Download e-book for iPad: Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s by Gerald Nachman

The comedians of the Fifties and Sixties have been a wholly diversified breed of appropriate, progressive performer from any that got here sooner than or after, comics whose humor did even more than pry guffaws out of audiences. Gerald Nachman offers the tales of the groundbreaking comedy stars of these years, every one a cultural harbinger:

• Mort Sahl, of a brand new political cynicism
• Lenny Bruce, of the sexual, drug, and language revolution
• Dick Gregory, of racial unrest
• invoice Cosby and Godfrey Cambridge, of racial concord
• Phyllis Diller, of housewifely complaint
• Mike Nichols & Elaine might and Woody Allen, of self-analytical angst and a rearrangement of male-female relations
• Stan Freberg and Bob Newhart, of encroaching, pervasive pop media manipulation and, with regards to Bob Elliott & Ray Goulding, of the banalities of broadcasting
• Mel Brooks, of the Yiddishization of yank comedy
• Sid Caesar, of a brand new understanding of the satirical probabilities of television
• Joan Rivers, of the obsessive longing for megastar gossip and of a latent bitchy sensibility
• Tom Lehrer, of the inane, hypocritical, mawkishly sentimental nature of hallowed American folkways and, in terms of the Smothers Brothers, of overly respected folks songs and folklore
• Steve Allen, of the late-night speak express as a strength in American comedy
• David Frye and Vaughn Meader, of the merger of showbiz and politics and, in addition to Will Jordan, of stretching the bounds of mimicry
• Shelley Berman, of a iteration of obsessively self-confessional humor
• Jonathan Winters and Jean Shepherd, of the bold new free-form improvisational comedy and of a sardonically up to date view of Midwestern archetypes
• Ernie Kovacs, of surreal visible results and the unbounded vistas of video

Taken jointly, they made up the school of a brand new institution of full of life, socially conscious satire, a colourful workforce of voices that reigned from nearly 1953 to 1965.

Nachman shines a flashlight into the corners of those comedians’ chaotic and infrequently lives, illuminating their genius in addition to their demons, broken souls, and determined force. His exhaustive examine and intimate interviews display characters which are fascinating and all too human, jam-packed with wealthy tales, confessions, regrets, and traumas. heavily humorous is immediately a blinding cultural historical past and a joyous party of a rare period in American comedy.

From the Hardcover edition.