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With the rise of feminist sentiment and the growing awareness of gender equity in China, social media has become an increasingly central space for Chinese feminist expression. However, the complex dynamics of feminist expression in these online spaces—and the role of popular culture in facilitating such discourse—are still to be fully elucidated. This dissertation delves into these understudied facets, focusing on the social media platforms Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) and Bilibili (China’s largest anime fandom hub), through a cross-platform comparative analysis of the online discussion sparked by the stand-up comedy acts of Chinese female comedians. It further narrows its focus to young (age 22-33) female audiences' engagement with these comedy routines online, probing their perceptions of the confluence between feminist discourse, humor, and social media. Drawing on a mixed-methods qualitative approach that combines content analysis of videos and comments on Douyin and Bilibili with in-depth interviews with 15 young female participants, this dissertation demonstrates how users employed the platform’s creative features to challenge everyday sexism by echoing or building upon the stand-up comedians’ gags. At the same time, the analysis also uncovers how social media is used to insult and push back against these feminist voices. Subsequently, audience analysis reflects the dual use of female comedians' humor as a tool for cultural critique and community formation, while highlighting the deterrents to engagement, such as the polarized reception, stigma surrounding feminism, and online censorship. The findings shed light on the sophisticated role of social media as a platform for digital feminist expression, and the ways in which it can amplify both feminist discourse or, conversely, give voice to misogynistic attacks. They also uncover audience perceptions regarding the influence of popular culture in enhancing female representation, albeit within a frequently binary discourse. Additionally, the study addresses broader cultural implications, including the weaponization of “Westernness” in misogynistic rhetoric and the impact of censorship on audience interaction. By situating the investigation within the context of China's digital landscape and framing stand-up comedy—a genre that resonates with millennials and Gen Z—as a unique lens through which to view feminism, this dissertation transcends mere observation of a cultural phenomenon to offer a deeply personal exploration. It aspires to enrich the literature on social media as a fertile ground for gender-related discussions and to chronicle the emergent feminist ethos of our era.

This thesis is a socio-cultural study of the development of female stand-up comedy in the first decade of the twenty-first century within a multi-racial and multi-cultural Britain. It also engages with the theory and practice of performance and asks the question: ‘In what ways can it be said that female stand-up comics perform the comic side of bodily abjection?’ This question is applied to three groups of female case-studies which include: those who came into stand-up comedy in the 1980s; second-generation transnationals who became established at the end of the twentieth century; and twenty-first century newcomers to stand-up comedy. This third group also includes the author of this thesis who uses her own embodied experience as research, and Lynne Parker whose Funny Women organization was set up in 2002 to facilitate female entry into stand-up comedy. Alongside these three groups the subject of females as audience of female stand-up comedy is also explored. The issue of bodily abjection is explored in relation to seminal works on abjection by Julia Kristeva (1982) and Mary Douglas (1966) and regarding theories of the grotesque as posited by Mikhail Bakhtin (1984) and Mary Russo (1995). These texts are used in this thesis to argue that abjection is a significant aspect of both the context and content of contemporary female stand-up comedy and that the orifices, surfaces and processes of the body are still pertinent to twenty-first century female stand-up comedy.

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka hur stand up - komedi beskrivs, görs och förstås ur kvinnliga komikers perspektiv. Utifrån kulturantropologiska, kommunikationsteoretiska och genusteoretiska perspektiv söker uppsatsen ta reda på vad som kommuniceras med ett stand up- framträdande, om tankar kring hur det är att utöva stand up som kvinna och om det finns en egen ”kvinnlig humor”.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of History, 2006. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 151-160).

This study is an investigation into the representation of complexities confronting the concept of the Rainbow Nation as a South African social reality. The study is based on the works of Trevor Noah, one of post-Apartheid South Africa‘s eminent stand-up comedians whose two media works, The Day Walker and Crazy Normal, tackle issues pertaining to the socio-political and economic realities that are prevailing in South Africa. The mass media products continue to receive wide acclaim from both, media circles and audiences from racially diversified societies. They are delivered in a mimetic stereotypical manner that cuts across the length and breadth of the South African society. Trevor Noah‘s comedy uses humour to provide the South African society with an opportunity ―[for brutal honesty] to explore, affirm, deny, and ultimately to change its structure and its values‖ (Turner, 1977:33). Representations made in his comedy, more than providing people with a tonic for laughter, also create for the society momentary instances of thought which transcend the theatre stage in which the humour is delivered. Courtesy of these representations, his comedy infiltrates the people‘s sub-consciousness and engages them on those issues pertaining to race-relations and multicultural tolerance which are more often than not trivialised but are influential in shaping the status quo.

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka hur stand up - komedi beskrivs, görs och förstås ur kvinnliga komikers perspektiv. Utifrån kulturantropologiska, kommunikationsteoretiska och genusteoretiska perspektiv söker uppsatsen ta reda på vad som kommuniceras med ett stand up- framträdande, om tankar kring hur det är att utöva stand up som kvinna och om det finns en egen ”kvinnlig humor”.

Phyllis Diller, Joan Rivers, and Lisa Lampanelli as performers demonstrate an arc of evolving female empowerment in the world of stand-up comedy. In this thesis I shall study the development of each woman’s career by examining her material, progression of her comic persona, and relationship to women’s gender roles, both personally and professionally. While there are many other female comics who contribute to the story of women’s stand-up comedy in the contemporary period (in particular, Moms Mabley and Elayne Boosler), Diller, Rivers and Lampanelli each represent a distinct shift in how their persona combined with subject matter, allowing women to break new barriers in terms of comic performance. Diller’s comedy carved a space for Rivers’, and Rivers’ comedy carved a space for the likes of Lampanelli. In viewing the trajectory of their effect on comedy as a whole, we can see how each woman asserted herself in stand-up performance, and forever changed the nature of who was allowed to get up on stage, and also, what they were allowed to say by their audiences. To quote Joan Rivers, “First there was a gasp…and then there was a laugh” (Rivers “Piece of Work”).

This written explication deals with the integration of the forms of stand-up comedy and domestic comedy in order to create a comic text. The comic text explores issues regarding the presentation and representation of Jewish cultural identity. The integration results in both the experienced and imagined truths of the playwright to become present on stage. These were points of enquiry in the writing, directing and performing of DRIVEN: A COMEDY IN 70 MINUTES, which opened at The Intimate Theatre, Orange Street, Cape Town on the 23 November 2004. The Introduction deals with defining key terms and forms to be used and discussed in the thesis, informing the reader of the writer's purpose in creating comic text by integrating stand-up and domestic comedy. In the first chapter the generating of comic text is explored. The generating of comic text is achieved by using the comic persona. The comic persona is developed using identity, outside voice. Once the comic persona is in place it is possible to: create an authentic stage persona for the stand-up comedian and to create a 'theatrical climate' consisting of plot, characters, themes and narrative storylines. In the second chapter the idea of pastiche (borrowed elements) is explored in terms of its impact structurally and stylistically in the writing, directing and performing of DRIVEN. Structurally this impact is evident via the use of 'pastiching' the structure of situation comedy (sitcom) and stylistically through the use of Yiddish and the influence of other comedians' performance styles on the comic persona. The third chapter delves into the way Jewish cultural identity is represented through stand-up comedy and Jewish cultural identity is presented through domestic comedy. The stand-up comedian, through persona, audience relationship and other devices associated with the form, becomes the representation of Jewish cultural identity. Characters, story and situation, through the use of both comic traits (elements associated with Jewish cultural identity) and stereotypes, become the presentation of Jewish cultural identity.