Playing to the out-group: discovering stand-up comedy’s ‘other’ audiences

Until recently, live joke performances heavily relied on the physical co-presence of comedians and audiences. This mostly exclusive and bounded space facilitated in-group scenarios usually haunted by out-group persons who, though physically absent, are almost always present as joke subjects. More recently, with the advent of accelerated online dissemination, comedy's 'other audiences' have become virtually and physically present and critically engaged in ways that were previously impossible. In this essay, we comparatively analyze Hoodo Hersi's and Russell Peters' stand-up routines to highlight the differences between pluralistic and monolithic understandings of audiences. We also underscore the strategic shift inherent in the expansion of the joking space, comedians' awareness of potential decontextualization, and shifting sensibilities among audiences (Nwankwọ, 'Shifting Cognitions'), which reject conventional in-group/out-group divisions and counteract the increasingly nebulous and difficult-to-pinpoint practice of 'punching down'. Building on scholarships about how performers 'cast' audiences (Lynch) and how social media affects stand-up comedy (Nwankwọ, 'Incongruous Liaisons'; 'Punch up'), we demonstrate how recognition of and increased scrutiny by comedy's 'other audiences' is altering the exclusivity of the stand-up space by infusing global and multicultural perspectives, and thus reshaping comedians' construction of, and audience engagement with performed jokes.