Early American humor grew out of frontier cracker barrel raconteurs and urban wits of the Algonquin Round Table. In this course we turn to contemporary humorists. Does their source of fun differ from their predecessors’? Or is there a common thread that characterizes an American brand of humor across the centuries? At the heart of our study is—still—that question: what makes our humor American? We’ll consider whether the great achievement of American humor is that it gives us a fresh perspective on our common humanity by a backward glance at persistent, often preposterous, and even lovable Americana.
Read: Selections from Dave Barry, Bill Bryson, Molly Ivins, and David Sedaris will be provided as handouts in class.
This course is offered with the generous support of the Association for Continuing Education.