Description: In Only a Joke Can Save Us: A Theory of Humor, Todd McGowan posits an innovative theory of comedy based on the interplay of the pair of opposites "lack" and "excess."
Review Quotes: "Only a Joke Can Save Us offers a master class in psychoanalysis masquerading as a master class in comedy. McGowan's theory yields powerful, persuasive, original insights into examples as varied as classic cinema, Jewish jokes, Kierkegaard, and Shakespeare. This master class will be thoroughly enjoyed by philosophers, cultural critics, affect theorists, and psychoanalytic thinkers alike." --Anna Kornbluh, author of Realizing Capital: Financial and Psychic Economies in Victorian Realist Form