Risible : Laughter Without Reason and the Reproduction of Sound

"Risible offers an alternative re-telling of the intellectual, technological, and sonic history of laughter, a phenomenon that cannot be accounted for through its causes (such as theories of comedy). Instead, Delia Casadei argues, laughter is a technique of the human body, knowable by its repetitive, clipped, and proliferating sound and its enduring links to the capacity for language and reproduction. The long-forgotten history of laughter--which reaches back to ancient Greece--re-emerges with explosive force in the late nineteenth century thanks to the binding of laughter to sound-reproduction technology. This alternative genealogy of laughter as human technique and sound technology is thrown into stark relief by the tension between the ownership and reproduction of the black voice in phonograph records, in metaphors of contagion and laughter in the early global market of phonographic laughing songs, and in the strange commodity of pre-recorded laughtracks. As such, laughter becomes a means of working out the very category of sound (not-quite-human, unintelligible, reproductive and reproducible, contagious) across the twentieth century"-- A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.​Risible explores the forgotten history of laughter, from ancient Greece to the sitcom stages of Hollywood. Delia Casadei approaches laughter not as a phenomenon that can be accounted for by studies of humor and theories of comedy but rather as a technique of the human body, knowable by its repetitive, clipped, and proliferating sound and its enduring links to the capacity for language and reproduction. This buried genealogy of laughter re-emerges with explosive force thanks to the binding of laughter to sound reproduction technology in the late nineteenth century. Analyzing case studies ranging from the early global market for phonographic laughing songs to the McCarthy-era rise of prerecorded laugh tracks, Casadei convincingly demonstrates how laughter was central to the twentieth century's development of the very category of sound as not-quite-human, unintelligible, reproductive, reproducible, and contagious. A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Presss Open Access publishing program. Visit to learn more. Risible explores the forgotten history of laughter, from ancient Greece to the sitcom stages of Hollywood. Delia Casadei approaches laughter not as a phenomenon that can be accounted for by studies of humor and theories of comedy but rather as a technique of the human body, knowable by its repetitive, clipped, and proliferating sound and its enduring links to the capacity for language and reproduction. This buried genealogy of laughter re-emerges with explosive force thanks to the binding of laughter to sound reproduction technology in the late nineteenth century. Analyzing case studies ranging from the early global market for phonographic laughing songs to the McCarthy-era rise of prerecorded laugh tracks, Casadei convincingly demonstrates how laughter was central to the twentieth centurys development of the very category of sound as not-quite-human, unintelligible, reproductive, reproducible, and contagious. Cover Subvention Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part One. Laughter without Reason 1. Unknown Causes, or the Limit of Logos 2. Risible Creatures 3. Laughter as (Sound) Reproduction Part Two. Laughter as Mass Sound Reproduction 4. George W. Johnson’s Laughable Phonography 5. Contagion 6. Canned Laughter, Gimmick Sound Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index