Upright Citizens of the Digital Age: Podcasting and Popular Culture in an Alternative Comedy Scene

Abstract

In this thesis I look at how one of our newest communication mediums, the podcast, is being used by a group of Los Angeles-based comedians loosely assembled under the "alternative comedy" label. Through the lens of critical and medium theory, I identify two primary functions of the podcast for this community: 1) as a space for comedy performance involving character-based sketches and stream-of-consciousness conversation and 2) as a meditation on the nature of stand-up comedy that often confronts tensions between popular and folk culture. I argue that these two functions have become generic hallmarks of the alternative comedy podcasting community. As such, they provide important insight into how subcultures reinforce, reinterpret, and manage artistic value in new media environments. Further, the podcast offers an object lesson in the ways that creative artists have exercised a new sense of agency in controlling the direction of their careers.