Details
Date: Friday 21 November, 2025
Time: 10:00am–12:00pm
Location: Level 6, Garden Building, RMIT University, Melbourne
As a genre of art often responding to socio-cultural norms, it is no surprise that comedy is frequently positioned as a battleground for free speech, politeness, diversity and political discourse. Whether through dismissals of comic controversy as “just a joke”, or of a joke as “not funny” or “punching down”, responses to comic controversy from comedians, audiences and commentators often invoke a shorthand which implies or even advocates for taking a moral position. Analysing comedy and what it does — whether performed or mediated, stand-up or sketch, live or pre-recorded — involves a multifaceted approach that considers an array of factors such as industrial context, identity, audience, and the broader social discourses the comedy engages with.
This workshop brings together three senior scholars, Professor Nick Marx (Colorado State University), Professor Mark Gibson (RMIT) and Dr Sarah Balkin (University of Melbourne), to discuss how they examine comedy and its social, political, and industrial dimensions. Covering methodologies and methods from media studies, cultural studies, television studies, and theatre and performance studies, this free, practical workshop is aimed at early-career scholars and postgraduate students who wish to strengthen their understanding of approaches to comedy scholarship across disciplines.
Spaces are extremely limited. To attend, please register an expression of interest by clicking the “Register” button and filling out a short questionnaire.
This event is presented by the Australian Comedy Studies Collective and supported by the United States Studies Centre (USSC) at the University of Sydney.
Presenters
Professor Nick Marx
Nick Marx is Professor of film and media studies, specializing in media studies, media industries, digital media, and American politics and culture at Colorado State University. He is author or co-editor of several books, including Sketch Comedy: Identity, Reflexivity, and American Television (Indiana University Press, 2019), The Comedy Studies Reader (University of Texas Press, 2018), and Saturday Night Live and American TV (Indiana University Press, 2013). His peer-reviewed research has appeared in The Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Communication, Culture & Critique, Television and New Media, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, and in the anthologies The Oxford Handbook of Screen Comedy (Oxford University Press, 2025), From Networks to Netflix: A Guide to Changing Channels (Routledge, 2022) and How to Watch Television (New York University Press, 2013). Nick’s most recent book is That’s Not Funny: How the Right Makes Comedy Work For Them (University of California Press, 2022), which analyzes the cultural influence and economic clout of libertarian and conservative comedians like Joe Rogan, Greg Gutfeld, Theo Von, Andrew Schulz, and Tim Allen. His current book project tracks the rise of right-wing blockbuster film, children’s programs, and pop music during the second Trump presidency.
Professor Mark Gibson
Mark Gibson is Professor of Media in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University. Mark has interests in cultural industries; fringe, independent and alternative cultural production; performance comedy; and histories of media and cultural studies. Mark is co-author of Fringe to Famous – Australian Cultural Production After the Creative Industries (Bloomsbury, 2024) and author of Culture and Power – A History of Cultural Studies (Berg, 2007). He is currently a chief investigator on the Australian Research Council Linkage project Comedy Country: Australian Performance Comedy as an Agent of Change. Before joining RMIT, Mark worked at Monash University, Murdoch University and Central Queensland University. He was also editor, for thirteen years, of Continuum – Journal of Media and Cultural Studies.
Dr Sarah Balkin
Sarah Balkin is a Senior Lecturer in English and Theatre Studies at the University of Melbourne. She earned her BA (Honours, 2004) at the University of California, Los Angeles and her MA (2009) and PhD (2012) at Rutgers University. She has published widely on comedy, theatre, performance, genre, and literature from the nineteenth century to the present. She is the author of Spectral Characters: Genre and Materiality on the Modern Stage (University of Michigan Press, 2019) and the co-author (with Marc Mierowsky) of Comedy and Controversy: Scripting Public Speech (Cambridge University Press, 2024). A book about the historical emergence of deadpan style (1830-1930) is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press. Her articles on contemporary stand-up appear in Theatre Research International, TDR, and Comedy Studies. In 2025 she guest-edited an issue of Comedy Studies on “The Comic Audience.” Other current research examines the contract between performer and audience in contemporary stand-up.
Travel and Accessibility
Take a tram along Swanston Street to the RMIT University stop or a train to Melbourne Central station. Enter Bowen Street via La Trobe Street. Some on-street parking available on La Trobe Street. See the RMIT City Campus mobility map for nearby accessible parking.
Entry access from Bowen Street (between Swanston and Russell Streets), above Streat Cafe. Take the stairs to level 6 or use the elevator located behind Streat Cafe.