Aesthetic as Analysis

Abstract

A wide range of comedians with disabilities has recently been reclaiming the comedy stage as a space in which to contest inequality. The work of disabled comedians highlights the utility of humor as an alternative lens into social life, especially the complexity of the disability experience. Despite the rise of disability humor as a form of activism, scholars have identified disability humor as an undertheorized area. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 10 professional comedians from Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, we examine common conceptual ground between humor theory and disability theory—focusing on how humor can function as an epistemological and critical lens for viewing disability in everyday social context. Our analysis suggests that even types of humor that have traditionally been used to demean and disable can be (and are) wielded by people with disabilities, on and off the stage, as both a shield and a sword with which to contest the constraints imposed by an ableist world, while also countering the widespread belief that disability is only and always a personal tragedy.