[Commlist] Call for Chapters: Games and Comedy

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Call for chapters

GAMES AND COMEDY

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Editors:

Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone (University of Malta)

Tomasz Z. Majkowski (Jagiellonian University)

Jaroslav Švelch (University of Bergen)

To say that games, humour, and comedy have a lot in common would be 
stating the obvious. The affinities between the ludic and the comic have 
been remarked by scholars in various fields. Wittgenstein (1980, 83e) 
likens a shared sense of humour to the reciprocal understanding of the 
rules of a game. In his book The Game of Humor (1997), Gruner sees a 
fundamental similarity between humour and games in a shared competitive 
dynamic, closely bound up with ‘winning’. From an evolutionary 
perspective, laughter – today associated with humour – has been a signal 
of play (Gervais and Wilson 2005). Moreover, the English word ‘joke’ 
likely shares its etymology with the Italian word ‘gioco’ for ‘game’ and 
‘play’, deriving from the Latin ‘jocus’ (OED).

Despite these links, there is surprisingly little academic work on 
humour and comedy in games. The existing literature has charted the 
possible avenues of research. Humour has been analysed as a tool to make 
games more engaging, and to contribute memorable scenes and characters 
(Dorman and Biddle 2009; Fernández-Vara 2009). In-game comedy can also 
arise from the self-reflective commentary on the games’ form and 
structure (Bonello 2015), or constitute a part of a broader set of 
grotesque and carnivalesque aesthetics (Majkowski 2015). Moreover, the 
joys of excessive movement, collisions, and playful destruction link 
games to slapstick comedy (Švelch 2014; Hudson 2014; Garin 2015).

While game scholars researching the topic often draw from traditional 
theories of humour and comedy, comedy and humour scholars have employed 
theories of games and play. Dramatic comedy has been associated with 
‘timelessness’ and a lack of severe consequence (see Sypher, 1980; 
Garber, 2004), a space opening onto play. Quirk (2015, p. 208) has 
suggested that stand-up comedy “creates a playground, in Huizinga’s 
sense, both physically and ideologically, which operates in accordance 
with joking’s rules of challenge and negotiation. This is both a force 
for societal good and a potential source of harm.” In his classic study, 
Bakhtin ties his concept of the carnivalesque with both playfulness and 
laughter (1984).

Apart from these largely isolated instances of cross-pollination, there 
has been little dialogue between the two fields of comedy and game 
studies, and a lack of scholarship that would rigorously explore the 
relationship between comedy and play in relation to digital (and 
non-digital) games. The seemingly obvious affinities between games, 
humour, and comedy are only rarely illuminated. This volume, therefore, 
aims to fill this gap, map the overlaps between games and comedy, and 
build a long overdue foundation for interdisciplinary dialogue.

== What we are looking for

We are currently looking for contributors of individual chapters. We 
recognize the breadth and diversity of approaches to, and contrasting or 
overlapping definitions of, humour, laughter, and comedy (see for 
example: Milner Davis and Roach Anleu, 2018). This volume will therefore 
not be limited to a single framework or approach. Instead, we embrace 
different facets of that most elusive quarry – the ‘comic’ – as ‘‘this 
little problem, which has a knack of baffling every effort, of slipping 
away and escaping only to bob up again” (Bergson 1980, p. 61).

We welcome explorations of the applicability and limitations of comedy- 
and humour-related theoretical frameworks related to digital (and 
non-digital) games, as well as case studies of particular games, and 
research into reception of humour in games. We also welcome 
contributions on the functions of comedy and humour in games, its impact 
on gameplay, and its political implications.

== The possible topics include (but are not limited to):

  * Rethinking the relationship between humour and play/the comic and
    the ludic
  * Theories of humour and comedy and their applicability to games
  * Videogames as vehicles of satire [as ‘serio ludere’? – Lucian]
  * Irony and parody in games
  * Structural analyses of humour in games
  * The comic in game design
  * Humour as meta-commentary of game mechanics
  * Non-diegetic and paratextual humour (HUDs, menu screens,
    achievements, Easter Eggs)
  * Slapstick, humour, and violence
  * Glitches and bugs as comic events
  * The comic in player experience and engagement (or disengagement)
  * Humour and power in games and game cultures
  * Humour in games and game culture as a tool of resistance and critique
  * Collective laughter (inclusionary/exclusionary) in MMOs and other
    multiplayer games
  * Stand-up comedy simulators

If you are interested in contributing, please send a 500 word abstract 
to: (games.comedy.book /at/ gmail.com). We will read through all the abstracts 
and invite authors of selected abstracts to write full chapters for us. 
Please contact us at this email if you have any questions.

The volume is not signed to a publisher at this point, but we are 
discussing our project with several leading publishing houses. The final 
title of the book will be decided in cooperation with the publisher.

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Deadline for abstracts: August 31, 2019

Deadline for full chapters: March 31, 2020

Projected date of publication: 2020/2021

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== References

Bakhtin, M. (1984). Rabelais and his world. Indianapolis: Indiana 
University Press.

Bergson, H. (1980). Laughter. In Wylie Sypher (Ed.), Comedy: ‘An Essay 
on Comedy’ by George Meredith, ‘Laughter’ by Henri Bergson (pp. 61-190). 
Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

Bonello Rutter Giappone, K. (2015), ‘Self-Reflexivity and Humor in 
Adventure Games’, Game Studies 15(1).

Dormann, C., & Biddle, R. (2009). A Review of Humor for Computer Games: 
Play, Laugh and More. Simulation & Gaming, 40(6), 802–824.

Fernández-Vara, C. (2009). The Tribulations of Adventure Games: 
Integrating Story into Simulation through Performance, Doctoral 
Dissertation (Georgia Institute of Technology)

Garber, M. (2004). Shakespeare After All (NY: Anchor Books).

Garin, M. (2014). ‘Super Mario, the new silent clown: Video game 
parodies as transformative comedy tools’, International Journal of 
Cultural Studies, 18(3).

Gervais, M., and Wilson, D.S. (2005), ‘The Evolution and Functions of 
Laughter and Humor: A Synthetic Approach’, The Quarterly Review of 
Biology 80(4), 395-430.

Gruner, C.R. (1997). The Game of Humor: A Comprehensive Theory of Why We 
Laugh (New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers).

Hudson, B. (2014). ‘Funny games: understanding videogames as slapstick 
and the experience of game-worlds as shared cultural references’. 
Engaging with Videogames: Play, Theory and Practice, eds. Stobart, D. 
and Evans, M. (pp. 109-120). Inter-Disciplinary Press. [eBook].

Majkowski, T. (2015). ‘Grotesque Realism and Carnality: Bakhtinian 
Inspirations in Video Game Studies’ [in:] New Perspectives In Game 
Studies, ed. T. Bártek, J. Miškov, J. Švelch, Brno: Munipress, pp. 26-43.

Milner Davis, J. and Roach Anleu, S. (eds.). (2018). Judges, Judging and 
Humour (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan).

Quirk, S. (2015). Why Stand-up Matters: How Comedians Manipulate and 
Influence (London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama).

Švelch, J. (2014). ‘Comedy of Contingency: Making Physical Humor in 
Video Game Spaces’, International Journal of Communication 8, 2530-2552.

Sypher, W. (ed.). (1980). Comedy: ‘An Essay on Comedy’ by George 
Meredith, ‘Laughter’ by Henri Bergson (Baltimore: John Hopkins 
University Press).

Wittgenstein, L. (1980). Culture and Value (Oxford: Blackwell).


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