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This dissertation explores the idea of the 1970s as a critical turning point for the representation of young Jewish women in American popular culture, specifically considering examples from popular literature, popular film, television, and comedy that undermine the validity of midcentury conceptions of the Jewish-American Princess (JAP) or Jewish Ugly Duckling. The introduction and first chapter establish the historical context of how stereotypes of Jewish women—including the JAP—came to be used as a means of mitigating assimilation-related anxieties, especially in light of the post-WWII Jewish ascent into the white suburban middle class. The dissertation then transitions into a deeper investigation of female-driven responses to these archetypes. With the rise of the contemporary Feminism movement, the sexual revolution, the Jewish New Wave of filmmaking, and the shift in emphasis from assimilation to multiculturalism within the American social consciousness, the 1970s provided a platform for Jewish female authors, entertainers, and filmmakers to directly respond to and reconceive the stereotypes of Jewish women honed during the midcentury period. The second, third, and fourth chapters each tackle a different facet of popular culture, looking specifically at how popular literature, film, television, and comedy produced by Jewish women confirmed, complicated, and challenged stereotypes of Jewish women, effectively shifting the cultural paradigm away from the JAP and towards a new understanding of Jewish female identity that undermined existing archetypes. In this way, the dissertation argues that Jewish female-driven popular literature, film, television, and comedy during this time period acted as a bridge between the more one-dimensional, often male-driven midcentury conceptions of the JAP and the more complex, nuanced images of young Jewish women in contemporary popular culture. Simply put, while the novels, films, and series that are explored here all draw from the hegemonic stereotypes of young Jewish women established in the 1950s and 1960s, they also articulate something new about Jewish women in their privileging of the Jewish woman’s voice, their re-conception of Jewish beauty, and their questioning of gender norms, and thus can be seen as the natural predecessors of modern popular cultural depictions of Jewish women.

Bood is a comic British Western about the fall of British society.

Presumed dead, a cantankerous retired assassin hides out in a senior living home. When the CIA tracks him down, he enlists his fellow residents to trade in their walkers for weapons to protect the facility from a death squad.

A motor-mouthed rapper with a perfect ear wants to turn a golden-voiced oddball into a music superstar but his popstar ex-lover threatens to blow up her meteoric rise.

The working assumption in the scholarship on Aristophanes is that fifth-century comic slaves were instantly recognizable in performance through aspects of their body, costume, and/or mask. This project seeks to corroborate the claim that the fifth-century comic male slave was probably not differentiated visually from other types of characters. In so doing, I stake out an additional set of new claims. Since the appearance of a comic actor in the playing space did not seem to instantly announce whether or not he was playing a slave role, slave identities were instead likely inflected through performance. Any delay in the inflection of a character’s identity as a slave would create the opportunity for that character’s identity to be ambiguous. This potential for ambiguity is not exclusive to the comic slave but is rather inherent in the comic male body and costume which, in the fifth century, does not seem to have differentiated social type. Indeed, two early artifacts apparently display a recognition of the potential for the comic body to be ambiguous through depicting comic figures who bear a strong visual similarity to one another in scenes that seem to invite the exploitation of that ambiguity. The bulk of this project explores a range of ways in which that potential for ambiguity is activated and played with in the fifth-century comedies of Aristophanes, in particular in the case of comic slaves. In the first two chapters, I consider how artifacts relating to the performance of comedy and the extant plays of Aristophanes both support the view that the fifth-century comic male slave probably looked like a typical comic character. In the third chapter, I explore the revelation of character identity in the opening scenes of Wasps and Women at the Thesmophoria. Through close readings that seek to reconstruct how these scenes would have unfolded in performance, I argue that where the reader sees slaves clearly in the opening scene of Wasps, the original audience might not have, and, conversely, where the reader tends not to see a slave in the opening of Women at the Thesmophoria, the original audience might have. In both plays, the ambiguities surrounding character identity contribute to a core function of the Aristophanic prologue—capturing audience interest and curiosity. Two chapter length studies on Knights and Frogs follow. In Knights, I argue that the ambiguity of the comic body is politicized through an extensive engagement with oligarchic sentiments and attitudes. By not distinguishing slave from citizen, the ambiguity of the comic body underlies and visually develops the pervasive blurring of legal status categories in this play, while also becoming a sign and symbol of the perversion of social hierarchies that an oligarch might associate with democracy. The ambiguity of the comic body is further exploited in the contest between the Sausage Seller and Paphlagon, contributing to the difficulty in distinguishing whether the Sausage Seller will be similar to Paphlagon or not, as visual differences between the two are collapsed. Ultimately, the engagement with oligarchic sentiments about the perversion of social and moral hierarchies in the democracy are part of an elaborate form of misdirection. The Sausage Seller is not the same as Paphlagon, as he proves through restoring order. In this way, the ambiguity of the comic body is re-politicized as, through the figure of the Sausage Seller, it becomes emblematic of the potential of a citizen in the democracy, a potential that is not constrained by social background. Finally, I argue that it is precisely when legal status boundaries become especially blurred in Athens with the mass enfranchisement of enslaved people who fought at the Battle of Arginusae that we begin to see a visual and verbal contraction of the potential ambiguity of the comic slave in Frogs. This curtailing of the potential for the comic slave to be ambiguous is a key contribution to the later development of the comic slave, as the visual code for the slave becomes much more defined in the fourth century. It is also essential for understanding how this play responds to that contemporary mass enfranchisement of the enslaved people who fought at the Battle of Arginusae.

