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Thinking Allowed: Comedy capital - Work's intimacy

06/07/2011

Comedy capital - Work's intimacy

BBC Radio 4 - Thinking Allowed, Comedy capital - Work's intimacy

Laurie considers the links of our work and home lives plus the cultural currency of comedy

Comedy is often seen as a social leveller. But new research suggests comedic taste is linked to cultural snobbery. Also, the blurring of boundaries between work and home.

British comedy, from Music Hall to TV sitcom, was once a democratic medium. Humour united people otherwise divided by class and education. But new research finds that the Alternative Comedy Movement transformed comedy's place in our culture. It rejected the 'lowbrow' tone of earlier humour, creating the basis for comic taste to provide new forms of social distinction. The sociologist, Sam Friedman joins Laurie Taylor to debate comedy snobbery. Also, mobile communications have elided the distinction between work and home. The cultural studies lecturer, Melissa Gregg, and the Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, Rosalind Gill, ask if the lines between our personal and professional lives are increasingly blurred. 
Producer: Jayne Egerton.

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