John Lahr’s speech on Comedy and Revenge
Posted by hutchowen on September 4, 2007
Verbatim notes taken while listening to John Lahr’s speech about COMEDY AND REVENGE.
Speaking of the old comedians of the beginning of the industrial age:
They were LOSERS in the land of plenty. Desperation fed their urgency.
They had no economic security. They were restless, had no education…
They were punished by the possibility of being told they were equal but having no way to each achieve it.
They became their own capital.
And they mocked the sources that oppressed them
They were physically unattractive
– comedy like American life is about conquest
– the clowns enacted the infantile wish to prevail