This thesis aims to fill a gap in academic literature regarding stand-up comedy, particularly research about relationships between comedians in a social media setting. The research analyzes such relationships with the uses and gratifications approach, which ties the use of a particular medium of mass communication with gratifications expected by the audience. The first objective is to understand whether the gratifications that comedians expect from social media when networking and looking for performance opportunities are fulfilled. The second is to propose a design solution that could better provide these gratifications. The research included four different methods: a survey, a series of interviews, a prototype and a focus group. Results from the survey showed that the gratifications sought by comedians are obtained in current social media platforms. The interviews revealed that there were still specific features missing that could benefit the comedians. The information gathered in the first two phases informed the features in the prototype of a mobile application. In the fourth phase, comedians participated in a focus group where they analyzed the prototype, with an overall positive impression. The comedians also gave suggestions for improvements that can inform future research. / MACOM / Stand-up comedy is a business that generates billions of dollars every year in the United States, and social media has become a fundamental aspect of the way comedians communicate. Yet, there is no research on relationships between stand-up comedians, especially in the social media setting. This research aims to fill that gap in the literature using four methods. The first was a survey to understand whether current social media platforms fulfill the expectations that comedians have regarding networking and finding performance opportunities. The second was a series of interviews with comedians to further explore what they expect from social media in those regards. The third was the design of a solution, which took the form of a mobile app, catered to comedians's specific needs. The fourth was a focus group in which comedians evaluated the solution. Results indicated that existing social media do fulfill comedians' expectations, however there were opportunities to improve in the form of specific features. The solution proposed combined the collaborative nature of social media with an automation of processes to optimize time and energy for the comedians. Regarding the app's evaluation, opinions were overall positive, with suggestions on how to improve even further.

A divorced dad returns home to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter, but there’s one problem: she’s a serial killer who feeds tourists to the local lake monster.

In the suicide capital of the world, an antisocial corpse cleaner must harvest his boss's organs to pay back his and his brother's immense debt, but in doing so, he miraculously discovers empathy toward others.

An appreciation for the satire inherent in Aristophanes' Greek comedies Lysistrata, Women in Parliament and Women Celebrating the Thesmophoria is integral to understanding its ironic impact on modem day feminist movements. Using political events in the 21 st century, we can see how Aristophanes' mockery of the agency of women outside of the oikos, or the domestic space, has been challenged and defeated. I will support my ideas using the plethora of scholarly research I have consulted during my exploration of the works of Aristophanes. This research includes articles and books from authors such as David Cohen, Martine De Marre, Helene Foley, David Halperin, Froma I. Zeitlin and Gonda Van Steen. Furthermore, I will identify instances in Aristophanes' plays where his ridicule is most evident.