Comedy and Lack-Excess Coincidence
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#01
Only a Joke Can Save Us: A Theory of Comedy · Todd McGowan · p.38
Lack and Excess > Addicted to Failure
Theoretical move: McGowan argues that addiction exposes the structural relationship between lack and excess that governs the speaking subject's enjoyment: the addict's failure stems from misrecognizing this necessary coincidence and attempting to pursue excess without lack, whereas comedy is defined precisely by its capacity to hold lack and excess together as mutually constitutive.
Comedy will often take excessive behavior as its subject matter, but it will always locate this excess within lack... We can find comedy in any act, no matter how horrible, as long as we see lack and excess coming together in it.