The new seminar series Film Friday looks to the medium of moving images as both a method and a source material on the threshold between art and research.
Each session will feature a shorter (approximately 45 minute) screening with invited guests or directors. The screening will be followed by an open discussion about the creative possibilities and epistemological implications of the specific film experience, and there will be popcorn.
This session takes place on the 17th of March with Christian Liliequist, PhD student at Umeå University, who will present and discuss video clips of stand-up comedy in relation to his research project.
In my ongoing dissertation project, I am investigating the Swedish stand-up scene, with a focus on how stand-up comedians represent, relate to, challenge and recreate cultural notions and norms. By applying an intersectional perspective, I analyze how various power structures interacts and strengthens or undermine each other through humor. The main empirical material consists of digital observations of recorded stand-up comedy, observations at stand-up comedy clubs, interviews with stand-up comedians, media articles and posts on social media about humor.
Stand-up comedy has during the 21st century become increasingly more available on digital streaming sites such as Netflix, HBO, CMore and Youtube as well as on social media applications such as TikTok and Instagram. In this presentation I will show some recorded stand-up comedy clips that I’m analyzing in my dissertation. Afterwards I will invite the participants to an open discussion about the clips that we have seen. I’m especially interested in discussing the advantages and challenges of analyzing stand-up comedy that is digitally available and also what happens to stand-up comedy, which is often defined as a humor genre that is experienced “here and now”, when it is recorded and available on various digital platforms. In other words: How do we perceive stand-up comedy through digital platforms?
