Comedy of Exclusion
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All occurrences
Where it appears in the corpus (2)
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#01
Only a Joke Can Save Us: A Theory of Comedy · Todd McGowan · p.160
Outside and Inside > Where the Little Tramp Belongs
Theoretical move: The Little Tramp functions as the comic embodiment of the coincidence of lack and excess: his structural exclusion from the social order is not merely a social commentary but an ethical injunction to embrace the social remainder, and his comedy collapses the moment full social inclusion is achieved — as dramatized in *Limelight*, where Calvero's complete acceptance by the crowd immediately precipitates his death.
His comedy depends on exclusion. The moment that Limelight reveals his complete acceptance by the crowd, he dies.
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#02
Only a Joke Can Save Us: A Theory of Comedy · Todd McGowan · p.172
Outside and Inside > Necessity versus Contingency
Theoretical move: The passage advances a theoretical distinction between two modes of comic excess: Chaplin figures necessity-of-exclusion (the surplus that must be expelled for social order to appear functional), while Keaton figures contingency-as-excess (the surplus that internally disrupts social order by revealing that every success co-constitutes a failure). Together they map the full spectrum of comedy's political implications.
Necessity produces the comedy of exclusion. Contingency creates the comic disruption within the social order.