<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> This article deals with the dramatic art of stand-up comedy. It locates Arab American stand-up comedy within a broader American humorous tradition and investigates the way Arab American performers use this art to negotiate and (re)construct their identity. The main question in this article is the way Arab American stand-up comedians define their relationship to the Arab and the western worlds in the process of establishing their Arab American identity. Three humor theories - the relief theory, the incongruity theory, and the superiority theory - are deployed in the study to examine the representation of Arabness in selected Arab American performances. The study argues that Arab American comics minstrelize their own diasporic origin through reinscribing a range of orientalizing practices in order to claim their Americanness.</p></abstract>

This article deals with the dramatic art of stand-up comedy. It locates Arab American stand-up comedy within a broader American humorous tradition and investigates the way Arab American performers use this art to negotiate and (re)construct their identity. The main question in this article is the way Arab American stand-up comedians define their relationship to the Arab and the western worlds in the process of establishing their Arab American identity. Three humor theories - the relief theory, the incongruity theory, and the superiority theory - are deployed in the study to examine the representation of Arabness in selected Arab American performances. The study argues that Arab American comics minstrelize their own diasporic origin through reinscribing a range of orientalizing practices in order to claim their Americanness.

Performing Arabness in Arab American Stand-up Comedy

American, British and Canadian Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Performing Arabness in Arab American Stand-up Comedy"}

This article deals with the dramatic art of stand-up comedy. It locates Arab American stand-up comedy within a broader American humorous tradition and...

Performing Arabness in Arab American Stand-up Comedy

Publié en ligne: 06 févr. 2015

Pages: 77 - 92

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/abcsj-2014-0028

Mots clés
Arab American, stand-up comedy, Maysoon Zayid, Ahmed Ahmed, Dean Obeidallah, Aron Kader, humor, identity

© ABC Studies, Journal of the Academic Anglophone Society of Romania

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Performing Arabness in Arab American Stand-up Comedy

Publié en ligne: 06 févr. 2015

Pages: 77 - 92

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/abcsj-2014-0028

Mots clésArab American, stand-up comedy, Maysoon Zayid, Ahmed Ahmed, Dean Obeidallah, Aron Kader, humor, identity

© ABC Studies, Journal of the Academic Anglophone Society of Romania

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Mots clés
Arab American, stand-up comedy, Maysoon Zayid, Ahmed Ahmed, Dean Obeidallah, Aron Kader, humor, identity