Social Remainder
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#01
Only a Joke Can Save Us: A Theory of Comedy · Todd McGowan · p.158
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 films are all about giving us the ethical task of embracing what we as a society cast aside, seeing the detritus as worthy of our love.