Tragedy Plus Time

About this book

"The old joke is that Comedy = Tragedy + Time. Scepanski looks at that equation at a national level, examining how television comedy has dealt with various widescale tragedies, from the assassination of JFK to 9/11 to school shootings. Comedy is often the lens to talk about difficult subjects, but there has been little exploration of how it helps the country understand, process, and cope with trauma on a broad scale. Beginning with Gilbert Gottfried's controversial joke in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 that elicited a response of "too soon!," Scepanski lays out the ways that various sitcoms, comedy sketch shows, and comic news programs have handled tragedies, in ways both tasteful and tasteless"--