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Article published In: Narrative Inquiry: Online-First Articles

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Stand-up comedians’ performed narratives about offended audiences

 | University of South FloridaTampaFlorida
Published online: 27 March 2026
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.25131.vas
Abstract
Contributing to recent work on reflexivity and metapragmatics in stand-up comedy as well as recent studies of offensive humor, this article places narratives at the center of inquiry, by focusing on four popular anglophone stand-up comedians’ performed stories about audiences that were offended by their humor. While revealing a range of different narrative types, the analysis of stories told by both “safe” and “edgy” comedians alike illustrates recurring themes such as: the ahistorical construction of offense-taking in response to comedy material as a recent phenomenon, portrayals of offended audience members as humorless, and the attribution of responsibility to mass media as well as bloggers and social media users, who are represented as fomenting exaggerated reactions of audience outrage. Through these performed narratives, all four comedians embed reflections on reception to their own work within their sets.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Current issues in contemporary stand-up comedy
  • Methods
  • Narrative 1: Hot air balloonists (Ryan Hamilton)
    • Narrative 1. Hot air balloonists (Ryan Hamilton, Happy Face, 2017, 43:50)
  • Narrative 2: Split screen (Bill Burr)
    • Narrative 2. Split screen (Bill Burr, Walk your Way Out, 2017, 47:28)
  • Narrative 3: Golden Globes (Ricky Gervas)
    • Narrative 3. Golden Globes (Ricky Gervais, Humanity, 2018, 4:28)
  • Narrative 4: Misogynistic jokes (Jim Jefferies)
    • Narrative 4. Misogynistic jokes (Jim Jefferies, Intolerant, 2020, 37:52)
  • Discussion and conclusions
  • References
References (35)
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