{"id":6623,"date":"2024-12-01T14:27:38","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T13:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imagessecondes.fr\/?p=6623"},"modified":"2024-12-18T14:39:48","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T13:39:48","slug":"comedy-objects-1-slapstick-speculation-english-version","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imagessecondes.fr\/index.php\/2024\/12\/comedy-objects-1-slapstick-speculation-english-version\/","title":{"rendered":"Comedy Objects #1: Slapstick Speculation (English version)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Noah Teichner<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Comedy Objects <\/em>#1: <\/em>Slapstick Speculation<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Abstract <\/em><\/strong>
Through examples of films, novelty songs, and comic monologues from the 1929 Wall Street Crash, this videographic essay and publication explore how comedy and the stock market were invested in a shared culture of liveness across media during Hollywood\u2019s transition to sound. This is the first installment of Comedy Objects, a project that brings together archival research with speculative fiction to think about comedy workers in the United States during the Great Depression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keywords<\/strong>
slapstick comedy, vaudeville, media archaeology, stock ticker<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electronic reference to cite this article<\/strong>
Noah Teichner, \u00ab\u00a0Comedy Objects #1: Slapstick Speculation (English version)\u00a0\u00bb,\u00a0Images secondes\u00a0[Online], 04\u00a0|\u00a02024. URL : http:\/\/imagessecondes.fr\/index.php\/2024\/12\/comedy-objects-1-slapstick-speculation-english-version\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2261 Download pdf version<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Statement by the Comedy Workers Group (1931)<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Comedy workers in the United States are currently faced with a three-fold transition: in industry, in technology, and in form. In industry, the Keith-Albee and Orpheum vaudeville circuits, after having lost many of their performers to movie house presentation acts, were absorbed into the new film studio and theatre chain RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum). In technology, after a first period in which it seemed like synchronized sound shorts\u2014dominated by Warner Bros.\u2019 Vitaphone model of \u201ccanned\u201d vaudeville acts\u2014could co-exist alongside the silent feature, the entire industry has progressively gone \u201call-talking.\u201d In form, vaudeville and film comedy have entered into a new chapter in their long-running dialogue, thanks to the possibilities of sound and language in slapstick comedy. Radio, another new medium of comic labor and performance, further complexifies this period of industrial, technological, and formal transition<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the current depression, it is essential to formulate a critical perspective on these changes that speaks from our position as comedy workers and as artists. It is for that reason that we have created the Comedy Workers Group and are developing the method of slapstick speculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slapstick speculation uses the tools of comedy to think about comedy. It can be carried out on stage, film, record, or radio. In the \u201canalytical routine\u201d for one performer that follows, destined for the variety stage, we test this method on a first case study: the 1929 Wall Street Crash. Slapstick teaches us that \u201cwhat goes up, must come down,\u201d be it bodies or values. The \u201cNew Era\u201d of endless prosperity hailed by pundits and politicians in the years leading up to the Crash was a set-up waiting for a punchline. Like (historical) narratives, gags depend on a play of expectations that lead to a comic climax. The Roaring Twenties have made way for a Great Depression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our routine, on a stage equipped with a stock ticker, telephone, radio, phonograph, and film projector, a monologist demonstrates how the \u201ccomedy objects\u201d produced just before and after the Crash bring out the gag-like nature of this cataclysm. These films, records, and joke books also help to come to terms with the ways in which comedy and the stock market participate in a shared culture of liveness across media\u2014a culture that includes not only vaudeville, radio, and sound film, but also the stock ticker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slapstick speculation invests in the futures of comedy by analyzing its present. It takes on the potential for comedy objects to object. Rather than rule out objecting from within the limitations of a capitalist mode of production, we seek out the sometimes all too brief speculations carried out by performers, gagpeople, stagehands, and technicians\u2014by our fellow comedy workers, in short. And as comedy workers, we then produce new objects that speculate through the means of slapstick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is little chance that Slapstick Speculation <\/em>will find its place on commercial vaudeville or movie house stage programs. Bookers\u2019 narrow-mindedness and the stale mantra of \u201cwhat the audience wants\u201d prevents them from showing off analysis as entertainment. We would also receive letters from the lawyers of Mack Sennett Productions, Victor records, and others, threatening to sue us for non-authorized reproduction of their products. While we do not object to attempts at staging this routine\u2014a first in a series of \u201ccomedy objects\u201d for stage, film, phonograph, and radio\u2014we accept its currently hypothetical state as a videographic essay. Let it be speculation on a future in which comedy workers have fuller control of their means of production, distribution, and exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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