Satire as the Comic Public Sphere: Postmodern Truthiness and Civic Engagement

285 Pages·2021·2.975 MB·English

by  James E. Caron

SATIRE AS THE
COMIC PUBLIC SPHERE
POSTMODERN “TRUTHINESS”
AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
James E. Caron
SATIRE AS THE COMIC PUBLIC SPHERE
Humor in America
Edited by
Judith Yaross Lee, Ohio University
Tracy Wuster, The University of Texas at Austin
Advisory Board
Darryl Dickson-Carr, Southern Methodist University
Joanne Gilbert, Alma College
Rebecca Krefting, Skidmore College
Bruce Michelson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Nicholas Sammond, University of Toronto
The Humor in America series considers humor as an
expressive mode reflecting key concerns of people in
specific times and places. With interdisciplinary research,
historical and transnational approaches, and comparative
scholarship that carefully examines contexts such as race,
gender, class, sexuality, region, and media environments,
books in the series explore how comic expression both
responds to and shapes American culture.
SATIRE AS THE
COMIC PUBLIC SPHERE
Postmodern “Truthiness”
and Civic Engagement
James E. Caron
The Pennsylvania State University Press
University Park, Pennsylvania
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Caron, James Edward, 1952– author.
Title: Satire as the comic public sphere : postmodern “truthiness” and civic
engagement / James E. Caron.
Other titles: Humor in America.
Description: University Park, Pennsylvania : The Pennsylvania State University
Press, [2021] | Series: Humor in America | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Summary: “Examines the work of satirists through the lenses of humor studies,
cultural theory, and rhetorical and social philosophy, arriving at a new
definition of the comic art form”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021011109 | ISBN 9780271089867 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Political satire, American—History and criticism. | Public
sphere—United States. | Postmodernism—United States.
Classification: LCC PN6149.P64 C37 2021 | DDC 320.97302/07—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021011109
Copyright © 2021 James E. Caron
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press,
University Park, PA 16802–1003
The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the Association of
University Presses.
It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free
paper. Publications on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Material, ansi z39.48–1992.
slapstick laughs at the imperative of the bladder and
demands lunch before social justice
snark mocks the public sphere and nurtures partisan
truthiness
satire laughs at public sphere vice and folly and enables
silly citizenship
—JEC

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Part 1: Satire and the Public Sphere
1. Defining Satire 19
2. The Public Sphere 36
3. Truthiness Satire and the Comic Public Sphere 52
Part 2: Doing Things with Satiric Words
4. Satire and Speech Act Theory 85
5. Satire as Speech Act, Part One 89
6. Satire as Speech Act, Part Two 117
7. The Limits of Satiric Ridicule 155
8. Satiric Intent and Audience Uptake 189
9. Find the Punchline 208
Notes 231
Index 263

Acknowledgments
I begin my rounds of thanks with the students in a 2017 Senior Honors
Seminar on postmodern satire. Discussions over the semester with the
extraordinary group that made up the class helped me to think through a
number of issues presented in this book.
I want next to thank Ryan Peterson for his invaluable editorial sugges-
tions and all the Penn State University Press staff for their support in the
process of bringing the book to publication. Thanks also to the editors
of the series Humor in America, Judith Yaross Lee and Tracy Wuster, for
seeing the potential in the book. They have been my steadfast colleagues
over the years in the collective investigation by scholars of cultural arti-
facts that make people laugh, an enterprise usually designated as “humor
studies.”
A special thanks goes to Judith Lee, with whom I have shared many
conversations over the years about humor in America as well as about all
manner of comic cultural artifacts and comic laughter. Her invitation to
speak at Ohio University on my idea about speech acts in the comic public
sphere provided the genesis of the project, and when we spoke about elab-
orating the talk into a book project for the Humor in America series,
she supplied needed encouragement and also sound advice about how to
proceed, all in her usual generous fashion.
My wife Michelle (as always) deserves thanks as my best and most
faithful interlocutor as I ramble through ideas and try out formulations.
Portions of the book are excerpted from the following: “Satire and
the Problem of Comic Laughter,” Comedy Studies 11, no. 2 (2020): 171–82,
DOI: 10 .1080 /2040610X .2020 .1729485; “The Quantum Paradox of Truthi-
ness: Satire, Activism, and the Postmodern Condition,” Studies in American
Humor, ser. 4, vol. 2, no. 2 (2016): 153–81; and “Comic Belles Lettres and a
Literary History of the American Comic Tradition,” Studies in American
Humor, ser. 3, no. 29 (2014): 13–34.