An assessment of contemporary comic performances online

An Assessment o f Contemporary Comic Performances Online surveys current online entertainment such as podcasts, videos, text-based comedy such as Twitter, and picture memes, and attempts to see how they fit into comic theories of the past by authors such Plato, Aristotle, Sigmund Freud, and Henri Bergson. Their theories add a deeper and scholarly understanding into the psychological and philosophical make up of comedy and laughter which is then transferred into a better understanding of modem online comedy. Online examples which are studied include Funny or Die, a website that contains original comedic videos by the site's creators that provide satirical views of current issues including politics, race relations, and ecological issues, but also allow the public to post videos of their own on the site. Another example is Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, an online webseries originated by comedian Jerry Seinfeld, in which he discusses the subject of comedy with other comedians. And the final online example is Louis C.K.'s Live at the Beacon Theatre, an experimental comedy special which he released to be viewed online only. By analyzing these comedic examples in a theoretical and historical context, I show why they are contemporary, relevant, and important in the scope of comedy.