Humor and Satire on Contemporary Television

This book examines contemporary American animated humor, focusing on popular animated television shows in order to explore the ways in which they engage with American culture and history and offer a new discourse on a very traditional strain of American humor. With attention to the work of American humorists, such as the Southwest humorists, Mark Twain, Dorothy Parker, and Kurt Vonnegut, and taking up the notion of 'The Great American Joke’, the author examines the discursive humor of programmes such as The Simpsons, South Park , Family Guy, King of the Hill, Daria, American Dad!, The Boondocks, The PJs and Futurama.