Uproarious

"What happens when a professor of philosophy and a professor of history walk into a comedy club? If these professors are Cynthia Willett and Julie Willett, they write a brilliantly astute, acutely insightful, and sharply original book on gender, politics, ethnicities, empathy, humanism, and humor. In Uproarious, they stand up for the power of stand up, with Wanda Sykes, Margaret Cho, Hannah Gadsby, Hari Kondabolu, and Tig Notaro headlining their deeply erudite arguments. The result is an intellectual riot, overturning shibboleths and raising the roof—while breaking the glass ceiling—of ideas about women and comedy."—Gina Barreca, author of “If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?”: Questions and Thoughts for Loud, Smart Women in Turbulent Times

"Cynthia Willett and Julie Willett take the reader on a delightful and inspiring voyage into the belly of satire, comedy, and laughter. While we may have a visceral sense of humor’s powers, philosophy has not yet found the language for it. In giving us just that, Uproarious expands our understanding of feminist and race politics and exposes dimensions of sociality, embodiment, and empathy that carry rich (and, yes, humorous!) implications for critical theory and aesthetics."—Monique Roelofs, author of The Cultural Promise of the Aesthetic

"If you think humans are the only animals with a sense of humor, Uproarious surely will break you out of your misleading speciesist perspective. There's a lot we can learn from other animals about how and why humans' sense of humor evolved. This wide-ranging, transdisciplinary, and future-looking collection of essays nicely lays the groundwork for stimulating discussions freed from human exceptionalism."—Marc Bekoff, University of Colorado