Generalised Comedy Production: British Political Economy and Stand-Up

The paper considers the emergence of Alternative Comedy in the 1980s, placing this development in the context of Marx's understanding of capitalist society and a critique of Adorno's notion of the culture industry. The paper argues that this change in British comedy was made possible by the policies of the British state in the 1980s, which changed how comedians understood property, propriety and performance. While Alternative Comedy was highly critical of Thatcherism and neoliberalism, it owed its existence to these modes of state management. The paper contends that comedy can be seen as a form of class struggle and should not be judged by its capacity to be a mere instrument of resistance. The paper concludes by considering the development of comedy production since the 1980s.