New Alternative Comedy: Productive Crises c.2005-Present

This chapter explores contemporary alternative comedy as a response to crisis. The early-to-mid 2000s saw the beginnings of a comedy boom in which the once-marginal Alternative Comedy form rose to enjoy unprecedented popularity and commercial clout. Yet alongside this period of success, alternatives have emerged which identify crises within that very genre.

We discuss two sets of new alternative practices. One opposes a perceived homogeneity of form among the commercial mainstream, and is characterised in part by an enhanced interest in metareferential examination of, and experimentation with, the conventions and properties of live comedy by comedians such as Josie Long, Stewart Lee and Tony Law. The other battles a crisis of representation and equitability, explored here through analysis of FOC It Up, a comedy club which provides an exclusive platform for femmes of colour.

In charting these creative and structural responses, we argue that alternatives in comedy follow a pattern commonly observed in wider art forms: they are shaped in response to crisis.