-2004) and its performance motifs. Here is the list of presenters and papers:
9 Feb.:
Tom Brown (University of Reading), “The Comedic in Context: Maurice Chevalier”
Alex Clayton (University of Kent), “The Layering of Intention: A New Theory of Comic Performance”
James Walters (University of Birmingham), “The Limits of Comedy: Performance, Tone and Genre in It’s a Wonderful Life”
Alex Symons (University of Nottingham), “Typecasting Comedians in the Movies: How Mel Brooks Changed His Image in Life Stinks”
Lisa Williamson (University of Glasgow), “Transferring Chris Rock’s Stand-Up Persona to the Television Sitcom”
Andrew Butler (Canterbury Christ Church University), “Beyond the Cringe?: Some Notes Towards the Comedy of Embarrassment”
Sérgio Dias Branco (University of Kent), “Laughing in Friendship: The Intimate Ensemble Comedy of Friends”
Tim Miles (University of the West of England), “Laughing at The Troubles: Theatre in Northern Ireland and Counter-Narrative”
Claire Pamment (National College of Arts, Pakistan), “Mock Courts and the Pakistan Bhānd”
Gordon Ramsay (University of Nottingham), “Futurism and Comedy”
Rachel Clements (Royal Holloway, University of London), “Peccadillo Circus and Verbatim Comedy: ‘Just a Cipher, Channelling the Filth’?”
Richard Cuming and John Lee (University of Winchester) and Sally Mann, “Please Form an Orderly Queue”
Kurt Zarniko (Roehampton University), “Stupidity Improves Your Memory: Proto-Museums and the Carnivalesque”
10 Feb.:
Oliver Double (University of Kent), “‘That Shit Was Funny Now!’: Emotion and Intense Personal Experience in Stand-Up Comedy”
Teunkie van der Sluijs (University of Amsterdam and Rose Bruford College), “Why Stand-Up Comedians Don’t (Just) Tell Jokes: Advocating a Post-Humourous Paradigm for the Post-Alternative Comedian”
Kevin McCarron (Roehampton University), “‘These Two French Theorists Walk Into a Bar’: Stand-Up Comedy, Writing and Speech”
Sharon Lockyer (Brunel University), “‘SHUT AP!!’: ‘Chavs’ in Popular British Television Comedy”
Lloyd Peters (University of Salford) and Sue Becker (University of Teeside), “New Comedy: Back to Little England? Yeahbutnobutyeahbutnobutyeah”
I. Q. Hunter (De Montfort University), “Sex Lives of the Potato Men and the Decline of the British Working Class”
Ben Poore (Royal Holloway, University of London), “Lost Me Way and Don’t Know Where to Roam: Marie Lloyd and Music Hall Stage Biography Under Thatcher”
Oliver Double (University of Kent) and Michael Wilson (University of Glamorgan), “Persona and Physicality in the Work of Karl Valentin”
Ashley Thorpe (University of Reading), “An Insult to the Labouring People?: Critical Clowns and Didactic Drama in Communist China”
Louise Peacock (University of Hull), “Who Needs Words?: The Art of Physical Comedy”
