Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s

The entertaining story of the satirical revolution of the 1950s and 1960s--a genuine comedy renaissance--is told through the lives and careers of 25 of the era's greatest comics. Photos throughout.The comedians of the 1950s and 1960s were a totally different breed of relevant, revolutionary performer from any that came before or after, comics whose humor did much more than pry guffaws out of audiences. Gerald Nachman presents the stories of the groundbreaking comedy stars of those years, each one a cultural harbinger:br- Mort Sahl, of a new political cynicismbr- Lenny Bruce, of the sexual, drug, and language revolutionbr- Dick Gregory, of racial unrestbr- Bill Cosby and Godfrey Cambridge, of racial harmonybr- Phyllis Diller, of housewifely complaintbr- Mike Nichols & Elaine May and Woody Allen, of self-analytical angst and a rearrangement of male-female relationsbr- Stan Freberg and Bob Newhart, of encroaching, pervasive pop media manipulation and, in the case of Bob Elliott & Ray Goulding, of the banalities of broadcastingbr- Mel Brooks, of the Yiddishization of American comedybr- Sid Caesar, of a new awareness of the satirical possibilities of televisionbr- Joan Rivers, of the obsessive craving for celebrity gossip and of a latent bitchy sensibilitybr- Tom Lehrer, of the inane, hypocritical, mawkishly sentimental nature of hallowed American folkways and, in the case of the Smothers Brothers, of overly revered folk songs and folklorebr- Steve Allen, of the late-night talk show as a force in American comedybr- David Frye and Vaughn Meader, of the merger of showbiz and politics and, along with Will Jordan, of stretching the boundaries of mimicrybr- Shelley Berman, of a generation of obsessively self-confessional humorbr- Jonathan Winters and Jean Shepherd, of the daring new free-form improvisational comedy and of a sardonically updated view ofMidwestern archetypesbr- Ernie Kovacs, of surreal visual effects and the unbounded vistas of v