Shocked But Connected

Notes on Laughter

By (author) Michael Roemer

Publication date:

14 September 2012

Length of book:

288 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781442217560

Why do funny movies make us laugh? In this thoughtful essay, by turns stimulating and meditative, distinguished filmmaker and Yale professor Michael Roemer shares his musings on what causes us to chortle, snort, and guffaw when we watch antics onscreen or onstage. Roemer keeps us chuckling as he dissects punchy one-liners, Shakespearean plays, and everything in-between. Incorporating theories from such great thinkers as Sigmund Freud, Charles Baudelaire, Henri-Louis Bergson, and Soren Kierkegaard with the work of classic comedians like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and the Marx Brothers, Roemer examines the purpose of comedy in our lives and in society. Shocked But Connected provides a serious reflection on a lighthearted subject.

Preface
Chapter 1: Surprised
Chapter 2: Freud
Chapter 3: Different and Scary
Chapter 4: Disconnected
Chapter 5: Bergson and High Comedy
Chapter 6: Blind and Helpless but Alive
Chapter 7: Childhood
Chapter 8: Making It Real
Chapter 9: Annie Hall
Chapter 10: Free but Connected

Defining the humor of comic genius, without giving away the punchline, filmmaker and former Yale Film Studies Professor Michael Roemer has written a wonderful book about laughter.