Comedy meets media: how three new media features have influenced changes in the production of stand-up comedy

This paper describes the ways in which overarching changes to media and the dissemination of information have impacted stand-up comedy as an industry. The three main areas of intersection between comedy and media examined here are: prosumer production, transmedia journalism and culture jamming. The first parallel drawn is to the shift in journalistic sources from large, ‘legacy media’ channels such as newspapers and daily news to multiple amateur writers reporting via personal blogs and other open source platforms. Similarly, amateur consumers have begun producing and self-publishing comedic material using YouTube and other accessible means of communication, which has impacted the professional livelihood of stand-up comedians. The second comparison is to transmedia journalism, or the telling of one story across multiple media mediums; comedians are asked to perform across multiple media as transmedia communication becomes more normative. Finally, comedians are presented as doing the playful, parody-based ‘semiotic jujitsu’, work that Michael Serazio calls culture jamming.