standup comedy

For the research paper, you will choose one comic and argue that he/she is the most important standup comic in American history. The comic in question need not be the funniest, necessarily, but one who has successfully influenced American culture and the way in which audiences approach, digest, and evaluate humor.

All quotes must be cited parenthetically according to MLA-style documentation.

The introduction will begin by including a brief biography of the comic in question. All information must be cited according to MLA documentation, and may not come from encyclopedias. To include:

How did the comedian begin his/her stand-up career (where, when, with whom)?

What is the comedian's primary subject matter and how would you characterize his/her style?

Who are his/her influences and whom does he/she influence?

Why is this person among the most influential or notable comedians?

It must also locate the chosen comedian within the context of the American standup tradition. Students should use course readings to help them accomplish this. Most importantly, the introduction must include a strong thesis that persuasively and clearly argues why this comedian is the most important standup comic in American history. The introduction is not necessarily a single paragraph.

2. Standup Analysis

In this section, you must choose 2-3 specific bits to analyze for artistic, political, or social significance. What makes these jokes funny? Innovative? To what extent does the comedian rely on persona? What influence do jokes like these have on the comic tradition and perhaps on American culture? How do these bits connect with other comedians we have studied this semester?

3. Connections to Course Readings, Concepts, and Standups

Here you will make sophisticated connections to course readings, concepts, and standups

Readings: to what traditions does the comic belong? How do you see the historical roots outlined in the readings revealed in this comic's performance? How do these connections prove that the comic in question is the most important comic is American history? To be successful here, you must identify a variety (at least three) of readings from class and analyze the ways in which they connect to your comic.

Concepts: This may overlap with readings, but it may not. Here you may include discussions from class or Prezis ("This is Not a Pipe," etc.) to address the questions above, specifically to prove that the comic in question is the most important comic in American history.

Standups: What other influential comic/s does this comic mirror? How do these connections prove that the comic in question is the most important comic is American history?

4. Critical Reception

Here is where much of your research is located. Here you must include at least three outside sources that come from a) long-form magazines, b) academic essays, or c) shorter form cultural criticisms that come from a legitimate news source.

Your purpose will be to use these sources to support your argument that this comic is the most important comic is American history.

5. Conclusion

You will write a brief conclusion that makes a final argument in support of your comic.

6. Works Cited

Your paper must include a complete and accurate Works Cited Page

1. Lenny Bruce was born Leonard Alfred Schneider to a Jewish family in Mineola, New York, grew up in nearby Bellmore, and attended Wellington C. Mepham High School. Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. His parents divorced before he turned 10, and Lenny lived with various relatives over the next decade. His British-born father, Myron (Mickey) Schneider, was a shoe clerk and Lenny saw him very infrequently. Bruce's mother, Sally Marr (legal name Sadie Schneider, was a stage performer and had an enormous influence on Bruce's career.

2. He was renowned for his open, free-style and critical form of comedy which integrated satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon, the first in the history of New York state, by then-Governor George Pataki in 2003.

3. Bruce is renowned for paving the way for future outspoken counterculture-era comedians, and his trial for obscenity is seen as a landmark for freedom of speech in the United States. In 2017, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him third (behind disciples Richard Pryor and George Carlin) on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.

4. Bruce was the Gertrude Stein of comedians. Never popular himself—because he was too cryptic and too scatological for popular taste—he nevertheless influenced a whole generation of comics, just as Stein influenced Hemingway and that generation of writers. Her own work was a dead end (so was Bruce's), but out of that compost grew the buds of a flourishing school.